Barack Obama accuses Republicans of creating ‘sense that while males are victims, the ones under attack’ which will take ‘some time to unwind’
Former President Barack Obama explained in an interview Wednesday with The Breakfast Club that what motivates people to vote is often about ‘the stories that are being told.’
‘What’s always interesting to me, is the degree to which we’ve created, you’ve seen created, in Republican politics, this sense that white males are victims. They’re the ones who are like under attack,’ Obama noted. ‘Which doesn’t jive with both history and data, and economics.’
Obama was trying to explain to hosts Charlamagne tha God, DJ Envy and Angela Yee what motivated Americans in this past election to vote for President Donald Trump.
Former President Barack Obama explained that the ‘stories’ told in politics often motivate voters and blamed Republicans for creating a narrative that white men are ‘victims’
‘The question though is, you still had 70 million people voting for a government that I would say objectively has failed miserably in handling just basic looking after the American people and keeping them safe. Why is that?’ Obama mused.
He had just been speaking about the coronavirus pandemic, saying that if Trump had kept some of the pandemic infrastructure in place from the Obama administration, ‘We would have saved some lives.’
Obama then pointed to the broader political narrative.
‘The story that they’re hearing from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and, in some cases, inside their churches is that Democrats don’t believe in Christmas, only care about minorities and black folks and trying to take your stuff and trying to take your guns away,’ the former president explained.
With white male victimhood, Obama called it a ‘sincere belief, that’s been internalized.’
‘That’s a story that’s being told and how you unwind that is going to be, something that is done right away, it’s going to take some time,’ he said.
He also pointed to Hispanic-Americans who voted for Trump and explained that some issues for some voters just hold greater weight.
‘People were surprised about a lot of Hispanics folks who voted for Trump. But there are a lot of evangelical Hispanics who, you know, the fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans, or puts detainees, undocumented workers in cages, they think that’s less important than the fact that he supports their views on gay marriage or abortion,’ Obama argued.