Former President Barack Obama said he believes President Trump garnered more than 73 million votes this election cycle, not because of policy but because some Republicans promote a narrative of “White men are victims.”
Appearing on the syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club,” Obama said Wednesday, “What’s always interesting to me is the degree to which you’ve seen created in Republican politics the sense that White males are victims.”
The country’s 44th president continued noting, “They are the ones who are under attack – which obviously doesn’t jive 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 and how you unwind that is going to be not something that is done right away, it’s going to take some time.”
Obama said during the interview that the Trump administration “has failed miserably in handling just basic looking after the American people and keeping them safe” during the coronavirus pandemic. Still, Trump put up a competitive fight against President-elect Joe Biden, Obama said, because millions felt “under attack” by Democrats.
“It turns out politics is not just about policy, it’s not just about numbers, it’s about the stories that are being told,” the former president said.
Later in the show, co-host DJ Envy asked Obama to answer those who said he hadn’t done enough for people of color while in office. Obama blamed congressional hurdles.
“I understand it because when I was elected there was so much excitement and hope, and I also think we generally view the presidency as almost like a monarchy in the sense of once the president’s there, he can just do whatever needs to get done and if he’s not doing it, it must be because he didn’t want to do it,” Obama responded.
Envy argued that Trump had behaved that way.
“Because he breaks laws or disregards the Constitution,” Obama replied.
And let’s face facts. Obama never could have gotten away with what Trump has gotten away with. And we know why. In fact, I’m quite sure no Democrat could get away with that because their own party wouldn’t stand for it. Not because they are such paragons of virtue, of course, but because they are not complete nihilists and understand that democracy is already hanging by a thread.
Obama frustrated me a lot when he was president. And I expect Biden will as well. But right now it’s as if he and Biden are playing a sort of “good cop-bad cop” and I have to say that I find it to be refreshing.