Obama

NEW YORK — Voters were casting ballots in high-stakes elections on both coasts Tuesday, including for mayor of New York, new congressional maps in California and governor in both New Jersey and Virginia, states whose shifting electorates could show the direction of the nation’s political winds.

For voters and political watchers alike, the races have taken on huge importance at a time of tense political division, when Democrats and Republicans are sharply divided over the direction of the nation. Despite President Trump not appearing on any ballots, some viewed Tuesday’s races as a referendum on him and his volatile second term in the White House.

In New York, self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, 34, was favored to win the mayoral race after winning the Democratic ranked-choice mayoral primary in June. Such a result would shake up the Democratic establishment and rile Republicans in near equal measure, serving as a rejection of both former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a more establishment Democrat and Mamdani’s leading opponent, and Trump, who has warned that a Mamdani win would destroy the city.

On the eve of voting Monday, Trump threatened that a Mamdani win would disrupt the flow of federal dollars to the city, and took the dramatic step of endorsing Cuomo over Curtis Sliwa, the Republican in the race.

“If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home, because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Monday.

A vote for Sliwa “is a vote for Mamdani,” he added. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”

Mamdani, a Ugandan-born naturalized U.S. citizen and New York state assemblyman who already defeated Cuomo once in the primary, has promised a brighter day for New Yorkers with better public transportation, more affordable housing and high-quality childcare if he wins. He has slammed billionaires and some of the city’s monied interests, which have lined up against him, and rejected the “grave political darkness” that he said is threatening the country under Trump.

He also mocked Trump’s endorsement of Cuomo — calling Cuomo Trump’s “puppet” and “parrot.”

Samantha Marrero, a 35-year-old lifelong New Yorker, lined up with more than a dozen people Tuesday morning at her polling site in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn to cast her vote for Mamdani, whom she praised for embracing people of color, queer people and other communities marginalized by mainstream politicians.

Marrero said she cares deeply about housing insecurity and affordability in the city, but that it was also “really meaningful to have someone who is brown and who looks like us and who eats like us and who lives more like us than anyone we’ve ever seen before” on the ballot. “That representation is really important.”

New York mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo speaks to reporters as he marks his ballot in New York on Tuesday.

(Richard Drew / Associated Press)

And she said that’s a big part of why people across the country are watching the New York race.

“We’re definitely a beacon in this kind of fascist takeover that is very clearly happening across the country,” she said. “People in other states and other cities and other countries have their eyes on what’s happening here. Obviously Mamdani is doing something right. And together we can do something right. But it has to be together.”

Elsewhere on the East Coast, voters were electing governors in both Virginia and New Jersey, races that have also drawn the president’s attention.

In the New Jersey race, Trump has backed the Republican candidate, former state Rep. Jack Ciattarelli, over the Democratic candidate, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, whom former President Obama recently stumped for. Long a blue state, New Jersey has been shifting to the right, and polls have shown a tight race.

In the Virginia race, Trump has not endorsed Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by name, but has called on voters to “vote Republican” and to reject the Democratic candidate, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a 46-year-old former CIA officer whom Obama has also supported.

“Why would anyone vote for New Jersey and Virginia Gubernatorial Candidates, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, when they want transgender for everybody, men playing in women’s sports, High Crime, and the most expensive Energy prices almost anywhere in the World?” Trump recently wrote on Truth Social, repeating some of his favorite partisan attacks on Democrats from the presidential campaign trail last year.

At a rally for Spanberger in Norfolk, Va., over the weekend, Obama put the race in equally stark terms — as part of a battle for American democracy.

“We don’t need to speculate about the dangers to our democracy. We don’t need to wonder about whether vulnerable people are going to be hurt, or ask ourselves how much more coarse and mean our culture can become. We’ve witnessed it. Elections do matter,” Obama said. “We all have more power than we think. We just have to use it.”

Voting was underway in the states, but with some disruptions. Bomb threats disrupted voting in some parts of New Jersey early Tuesday, temporarily shutting down a string of polling locations across the state before law enforcement determined the threats were hoaxes.

In California, voters were being asked to change the state Constitution to allow Democrats to redraw congressional maps in their favor through 2030, in order to counter similar moves by Republicans in red states such as Texas.

