Posted on 09/07/2018 10:24:11 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
Former President Barack Obama criticized President Trump in a highly-anticipated speech on Friday for capitalizing on racial and economic resentments that he said had been fanned for years by politicians, stepping off the political sidelines and offering a rare criticism of the sitting president by name.
"It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause," Obama said of current political tensions in a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"He's just capitalizing on resentments politicians have been fanning for years," he continued. "A fear, an anger that’s rooted in our past, but is also born of the upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes."
While Obama has occasionally delivered veiled criticisms of his successor since leaving office, he refrained for more than a year from taking on Trump by name.
Obama's speech on Friday called for a reexamination of American values and ideals.
“I’m here today because this is one of those pivotal moments when every one of us as citizens of the United States need to determine just who it is that we are, just what it is that we stand for,” Obama said.
BONUS:
"We are Americans. We’re supposed to stand up to bullies, not follow them," Obama said. "We’re supposed to stand up to discrimination and we’re sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers.
"How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad."
Trump and his supporters are a threat to our democracy.
Trump and his supporters are racists.
Trumps' economic successes are really Obamas' success.
Tomorrow’s headline: “Obama blasts Trump for marrying a transgender man who looks like a wookie.”
racial and economic resentments that he said had been fanned for years by politicians.
He should know, he’s done it for years along with his party.
I have to listen to this liar drone on again. He may get exactly what he’s asking for, I think Trump would love to beat Obama.
Pure class. Not. He started the fire and fanned the flames in 2008.
Obama can’t take credit for jobs he said would never come back.
That should be our response.
As if any further evidence were needed, Obama once again demonstrates that his only ‘oratorical skill’ (other than reading from the Teleprompter) is his constant use of ugly demagoguery, especially by means of the phony strawman argument.
Pothead calls kettle black
Pothead calls kettle black
Obama is the quintessential empty suit. They just want him to turn out blacks and prevent more blacks from supporting Trump. IMHO he will turn out whites and get his clock cleaned in the process.
Bitter clingers
Good. Nothing reminds and motivates Republicans to get out and vote more than the emergence of Obama the Narcissist. The more he talks, the more votes Republicans will get.
Yeah, like Corey Booker's full attack mode yesterday.
Trump is undoing his legacy. He is desperate to stop him.
Hey, Hussein. Shut up and get my slippers, the newspaper, and a gin & tonic.
Obama has a unique way of saying exactly the thing that most boils my blood . . .
ooooohhhh
you went there
What a pile of Obama this form spews whenever he opens his pie hole. I think of Obama every time I take a smelly Obama.
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