One of the most astounding criticisms of Barack Obama’s presidency is that he divided white America despite the fact that the division is the result of racism and bigotry. It’s the GOP way to blame the victim, and Chuck Todd seems to have taken a page out of their playbook for his interview with 2020 Democratic candidate, Beto O’Rourke.
Chuck Todd with an attack on Obama that was straight out of Fox News, but Beto O'Rourke set the record straight. pic.twitter.com/hxtbEJMA2A
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 17, 2019
During that interview, MSNBC’s Todd asked O’Rourke:
‘You’re not the first candidate to say I’m going to bring this country together. The most recent Democratic president a lot of people put their hope in and thought he was the answer that was going to do that. Why do you think that didn’t happen in Obama’s eight years? What was hard and why do you think you’ll be able to do it?’
After taking a short breath to absorb the implications of Todd’s question, O’Rourke answered:
‘Yeah. I don’t know. I know that President Obama worked incredibly hard to find common ground with Republicans and Democrats alike, took a message to the entire country. But I’ll say he was able to achieve a heck of a lot in those eight years. Domestically you look at the Affordable Care Act and millions of Americans who lead better lives, many of those lives saved because of that legislation. In foreign policy, you prevented Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And there were little and perhaps smaller victories along the way. All I know is that everyone I’ve met, the most partisan Democrat, the most hardcore Republican, wants to see us come together and they want to make sure that we get something done. They don’t want the perfect to become the enemy of the good. And as I shared with someone earlier today, if we wait until we’re in office to begin this work it will be too late. It has to start now in the way that we campaign.’
It was the perfect answer. Obama is not to blame for the racism that was always a part of American culture but was stirred up and reignited in all new ways under a black president who Donald Trump accused of being an African immigrant invading the country. O’Rourke deserves a round of applause for his response, not to mention a comparable amount of outrage at the idea that any black person is responsible for the racial divide.
Twitter was in full support of O’Rourke’s outrage. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image screenshot via Twitter video
