Former U.S. President Barack Obama has criticized the current political atmosphere as harsh and in decline, highlighting a lack of "shame and political decorum" after Donald Trump's social media account shared a racist video that edited his and Michelle Obama's faces onto monkey bodies.
The issue became highly controversial in the U.S. when then-President Donald Trump's Truth Social account shared a video alleging election fraud in 2020. Toward the end, it featured the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" alongside edited images comparing Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama to monkeys, a severe racial mockery that sparked widespread outrage.
Initially, the White House defended the video, describing the backlash as "fake outrage," before later deleting the post and attributing the incident to a staff member's action.
Barack Obama gave a 47-minute interview on Brian Tyler Cohen's podcast, released Saturday, 14 Feb 2024 GMT+7. Though he did not mention Trump by name, he described the current level of political communication as "degraded to a level of cruelty never before seen."
Obama added, "The truth is, it seems there is no shame left among those who once felt the need to uphold etiquette, propriety, and respect for office. Those values have disappeared."
However, he expressed confidence that most Americans still uphold politeness and kindness, viewing the current social media and television environment as a "circus" that creates chaos and distracts from important issues.
Not only Democrats condemned the video; senior Republicans also disagreed. Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican senator, described the video as "the most racist thing I've seen come out of this White House."
Donald Trump responded to reporters by claiming he "did not see" the portion of the video featuring the Obama family and insisted, "I did nothing wrong," refusing to apologize.
Beyond the video controversy, Obama also discussed other political issues such as praising peaceful protesters against immigration enforcement, talks on redistricting, and progress on the presidential library in Chicago, set to open next year.
/source/BBC