Obama takes on Trump, GOP
Urges voting to restore ‘sanity to our politics’
WASHINGTON – Previewing his midterm elections campaign message, former President Barack Obama on Friday launched a direct and blistering attack on President Donald Trump and Republicans.
Obama called on Americans to get to the ballot box in November to “restore some semblance of sanity to our politics.”
At one point referencing the “crazy stuff coming out of this White House,” Obama told an audience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that even if they don’t agree with Democrats on some issues, they should still want to see a “restoration of honesty and decency and lawfulness in government.”
“It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents,” he said, in a reference to Trump. “Or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up.”
Obama’s scathing attack on Trump comes during a tumultuous week for the White House and represents a departure for Obama, who has kept a low profile since leaving office. He has typically avoided even mentioning Trump by name in previous speeches. Not on Friday. Speaking to a packed auditorium with about 1,100 students, faculty and community members, he said young people are coming of age during a time when the powerful and privileged are pushing back on America’s ideals.
“It did not start with Donald Trump,” Obama said. “He is a symptom, not the cause. He’s just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years.”
Trump mocked Obama’s speech before supporters in North Dakota.
“I’m sorry, I watched it, but I fell asleep ... I found he’s very good – very good for sleeping,” he said.