Former President Barack Obama has addressed the racist video posted by President Donald Trump depicting him and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, calling his successor’s behavior “deeply troubling.”
“Just days ago Donald Trump put a picture of you, your face on an ape’s body — and so again, we’ve kind of seen the devolution of the discourse,” journalist Brian Tyler Cohen said in an interview that aired Saturday. “How do we come back from the place that we have fallen into?”
“First of all, I think it’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” Obama responded. “It is true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction, but as I’m traveling around the country, as you’re traveling around the country, you meet people — they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness.”
Obama said that there is a “sort of clown show” playing out on social media and on television, adding: “What is true is there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sense of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office. So that’s been lost.”
Obama’s comments in the interview are the first time he has spoken publicly about the video, though he did not mention Trump by name.
Trump posted an AI-generated video on Truth Social last week amplifying false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The video depicts Democrats as animals, including the Obama as apes, a longstanding racist trope about Black people. The video was met with bipartisan backlash, and although White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt initially dismissed the outrage, the post was later removed as criticism grew. The White House has since blamed an unnamed staffer for the video, and Trump has refused to apologize, saying he “didn’t make a mistake.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News. Recommended