Leading Democrats, including Obama and Gov. Gavin Newsom, have described the measure as an effort to safeguard American democracy against a power grab by Trump, who had encouraged the red states to act, while opponents of the measure have derided it as an anti-democratic power grab by state Democrats.

Trump has urged California voters not to cast ballots by mail or to vote early, arguing such practices are somehow “dishonest,” and on Tuesday morning suggested on Truth Social that Proposition 50 itself was unconstitutional.

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump wrote, without providing evidence of problems. “All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!”

Both individually and collectively, the races are being closely watched as potential indicators of political sentiment and enthusiasm going into next year’s midterm elections, and of Democrats’ ability to get voters back to the polls after Trump’s decisive win over former Vice President Kamala Harris last year.

Voters, too, saw the races as having particularly large stakes at a pivotal moment for the country.

Michelle Kim, 32, who has lived in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn for three years, stood in line at a polling site early Tuesday morning — waiting to cast her vote for Mamdani.

Kim said she cares about transportation, land use and the rising cost of living in New York, and appreciated Mamdani’s broader message that solutions are possible, even if not guaranteed.

“My hope is not, like, ‘Oh, he’s gonna solve, like, all of our issues,’” she said. “But I think for him to be able to represent people and give hope, that’s also part of it.”

Lin reported from New York, Rector from San Francisco. Times staff writer Jenny Jarvie in Atlanta contributed to this report.

President Obama is running statistically even with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 12 key swing states and is slightly ahead of Texas Gov. Rick Perry and businessman Herman Cain, according to the USA Today/Gallup poll released Friday.

The poll, which looks at both national trends and at the races in what everyone considers to be the 12 battleground states that will likely determine the 2012 election, paints a picture of Obama facing a tougher road to reelection than an incumbent should.

But the president, a Democrat whose approval rating has been in the low 40-percent range in recent months, can take heart from the poll’s findings that he is running better against specific Republican candidates than he does against a generic Republican, indicating that when faced with a real choice, voters seem to prefer Obama to Romney, Perry or Cain.

According to the poll, Obama is tied among national voters with Romney at 47% and leads Perry 49% to 45%. In its first measurement of Cain, the poll found Obama ahead 48% to 46%. The poll was taken before reports surfaced that two women received financial settlements after complaining that Cain had sexually harassed them.

But overall, the results show all three GOP candidates running strongly against Obama. The national results are based on interviews with 1,056 adults taken Oct. 26-27; the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

But the American electoral system is based on indirect representation rather than direct democracy. The Founding Fathers feared the unmediated passions of the mob and wanted to ensure that wiser heads would have a greater role. Hence the creation of the presidential electors who actually vote for president based on the popular vote in their home states.

Because of the electoral college, where a candidate’s support exists is often more important than just how many people back him or her. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win, and in 2012, Obama can pretty much count on winning enough states to give him about 196 electoral votes, while the GOP candidate starts with about 191. In the center are 12 states, worth 151 electoral votes for which both parties will spend most of their money and resources fighting. Those states, all won by Obama in 2008, are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

According to the poll, Romney is at 47% to Obama’s 46% in those 12 states. Obama does better against Perry, 49% to 44% and Cain, 48% to 45%. Those results are based on interviews with 1,334 adults, from Oct. 20 to 27. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

The polls generally show that the presidential race is extremely competitive at this point, a year before Election Day and two months before the GOP begins voting for its presidential candidate. But Republicans also have an advantage in the enthusiasm arena, according to the poll.

Overall, 47% of swing-state registered voters and 48% of all U.S. registered voters said they are extremely or very enthusiastic about voting. But Republicans were more eager both nationally and in the swing states. Nationally, Republicans were ahead 56% to 48% over Democrats. In the swing states, the GOP was ahead in the enthusiasm race 59% to 48%.

BECKLEY, W.VA. — At a somber memorial for 29 coal miners Sunday, President Obama said it was a moral imperative for the U.S. to prevent the sort of underground explosion that triggered the worst mine disaster in four decades.

