-Source-Business Insider-
The former president Barack Obama served up some tough love to fellow Democrats during a party fundraiser in California on Thursday, urging them to snap out of their funk ahead of the November midterm elections. He seemed to vent some frustration w1ith Democrats over what he sees as lingering complacency within the party just four months out from the midterms, according to a Politico report documenting the event.
High-dollar donors and party luminaries gathered for the affair in Beverly Hills, California — one of a handful of fundraisers Obama attended this week. Obama's remarks on Thursday were his first overtly political public statements in months. His apparent silence has frustrated some supporters who believe the former president should do more to challenge the Trump administration and the Republican Party.
Obama responded to that criticism, offering a critique of President Donald Trump's playbook, without saying his name.
"Fear is powerful. Telling people that somebody's out to get you, or somebody took your job, or somebody has it out for you, or is going to change you, or your community, or your way of life — that's an old story and it has shown itself to be powerful in societies all around the world," Obama said.
He continued: "It is a deliberate, systematic effort to tap into that part of our brain that carries fear in it."
In an interview with KTTV news anchor Elex Michaelson on Friday night, Dan Pfeiffer, the former senior adviser to Obama, said Obama plans to hit the campaign trail in support of Democrats closer to the midterm election. Former presidents typically refrain from publicly criticizing the current commander-in-chief, but the strength of that tradition has been tested in the era of Trump. That's partly because of Trump administration policies and practices that have upended some of the fundamental norms that have long defined American democracy. Read more
Comments