During a recent appearance on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast, Barack Obama gave his reaction after an AI video was posted to Donald Trump‘s Truth Social account that depicted the former president and his first lady, Michelle, as apes. Obama opened his thoughts by calmly stating that it’s “important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling.”
“You know, it is true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction. But, you know, as I’m traveling around the country, as you’re traveling around the country, you meet people. They still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness. And there’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television,” he said. “And what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum. And a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right? So that’s been lost.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at first tried to defend the Feb. 6 post as an “internet meme” and urged the press to “report on something today that actually matters to the American public.” However, the backlash from both sides of the political spectrum was too great, and the video was taken down after nearly 12 hours.
After the racist video was deleted, the White House attempted to shift the blame to an unnamed staff member who “erroneously” shared it on Trump’s account. The president seemed to contradict that claim hours later, telling the Associated Press that he “didn’t make a mistake” and, instead, passed along the video for an aide to post.
“I liked the beginning. I saw it and just passed it on, and I guess probably nobody reviewed the end of it,” Trump said.