The president said he had been flooded with messages since the April 5 tragedy at West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine, with people imploring him, “Don’t let this happen again.”

“How can we fail them?” Obama told about 2,800 mourners at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center. “How can a nation that relies on its miners not do everything in its power to protect them? How can we let anyone in this country put their lives at risk by simply showing up to work, by simply pursuing the American dream?”

He added: “Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy. To do what we must do, individually and collectively, to assure safe conditions underground. To treat our miners like they treat each other, like a family. Because we are all family and we are all Americans.”

Obama’s eulogy came toward the end of a service that was an emotional testament to the human toll of unsafe mining conditions. The cause of the blast that killed the miners is under investigation, but high levels of methane are suspected. The explosive gas had to be vented from the mine and neutralized with nitrogen to allow rescue and recovery teams to enter.

At Sunday’s memorial, speakers described the fallen miners as NASCAR fans, hunters, fishermen, motorcycle enthusiasts – and football fans.

Vice President Joe Biden, who spoke before Obama, said, “They hated the way [college football] Coach [Rick] Rodriguez left West Virginia for Michigan.”

The service opened with a video tribute to the dead. Gayle Manchin, wife of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III, read the name of each victim, whose picture was displayed for a full minute on a pair of oversized screens. The audience stood and clapped as each name was called.

At the base of the stage was a row of 29 crosses. Outside the hall, posters of each man were arranged in a corridor. Attached were small cards penned by family and friends.

Carl Acord, 52, was shown proudly displaying a fish he had caught. Others were pictured standing and smiling, relaxing in chairs or on beds, or posing in their best suits.

A card written for Edward Dean Jones, 50, read, “I am a coal miner’s daughter and granddaughter, and I love all miners for their work.”

Another for Joe Marcum, 57: “I love you more than words can express. Our whole world and lives have been changed and will never be the same.”

Those who attended cited a long, sad history of mining tragedies and called upon Obama to prevent more loss of life.

“I went to school with that boy right there,” Teresa Perdue, 51, said before the service, pointing to a picture of James “Eddie” Mooney. Perdue said she had family who worked in the mines. When she got word of the explosion, she said, she nervously made calls to see whether her relatives were among the casualties.

“I’m sorry, this should not have happened,” she said.

Asked about Obama’s presence, Perdue said: “It means a lot, and I think he’ll be the one who does something. I really do. I hope he does.”

Sitting in the audience was Don L. Blankenship, head of Massey Energy Co., which owns the Upper Big Branch mine. The White House said the president did not speak with him Sunday but did meet privately with family members of the victims.

Massey has been cited repeatedly over the mine. In 2009 alone, the Mine Safety and Health Administration issued 48 orders that workers be removed from parts of the mine for “repeated significant and substantial violations” constituting a hazard.

Two weeks ago, after Obama received a scathing report about the mine, he described Massey as a safety violator that should be held accountable. The report said the mine’s rate for such violations was nearly 19 times the national rate.

Massey, the nation’s sixth-largest coal mining firm, says it has a better-than-average safety record and has received safety awards during Obama’s tenure.

On Sunday, Biden said in his eulogy that the service wasn’t the right moment to talk about how to improve mine safety. But he promised that day would come.

“Certainly, nobody should have to sacrifice their life for their livelihood,” Biden said. “But as the governor and Sen. [Jay] Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said, we’ll have that conversation later.”

For now, Obama wanted to celebrate “lives lived,” not lost. He described the gritty reality of a miner’s work.

“Most days, they would emerge from the dark mine squinting at the light. Most days, they would emerge sweaty and dirty and dusted with coal. Most days, they would come home,” he said. “But not that day.”

—

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As Californians start voting on Democrats’ effort to boost their ranks in Congress, former President Barack Obama warned that democracy is in peril as he urged voters to support Proposition 50 in a television ad that started airing Tuesday.

“California, the whole nation is counting on you,” Obama says in the 30-second ad, which the main pro-Proposition 50 campaign began broadcasting Tuesday across the state. The spot is part of a multimillion-dollar ad buy promoting the congressional redistricting ballot measure through the Nov. 4 election.

