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- Republicans have wrongly created a narrative where white men see themselves as “victims” who are “attacked,” according to Barack Obama.
- The former president said the belief was pervasive among many Republican voters despite the fact that it “obviously doesn’t square with history, the data and the economy.”
- “It’s a story that is told and how you relax that won’t be something that gets done right away,” Obama said in a radio interview Wednesday.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
Trump and the Republicans won millions of votes in part by calling white American males “victims” who are “under attack,” according to former President Barack Obama.
In an interview with the Breakfast Club radio show on Wednesday reported by The Guardian newspaper, Obama said that one of the reasons Trump managed to secure a record number of votes in his loss to Joe Biden was that Republicans had created and perpetuated “the sense that white men are victims.”
“What still interests me is the extent to which you have seen the feeling in Republican politics created that white men are victims,” Obama told the Breakfast Club radio show.
“They are the ones being attacked – which obviously does not square with history, the data and the economy.
“But it’s a sincere belief that’s been internalized, it’s a story being told and how you relax that won’t be something that gets done right away.”
Obama said pushing this narrative helped Trump get the most votes for any sitting president in American history, despite his administration “objectively” failing miserably to deal with simple care of the American people and protect them. “
Trump won over white males by a margin of around 31 percent in his 2016 election victory over Hilary Clinton, and did particularly well among white males in rural areas. Analysis of this month’s election indicates that the incumbent has lost ground with this group, although he has consistently beaten President-elect Biden by about 23 percent.
Rey Del Rio / Getty Images
In his interview on Wednesday, Obama said he understood why some black people and those from other ethnic minorities felt disappointed in what he had done for them in the White House, but insisted he had managed to improve their conditions significantly despite the constraints of Congress.
“I understand well [the disappointment] because when I was elected there was so much excitement and hope, and I also think we generally think of the presidency as almost a monarchy in the sense that once the president is there he can do all that needs to be done and if he doesn’t do that, it must be because he didn’t want to do it, ”he said, adding that unlike Trump he broke the law and ignored the constitution in pursuit of its program.
Watch Obama talk about race and politics
“The good news for me was that I was very confident in what I had done for black people because I have the statistics to prove it,” Obama said.
He warned that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would face similar struggles in implementing their own policies if Democrats did not win the next two elections in Georgia. Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are challenged by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock respectively.
“If Republicans win these two seats, then Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cannot pass a law that Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republicans will not accept,” he told host DJ Envy.
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