Barack Obama has spoken out about a racist video shared by the current president, portraying him and the former First Lady as apes.
The video, shared from President Trump’s Truth Social account, depicted the first black President of the United States and his wife as primates, set to the music of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight.’
This controversial clip was part of a longer video that contained baseless claims of election fraud. When initially questioned about the president sharing such offensive imagery, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the concerns as ‘fake outrage.’
During the latest episode of Brian Taylor Cohen’s podcast, Obama, 64, remarked: “First of all, I think it’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,”
This was Obama’s first public reaction since the video emerged. The White House eventually attributed the sharing of the video to a junior staffer, after their initial dismissal of the outrage failed to calm the backlash from many black Republicans regarding the racist content.
Obama, as is typical, avoided delving into why the video was posted from Trump’s account. Instead, he placed it in a broader perspective: “It is true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction.
“You meet people, they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness, and there’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television.”
Initially, Press Secretary Leavitt responded to accusations of racism by advising the public to disregard what they saw, stating: “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
More to follow.