Proposition 50 was spearheaded by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California Democratic leaders this summer after President Trump urged GOP-led states, notably Texas, to redraw their congressional districts to boost the number of Republicans elected to the House in next year’s midterm election, in an effort to continue enacting his agenda during his final years in office.

“Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Obama says in the ad, which includes footage of ICE raids. “With Prop. 50, you can stop Republicans in their tracks. Prop. 50 puts our elections back on a level playing field, preserves independent redistricting over the long term, and lets the people decide. Return your ballot today.”

Congressional districts were long drawn in smoke-filled chambers by partisans focused on protecting their parties’ power and incumbents. But good-government groups and elected officials, notably former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have fought to take the drawing of congressional boundaries out of the hands of politicians to end gerrymandering and create more competitive districts.

Obama, long a supporter of ending gerrymandering, had already endorsed the ballot measure.

In California, these districts have been drawn by an independent commission created by voters in 2010, which is why state Democrats have to go to the ballot box to seek a mid-decade partisan redistricting that could improve their party’s chances in five of the state’s 52 congressional districts.

The ad featuring Obama, who spoke Monday on comedian Marc Maron’s final podcast about Trump’s policies testing the nation’s values, appears on Californians’ televisions after mail ballots were sent to the state’s 23 million registered voters last week.

The proposition’s prospects are uncertain — it’s about an obscure topic that few Californians know about, and off-year elections traditionally have low voter turnout. Still, more than $150 million has been contributed to the three main committees supporting and opposing the proposition, in addition to millions more funding other efforts.

Obama is not the only famous person to appear in ads about Proposition 50.

In September, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who championed the creation of the independent redistricting commission while in office and has campaigned for similar reforms across the nation since then, was featured in ads opposing the November ballot measure.

He described Proposition 50 as favoring entrenched politicians instead of voters.

“That’s what they want to do, is take us backwards. This is why it is important for you to vote no on Proposition 50,” the Hollywood celebrity and former governor says in the ad, which was filmed last month when he spoke to USC students. “The Constitution does not start with ‘We, the politicians.’ It starts with ‘We, the people.’ … Democracy — we’ve got to protect it, and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”

Former President Obama, speaking on stand-up comedian Marc Maron’s final podcast on Monday, said the Trump administration’s policies are a “test” of whether universities, businesses, law firms and voters — including Republicans — will take a stand for the nation’s founding principles and values.

“If you decide not to vote, that’s a consequence. If you are a Hispanic man and you’re frustrated about inflation, and so you decided, ah, you know what, all that rhetoric about Trump doesn’t matter. ‘I’m just mad about inflation,’” Obama said. “And now your sons are being stopped in L.A. because they look Latino and maybe without the ability to call anybody, might just be locked up, well, that’s a test.”

In a more than hourlong discussion with Maron on the wildly popular “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast, the former Democratic president said current events could jolt Americans.

“It’d be great if we weren’t tested this way, but you know what? We probably need to be shaken out of our complacency,” he said.

Obama also criticized some Democrats’ messaging as he touched on significant issues facing Californians and discussed the state of the nation’s democracy, core convictions and the weakening of institutional norms.

After Los Angeles-based Maron joked, “We’ve annoyed the average American into fascism,” Obama responded, “You can’t just be a scold all the time.

“You can’t constantly lecture people without acknowledging that you’ve got some blind spots too, and that life’s messy,” Obama said in the interview, which recently took place in the former president’s Washington, D.C., office.

Faulting language used by some liberals as “holier than thou,” Obama argued that Democrats could remain true to their principles while respecting those with whom they disagreed.

“Saying, ‘Right, I’ve got some core convictions [and] beliefs that I’m not going to compromise. But I’m also not going to assert that I am so righteous and so pure and so insightful that there’s not the possibility that maybe I’m wrong on this, or that other people, if they don’t say things exactly the way I say them or see things exactly the way I do, that somehow they’re bad people,’” he said.

Obama’s remarks come as the Democratic Party faces a reckoning after losing the presidential election in 2024, in part because of declining support from the party’s base, notably minority voters.

Maron, a comedian and actor, launched his “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast and radio show in 2009. Interviews with guests such as actor Robin Williams, comedian Louis C.K., filmmaker Kevin Smith and “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels often took place at his Highland Park home.

