Ever since Donald Trump began his second term in the White House, former President Barack Obama has pretty much kept himself to himself.
That has changed this week, though, with Obama stepping in to defend California's Governor, Gavin Newsom, who has been in a war of words with the current POTUS.
Obama has shown his support for the Democrats' move to redraw congressional districts, following a similar move by the Republicans, which was passed on Wednesday.
The Texas House of Representatives had agreed to pass a new congressional map plan. By redrawing the district, it would secure as many five additional seats for the Republican party in next year’s midterms.
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The new map is expected to head to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s desk later this week. with Newsom posting on X: “Congratulations to Greg Abbott -- you will now go down in history as one of Donald Trump's most loyal lapdogs.”
He added: "Shredding our nation’s founding principles. What a legacy," before later adding: "It’s on, Texas."
When speaking on Tuesday at the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, Obama said, per CNN: "I wanted just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who’s got better ideas, and take it to the voters and see what happens.”
He continued: "On this California issue, I want to see as a long-term goal that we do not have political gerrymandering in America. That would be my preference."
"But I want to be very clear: Given that Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House that is effectively saying, ‘Gerrymander for partisan purposes so we can maintain the House despite our unpopular policies, redistrict right in the middle of a decade between censuses’ — which is not how the system was designed — I have tremendous respect for how Governor Newsom has approached this.”
He went on to praise Newsom further, calling his proposal for redistricting in return "a responsible approach.”
Obama reassured those listening: "We’re not going to try to completely maximize it. We’re only going to do it if and when Texas and/or other Republican states begin to pull these manoeuvres. Otherwise, this doesn’t go into effect.
"And we’re going to do it in a temporary basis because we’re keeping our eye on where we want to be long term. I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time.”
He called on residents of Texas to dispute the decision: “I’d love to see the people of Texas reject what’s happening, but it doesn’t look like, unlike in California, they’re being given the option of deciding whether this is a smart thing to do or not."
Topics: News, US News, Politics, Barack Obama
Jen Thomas