Barack Obama’s presidency was marked by many firsts. For example, he was the first president in history to add more to the national debt than all his predecessors combined. He was the first president since Hoover to oversee an economy in which the real GDP failed to rise above 3%.
And now he has achieved another dubious first. No president in history, including Jimmy Carter, has spoken up about his successor so soon after leaving office. It was only ten days into the new administration before Obama released a statement of support … to those protesting Donald Trump’s temporary immigration ban.
His decision to speak out is in open defiance of an unwritten rule whereby presidents avoid critiquing those who follow them into the Oval Office. Obama’s own predecessor, George W. Bush, extended this courtesy to him despite being blamed incessantly for anything and everything that went wrong once Obama assumed the mantle of power.
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Not surprisingly, Obama’s statement, delivered by spokesman Kevin Lewis, got the facts wrong:
With regard to comparisons to president Obama’s foreign policy decisions, as we’ve heard before, the president fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.
The executive order does not discriminate based on faith or religion, the clear implication being “against Muslims.” Among the refugees who were detained in compliance with the terms of the ban was a Christian family from Syria.
The rest of the statement reads:
Citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.
Said like a true community organizer!
Obama put the nation on notice shortly after the election that he intended to “add his voice to the shellshocked Democratic activists and elected officials who are now angrily vowing to oppose Donald J. Trump’s presidency.” Who knew that we’d hear from his this soon?