Obama’s 2015 interview in Maron’s garage became the podcast’s most popular episode at the time — downloaded nearly 740,000 times in the first 24 hours after it was posted.

On Monday, the former president criticized institutions for capitulating to President Trump’s demands. His words come as USC leaders are debating whether to agree to a White House proposal to receive favorable access to federal funding if they align with Trump’s agenda.

“If you’re a university president, say, well, you know what? This will hurt if we lose some grant money in the federal government, but that’s what endowments are for,” Obama said. “Let’s see if we can ride this out, because what we’re not going to do is compromise our basic academic independence.”

BARACK Obama will be visiting London and Dublin for an evening of political discussion on current global challenges.

Here’s everything you need to know about the event dates and how you might still be able to get your hands on the tickets.

1

When is An Evening with Barack Obama in UK and Ireland?

The former US leader will be hosting a speaking in the UK and Ireland in September 2025.

The 44th president will engage in a conversation with the audience at The O2 Arena, London on September 24, 2025.

The doors will open at 6pm and the event will commence at 8pm.

Obama will then travel to Dublin and hold the show on September 26, 2025 at the 3Arena.

An Evening with Barack Obama in Dublin will be moderated by Irish journalist Fintan O’Toole.

How can I still get tickets?

You can still snap up last minute tickets to An Evening with Barack Obama.

For London show, the main ticket platforms are Ticketmaster, Seat Unique, Stub Hub, and Vivid Seats.

Tickets may also be available at the O2 Box Office.

If you’re looking to nab the tickets for Dublin, then check out Ticketmaster or Seat Unique.

There is a limit of six tickets per person or per household, and any excess tickets will be cancelled.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama took to Twitter to say that she woke up Wednesday “elated” by the news that the Rev. Raphael Warnock had won his Senate race, but that her “heart had fallen harder and faster than I can remember” as violent supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol.

“The day was a fulfillment of the wishes of an infantile and unpatriotic president who can’t handle the truth of his own failures,” she continued.

She called the mob as a “gang” and described how they waved the Confederate flag, “desecrated the center of American government” and then were mostly led out of the building freely.

“It all left me with so many questions — questions about the future, questions about security, extremism, propaganda, and more. But there’s one question I just can’t shake: What if these rioters had looked like the folks who go to Ebenezer Baptist Church every Sunday? What would have been different?”

She continued: “And for those who calls others unpatriotic for simply taking a knee in silent protest, for those who wonder why we need to be reminded that Black Lives Matter at all, yesterday made it painfully clear that certain Americans are, in fact, allowed to denigrate the flag and symbols of our nation. What do all those folks have to say now?”

Former President Obama says that the United States is at “an inflection point” following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and that President Donald Trump has further divided the country rather than work to bring people together.

“There are no ifs, ands or buts about it: The central premise of our democratic system is that we have to be able to disagree and have sometimes really contentious debates without resorting to violence,” Obama said Tuesday night during an event in Erie, Pennsylvania, hosted by the Jefferson Education Society, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press.

“And when it happens to some, but even if you think they’re, quote, unquote, on the other side of the argument, that’s a threat to all of us,” he said. “And we have to be clear and forthright in condemning them.”

Obama has kept somewhat of a low profile in his post-presidency. Responding to a moderator’s questions Tuesday, he addressed Trump’s rhetoric after Kirk’s assassination, as well as other administrative actions.

The Democrat spoke about his own leadership following the 2015 slaying of nine Black parishioners at a Charleston, South Carolina, church, as well as Republican then-President George W. Bush’s actions following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He said he sees the role of a president in a crisis “to constantly remind us of the ties that bind us together.”

The sentiment among Trump and his aides following Kirk’s killing of calling political opponents “vermin, enemies … speaks to a broader problem,” Obama said.

Kirk, a dominant figure in conservative politics, became a confidant of Trump after founding Arizona-based Turning Point USA, one of the nation’s largest political organizations. Trump has escalated threats to crack down on what he describes as the “radical left” following Kirk’s assassination, stirring fears his Republican administration is trying to harness outrage over the killing to suppress political opposition.

