Squad blasts Obama’s ‘critique’

Former President Barack Obama drew ire from the “squad” after warning in a new interview that politicians and activists lose support when using “snappy” slogans like “defund the police.”

Obama addressed the rallying cry to “defund the police” — a slogan that gained voice among protesters who took to the streets over the summer to decry police violence — during a Snapchat interview with journalist Peter Hamby released Wednesday.

“If you believe, as I do, that we should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it’s not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you can use a snappy slogan like ‘defund the police,’ ” Obama said. “But you know you’ve lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done.”

Obama advocated for programs that would divert young people from criminal activity and dispatch mental health workers instead of officers to respond to certain situations to promote better outcomes.

“The key is deciding: Do you actually want to get something done? Or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with?” Obama said. “You’ve got to meet people where they are and play a game of addition and not subtraction.”

Obama’s comments drew swift rebuke from some of the nation’s leading progressives, including members of the “squad.”

“We lose people in the hands of police. It’s not a slogan but a policy demand,” U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted. “And centering the demand for equitable investments and budgets for communities across the country gets us progress and safety.”

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., tweeted “The murders of generations of unarmed Black folks by police have been horrific. Lives are at stake daily so I’m out of patience with critiques of the language of activists.”

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., argued that “police budgets are exploding, community resources are shrinking to bankroll it” and that people “brought this up for ages but it wasn’t until they said ‘defund’ that comfortable people started paying (attention) to brutality.”

Obama isn’t the first high-profile Democrat to question the effectiveness of slogans such as “defund the police” in the wake of the 2020 election.