Featured Image Credit: RYAN COLLERD/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Podcasts, Politics, US News
Britt Jones
Topics: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Podcasts, Politics, US News
Former US president Barack Obama has spoken out about Donald Trump’s decision to arm Chicago.
Trump has been hinting at using a centuries-old law so he can send the military into specific US states, and people are shocked. The law in question is the Insurrection Act which allows the American president to deploy military forces on US soil for some reasons.
However, it appears that he’s considering Democratic states, and not Republican counterparts amid his ongoing showdown with Democrat-led cities.
This comes after he was met with backlash after he deployed 800 National Guard members into Washington, due to the 'crime emergency' in August. But he didn’t stop there as he also sent troops places like Los Angeles and Chicago.
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The political tension is running rife, and when Obama took to Marc Maron’s last ever episode of his WTF Podcast on Monday (13 October), he shared his thoughts.
"When you have militaries that can direct force against their own people ... that is inherently corrupting," Obama shared in response to recent news, adding that comparing ‘ordinary street crime’ to an ‘insurrection ... or a terrorist act’ constitutes as a ‘genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy.’
He continued: "We're being tested right now. I think people, and that includes young people, understand there are consequences to the choices that we're making. If you decide not to vote, that's a consequence."
He said: "You can't constantly lecture people without acknowledging that you've got some blind spots, too."
Later, Maron made mention on how Biden administration's approach to the Israel war was addressed by those who voted for him.
When confronted with some voters not agreeing to the stance at that time, he said you need to take it as a ‘partial win’ as we live in a democracy.
"Part of what a liberal democracy requires is an acceptance of partial victory," Obama said, explaining: “When you have what looks like a deliberate end run around not just a concept, but a law that’s been around for a long time, Posse Comitatus, that says you don’t use our military on domestic soil, unless there is an extraordinary emergency of some sort, that when you see an administration suggest that ordinary street crime is an insurrection, or a terrorist act, that is a genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy.”
Turning the whole situation on its head, he went on to flip the coin and speculate how the media would have reacted to him, had he ordered what Trump is currently doing with the National Guard.
He said to Maron: “If I had sent in the National Guard into Texas and just said, ‘You know what? A lot of problems in Dallas, a lot of crime there, and I don’t care what Governor Abbott says. I’m going to kind of take over law enforcement, because I think things are out of control,’ it is mind boggling to me how Fox News would have responded.”
Fox News has long had Trump on the show as a guest.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson has since stated in a statement to Axios in response to Obama that: "[W]hether it be fostering international peace, restoring safety to dangerous cities, or creating a strong economy, President Trump has made America hot again - no matter what Barack Hussein Obama has to say about it."