Trump’s White House on Wednesday responded to Obama’s remarks by blaming him for animosity in the country, calling him “the architect of modern political division in America.”

“Obama used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other, and following his presidency more Americans felt Obama divided the country than felt he united it,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

Obama on Tuesday also referenced Trump’s recent deployment of National Guard troops in Washington and ID checks by federal agents in Los Angeles. He urged citizens and elected officials to closely monitor the norm-busting decisions.

“What you’re seeing, I think, is the sense that through executive power, many of the guardrails and norms that I thought I had to abide by as president of the United States, that George Bush thought he had to abide by as president of the United States, that suddenly those no longer apply,” Obama said. “And that makes this a dangerous moment.”

Shortly after Kirk’s death, Obama wrote in a post on X that he and his wife, Michelle, were praying for Kirk’s family, adding: “This kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy.”

Obama said that he disagreed with many of Kirk’s stances, noting that his position “doesn’t negate the fact that what happened was a tragedy and that I mourn for him and his family.”

Calling political violence “anathema to what it means to be a democratic country,” Obama also mentioned the June shooting deaths of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband in their home.

Obama also applauded Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s calls for civility in leading the public response to Kirk’s killing. Obama said that while he and the Republican governor “disagree on a whole bunch of stuff,” Cox’s messaging around how to respond to Kirk’s death shows “that it is possible for us to disagree while abiding by a basic code of how we should engage in public debate.”

Kinnard writes for the Associated Press.

Reporting from Kissimmee, Fla.  — Campaigning for Hillary Clinton at a Florida baseball stadium, President Obama lamented Sunday that the nature of this year’s presidential race has become so negative that even “Saturday Night Live” this week couldn’t keep parodying it.

What bothered him most, the president said, was the way “stuff that’s not normal, people have been treating like it’s normal.”

He referred to how just days ago he encouraged people at one of his rallies to show respect for a Donald Trump supporter who came to protest the event.

But Trump claimed just hours later that Obama had yelled at the man.

“Didn’t just make it up, but said the exact opposite of what had happened, with impunity,” he said. “There was tape. There was a video…. He thought it was OK just to lie in front of all his supporters.

“That says something about how unacceptable behavior has become normal,” Obama added. “And that’s why he is uniquely unqualified to hold this job. The good news is, all of you are uniquely qualified to make sure that he doesn’t get the job!”

Obama also mocked Trump after a report that his own campaign apparently had taken away his access to Twitter, where Trump has been known to send insulting missives.

“If somebody can’t handle a Twitter account, they can’t handle the nuclear codes,” Obama said.

It was a typically chesty speech from the outgoing commander in chief as he not only stumps aggressively for Hillary Clinton to succeed him, but settles some scores with the Republicans who have tried to stifle his every move for eight years.

In his reelection campaign four years ago, Obama would talk somewhat optimistically — in retrospect, perhaps naively — about his view that Republicans who had opposed him in his first term would be more cooperative should he win a second.

Knowing he would not be on the ballot again, there was less political incentive to deny him policy victories, and perhaps political incentive to try to find common ground, he thought.

“The fever will break,” he would say back then.

“C’mon, man,” has become his head-shaking credo now.

Obama on Sunday again attacked Republicans who support Trump even though they hold private — and some even public — reservations about him. He also warned that electing a Republican Congress would lead to a continuation of the obstruction he’s faced.

“They’re suggesting they might impeach Hillary. They don’t know what for yet. But they’re thinking about it,” Obama said.

Gridlock, he continued, is not “some mysterious fog that descends on Washington,” or something equally the fault of Democrats and Republicans.

“You want some more endless gridlock, vote for Republicans. You want an America that can do better … then you need to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot,” he said.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has emerged as one of Obama’s favorite targets, an example of a Republican whose devotion to defeating Democrats sometimes supersedes his personal and policy convictions.

Rubio supports Trump now, Obama said, even though he called Trump a con artist while running against him for the GOP nomination.

“He tweeted, ‘Friends don’t let friends vote for con artists,’” Obama said. “Guess who just voted for Trump a few days ago? Marco Rubio.”

