Compared to most former presidents, Barack Obama has arguably been the most vocal former president as his successor, President Trump, attempts to undo many of his accomplishments and fix his screw-ups.
So, excuse me while I laugh out loud at this tweet from the Hill posted on Monday.
Carefree Obama mostly avoids politics in his post-presidential life https://t.co/aqhEKpXnFZ pic.twitter.com/GhtCr9v6YK
— The Hill (@thehill) April 2, 2018
In the article, Amie Parnes writes, “Obama hasn’t been knee-deep in politics.”
She adds, “Obama has purposely stayed out of politics for the most part, carefully selecting his moments to weigh in on headlines and policy. He is careful, those around him say, not to be a foil for Trump — who often seems to feel a need to come after him.”
If we’re arguing that Obama doesn’t comment on the day-to-day events around politics, particularly with Trump’s Twitter, that very mild claim is defensible. However, Obama has not shied away from politics even the slightest.
Since Trump has been in office, Obama has offered veiled attack after veiled attack on Trump and his administration. During the 2017 Virginia gubernatorial election, Obama campaigned for eventual winner Ralph Northam and offered a sharp rebuke of the current political dynamic, saying in October, “If you have to win a campaign by dividing people, you’re not going to be able to govern them. You won’t be able to unite them later if that’s how you start.”
Then, in January 2018, Obama appeared on David Letterman’s Netflix talk show in which he supposedly offered a stern warning to President Trump saying, “One of the things that Michelle figured out, in some ways faster than I did, was part of your ability to lead the country doesn’t have to do with legislation, doesn’t have to do with regulations, it has to do with shaping attitudes, shaping culture, increasing awareness.”
And then after the Parkland shooting in February, Obama appeared at a conference weighing in on the gun control debate. However, when he attempted to opine on the facts, he got it wrong, and repeated the 18 school shootings in the first 45 days of 2018 line that was debunked.
Of course, as a private citizen, Obama has every right to say what’s on his mind, no matter how overt and whether he gets his facts right.
If he wants to be political, by all means, let him. But to pretend that he, otherwise, has not been weighing in on politics as often as he does, especially in the last six months, is dishonest and only sows further distrust with the media.
