It may have been civil rights hero John Lewis’s funeral, but Barack Obama made President Trump the center of attention. In a fiery eulogy for the late Georgia congressman, the former president unloaded on his successor, previewing the strategy Obama will likely use as he ramps up campaigning for Joe Biden.
“Bull Conner may be gone, but today, we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of black Americans,” Obama declared. “George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.”
Obama also came in support of passing the Voting Rights Act, Puerto Rican and Washington, D.C., statehood, and against the legislative filibuster, which he called a “relic of Jim Crow.”
“There are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws. I know this is a celebration of John’s life,” Obama said. “But that’s why I’m talking about it.”
Obama’s speech equated Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine uninterrupted minutes, with the Trump administration “sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.” Such a characterization further equates the actually peaceful protesters north of Lafayette Park who were tear-gassed with the rioters trying to burn down the Portland courthouse who were faced with batons. This is a far cry from Biden’s formal campaign launch, during which he intentionally called Trump’s presidency an “aberration.” Unlike Hillary Clinton, Biden did not deem the alt-right as fundamental to, but rather a cancer on conservatism. It’s been a wildly effective strategy, proven both in his overall polling dominance and limited unfavorability from Republican voters, so it’s strange to see Obama out of the gate with such a sharp departure.
After all, Biden ran as the relative centrist who would move slightly to the left of Obama on some policy matters, but he notably rejected procedural norm destruction such as packing the Supreme Court. Now that Obama has agreed to become Biden’s highest-profile surrogate, it’s safe to assume that Obama endorsing Washington, D.C., statehood, which requires a constitutional amendment, and abolishing the supposedly racist legislative filibuster, which Obama used as a senator, is tantamount to Biden endorsing them.
Biden has dominated the race by being less extreme than the rest of his party, less unlikeable than the previous Democratic nominee, and not actively alienating disaffected Republicans by avoiding the sort of rhetoric that lumps them in with Trump or the alt-right. That Obama’s willing to reverse the former and the latter is demonstrative of either foolishness or confidence in Biden’s double-digit lead. Only time will tell.
