Republican House candidate Kimberly Klacik criticized former President Barack Obama for speaking about political issues during the funeral for late civil rights movement leader and former Rep. John Lewis.
“Wow,” the President Trump supporter tweeted Thursday. “Imagine being on the frontlines with MLK fighting for equality just to have @BarackObama talk about his hopes for inequality at your funeral.”
Wow.
Imagine being on the frontlines with MLK fighting for equality just to have @BarackObama talk about his hopes for inequality at your funeral. https://t.co/lkD1uN7Cxe
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) July 31, 2020
Klacik, who is running to represent Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, which is the seat the late Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings held for decades, told the Washington Examiner that Obama “continues to be one of the most divisive leaders in history.”
Obama was slammed, mostly by conservatives, for his eulogy of Lewis, which some thought sounded like a campaign speech for his former vice president, Joe Biden, who is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused Obama of behaving like a “greasy politician.”
“It’s hard to believe that clip is real, but it is, down to the coined fake accent, Mr. Hawaii Guy,” Carlson said. “But take three steps back. Imagine if some greasy politician showed up at your loved one’s funeral and started throwing around stupid partisan talking points about Senate procedure.”
He continued, “Can you imagine that? You would be shocked if that happened. You’d probably walk out. Desecrating a funeral with campaign slogans? What kind of person would do that?”
Conservative radio host Mark Levin rejected Obama’s references in the eulogy to “systemic racism” and Alabama segregationist Bull Connor by arguing that Obama’s presidency hurt the black community more than any other modern politician.
“Obama has milked this country for everything it’s worth. He’s milked it for maximum power,” Levin told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “He and his wife are now worth tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars, having sold their presidency after they left office. He gives these speeches now and then. He’s abused the black community more than any modern president that I’m aware of, or any modern politician, for that matter.”
Obama’s speech was lauded by people on the liberal side of the political spectrum, including former ESPN host Jemele Hill, who said anyone not inspired to vote by the eulogy is “spitting on John Lewis’s legacy,” and Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, who praised Obama for “calling out the crime of voter suppression.”
