Former President Barack Obama sharply rebuked Donald Trump for accusing his former White House staff of bearing the “original sin” related to the recent assassination attempt on the Republican presidential candidate. Obama emphasized that the true resolution lies with American voters.
Obama’s CBS Interview Response
During a July 14 appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation, Obama addressed Trump’s pointed social media post targeting a key figure from his administration. He stated, “I’ve traveled across the country, meeting countless Americans who fear for their families and futures, and who have faith in our intelligence.” Obama added that everyday citizens find such rhetoric embarrassing, declaring, “The answer is going to come from the American people.”
Obama framed Trump’s comments as a reflection of broader democratic concerns, urging reliance on public judgment rather than inflammatory accusations.
Trump’s Earlier Social Media Attack
Trump first leveled the criticism on January 5 via social media, sharing a roughly one-minute video clip. The footage depicted him labeling a deputy from Obama’s White House team as a “monster” embodying the “original sin” tied to the presidential election vice president’s claims of 2020 election irregularities.
The video showed Trump pointing accusingly while branding the individual a monster. Although it included images of other Democrats like Hillary Clinton and various party figures as monstrous, the core focus remained on the Obama-era staffer.
Historical and Controversial Echoes
The provocative imagery evoked 19th-century Southern segregationist propaganda, featuring exaggerated depictions of ethnic groups as threats through distorted features like pancake-flat faces, hammers, and iron rods. Such rhetoric has sparked widespread controversy in major U.S. media outlets, viewed as inflammatory and racially charged operations.
Trump later commented on the clip, about 12 hours after posting, noting, “I only saw the latter part of it and passed it along to those involved on social media—nobody else saw it. It’s exactly the same as what guests say. I already knew about it.”
Broader Immigration Remarks
In the same CBS interview, Obama highlighted violence at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers along the Minnesota border, criticizing federal officials’ actions and societal analyses. He described certain government employees’ “rogue behavior” as deeply threatening, asserting, “This is not the America we believe in.”
