Washington Examiner senior columnist Guy Benson said on Tuesday that former President Barack Obama has “no concept” of acting divisively when assessing the two political parties in a new interview.
Obama said on Saturday that Democrats are “coming together” as the Republican Party engages in “the mean, angry, exclusive, us/them, divisive politics.” Benson said he thinks the “collective response” from conservatives to Obama’s statement is “spare us” and “how completely preposterous.”
“Just on its face, Charlie, the way that he framed the whole discussion was classic, divisive, self-unaware Barack Obama. He’s like, ‘Oh, us vs. them? That’s not us, that’s them! We would never do such a bad thing, only they would, right?’” Benson said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends. “He’s doing it literally in the interview while having no concept that he’s doing it yet again.”
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“And this was part of his brand, right, with nice rhetorical flourishes, but this was a conformity-demanding demagogue for eight years as president,” Benson said.
“When he gets involved in politics to this day, this is the way that he argues, not just in rhetoric, but in policy as well. And to say, ‘Oh, the only anti-unity, nasty people are on the right,’ he must have been in some sort of intellectual coma for the last 50 years if he actually believes that.”
Benson looked back at Obama’s policies during his presidency, including his “yearslong crusade” to sue nuns and “force them” to engage with his edicts on contraception. He added that Obamacare, the former president’s “signature accomplishment,” was set up to “punish” states that didn’t want to “go along with elements of it.”
Obama said on Saturday that “respect for the office” has been lost when responding to a video on President Donald Trump’s social media account, which depicted the former president and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
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He also said he thinks people across the country still “believe in decency, courtesy, kindness.”
Obama added that the Democratic Party did come off as “scolds” to voters on certain issues, describing this as “virtue-signaling” that pushes voters away. He added that in order to create a welcoming environment, the party’s message needs to be “none of us are perfect,” something he said the party needs to recover from.
