An unusual election appeal before the midterm elections in November, the ex-US president makes it clear how little he thinks of Trump’s administration.
Former US President Barack Obama has called on Americans across party lines to punish the government of his successor, Donald Trump, in the midterm elections. In an unusual move two months before the congressional elections, the ex-president in a speech to students in Urbana-Campaign, Illinois, on Friday, sharply criticized the Trump administration.
Obama said that even those who disagree politically with him “should nevertheless be concerned about our current course and still want to see the restoration of honesty, decency and legitimacy in our government.”
In the November elections, the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are re-elected. The vote is considered an important mood test for the government of the Republican Trump. The president fears that the Republicans may lose their majority in the House of Representatives to the Democrats, which would make it massively more difficult for the government.
Obama called his audience to vote saying, “You have to choose”. Referring to Trump’s two-year term, he said, “If you think elections are not important, then I hope the past two years have corrected that impression.” Obama added, “You have to do more than retweet a hashtag, you have to vote.”
“The claim that everything will be fine because there are people inside the White House who secretly do not follow the president’s instructions – that’s no control,” said Obama . “That’s not how our democracy should work.” These people are not elected. “They do us no service by pushing 90 percent of the crazy
stuff that comes out of the White House, and then say, ‘Do not worry, we’ll prevent the other 10 percent.'” That’s not normal. “These are extraordinary times,” he warned, “and these are dangerous times.”
Source: Die Presse