Obama slams religious minorities who vote Republican despite 'racist' Trump putting 'undocumented workers in cages'
BARACK Obama has slammed religious minorities who vote Republican despite President Donald Trump putting “undocumented workers in cases.”
The former US president said on radio show The Breakfast Club on Wednesday that “people were surprised about a lot of Hispanic folks who voted for Trump.”
“But there are a lot of evangelical Hispanics who, the fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans, or puts detainees, undocumented workers in cages, they think that’s less important than the fact that he supports their views on gay marriage or abortion."
Obama went on to say that Republican politics now sees “this sense that white males are victims, like they’re the ones who are under attack.”
The 44th president said that “obviously doesn't jibe with both history and data and economics.”
“But that’s a sincere belief. That’s been internalized – that’s a story that’s being told.
“How you unwind that is gonna be not something that is done right away,” Obama said. “It’s gonna take some time.”
The Breakfast Club interview was wide-ranging, and Obama also touched on the Electoral College – which many have said is outdated for the current state of the country.
President-elect Joe Biden won by wide margins in both the Electoral College and popular vote, where he received nearly 80million votes – a record.
Host Charlamagne tha God said that elections “feels like we’re catering to white racists all the time,” and asked what the Democrats’ strategy would be if the presidential election was instead based on the popular vote.
Obama said he thinks “it would help” society if the presidential vote was based on one vote per person.
“Our democracy isn’t perfect, changing that is going to take a lot of effort because you gotta get over the hump – even just to secure our voting rights.
He said that if Democrats win in both of Georgia’s run-off Senate races – leaving them to control the Senate – then it would be “at least theoretically possible to pass a voting rights bill that stops some of this voter suppression and intimidation that you’re still seeing around the country.”
“Republicans have been pretty blatant about just saying, ‘Look, we’re just trying to prevent them from voting.’”
Obama said that with the way the Senate is “skewed,” changing the Electoral College might require potentially also allowing Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, to vote as states.
Former presidents don’t often publicly speak out in politics after they leave office.
Trump retweeted a claim that Obama was the first to criticize his predecessor but that’s not true, as several former presidents have made comments criticizing the policies of their successors, including George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and even Theodore Roosevelt.
Experts have noted, however, that Trump’s rhetoric around former presidents has gone far beyond the norm – particularly his criticism of Obama on social media and at political rallies.
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