Earlier this month, we reported [1] that former President Barack Obama had found himself in hot water [2] with the radical left when he spoke out against the “defund the police” movement.
In a new interview on Tuesday night, Obama appeared to try to backtrack and earn some of the support he had from progressives back by praising “defund the police” activists while also warning them about the dangers of this slogan when it comes to alienating others.
“Nothing made me more optimistic during a difficult year than the activism that we saw in the wake of George Floyd’s murder,” Obama said on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
“I have consistently believed that their courage, activisms, media savvy, strategic resolve far exceeds anything I could’ve done at their age and I think has shifted the conversation in ways I would not have even imagined a couple of years ago,” he added.
Obama went on to warn that this slogan may blow up in Democrats’ faces if they continue to stick with it.
“That particular slogan I think the concern is that there may be potential allies out there that you’d lose. And the issue always is: how do you get enough people to support your cause that you can actually institutionalize it and translate it into laws,” he said.
Obama added that slogan’s like Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and his own “Yes We Can” are much more effective when it comes to uniting people.
“Can we be precise with our language enough that people who might be persuaded around that particular issue to make a particular change that gets a particular result that we want,” he said. “What’s the best way for us to describe that?”
This came after Obama spoke out against the “defund the police” slogan earlier in the month.
“You 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 said.
Members of the radically liberal “Squad” lashed out at Obama after he spoke out after he made these comments.
“We lose people in the hands of police. It’s not a slogan but a policy demand. And centering the demand for equitable investments and budgets for communities across the country gets us progress and safety,” tweeted rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in response.
This piece was written by James Samson on December 16, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette [3] and is used by permission.
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