Rubio’s opponent, Rep. Patrick Murphy, appeared before Obama on Sunday.

“If you want a senator who will say anything, do anything, be anybody just to get elected, then that’s your guy,” Obama said of Rubio. “If you want a senator who will show up and work for you and tell you the truth, then vote for Patrick Murphy and give Hillary some help.”

Obama made just one stop Sunday here in Central Florida, a key swing area in the always-important battleground state. “We win this election if we win Florida,” Obama said. “If we win Florida, it’s a wrap.”

Monday he has three appearances scheduled, in Michigan, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. He will join Clinton at the latter.

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Former President Obama endorsed California Democrats’ plans to redraw congressional districts if Texas or another Republican-led state does so to increase the GOP’s chances of maintaining control of Congress after next year’s midterm election.

Obama said that while he opposes partisan gerrymandering, Republicans in Texas acting at President Trump’s behest have forced Democrats’ hand.

If Democrats “don’t respond effectively, then this White House and Republican-controlled state governments all across the country, they will not stop, because they do not appear to believe in this idea of an inclusive, expansive democracy,” he said at a fundraiser Tuesday in Martha’s Vineyard that was first reported by the Associated Press on Wednesday.

“I wanted just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who’s got better ideas, and take it to the voters and see what happens,” Obama said, “… but we cannot unilaterally allow one of the two major parties to rig the game. And California is one of the states that has the capacity to offset a large state like Texas.”

Redistricting typically only occurs once a decade, after the census, to account for population shifts. In 2010, Californians voted to create an independent redistricting commission to end partisan gerrymandering. California’s 52 congressional districts were last redrawn in 2021.

Earlier this summer, Trump urged Texas leaders to redraw its congressional boundaries to increase the number of Republicans in Congress. Led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, California Democrats responded and proposed redrawing the state’s district lines and putting the matter before voters in a special election in November.

The issue came to a head this week, with Texas lawmakers expected to vote on their new districts on Wednesday, and California legislators expected to vote on Thursday to call the special election.

Obama called Newsom’s approach “responsible,” because the matter will ultimately be decided by voters, and if approved, would only go into effect if Texas or another state embarks on a mid-decade redistricting, and line-drawing would revert to the independent commission after the 2030 census.

“I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time,” Obama said.

Reporting from Washington — Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi sent an unusual personal letter to President Obama, complaining about the West’s “unjust war” against his embattled regime but also endorsing Obama for a second term in the White House.

In a three-page letter Wednesday addressed to “Our son, Excellency, President Obama,” Kadafi praised the president as a man “who has enough courage to annul a wrong and mistaken action.”

The Libyan strongman said his country had suffered economic embargos and sanctions in the past, as well as airstrikes against his regime during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Now, Kadafi said, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is “waging an unjust war against a small people of a developing country.”

Despite the conflict, Kadafi assured Obama in somewhat garbled English, “You will always remain our son whatever happened. We still pray that you continue to be president of the U.S.A. We Endeavour and hope that you will gain victory in the new election campaigne.”

He signed the letter with his preferred title: Leader of the Revolution.

White House officials didn’t release the text of the letter, saying they don’t want to help the Libyan with his “messaging.” But they didn’t challenge the text provided by the Associated Press wire service.

Asked about the letter, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said only that Kadafi “knows what he must do”: begin a ceasefire, withdraw his forces and leave Libya.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney reminded reporters that the letter was “not the first” from Kadafi. On March 19, just before U.S. and British ships launched the first cruise missiles against Libyan forces, Kadafi assured Obama that “even if Libya and the United States enter into war, God forbid, you will always remain my son.”

Also Wednesday, Libya said a British airstrike had hit its major Sarir oil field and damaged a pipeline connecting the deposit to the Mediterranean port of Hariga.

“British warplanes have … carried out an airstrike against the Sarir oil field, which killed three oil field guards, and other employees at the field were also injured,” Reuters news service quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim as saying.

There was no immediate official comment from Britain’s Defense Ministry.

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Reporting from Washington — President Trump’s effort Wednesday to influence the federal appeals judges who are considering whether to reinstate his restrictions on entry into the U.S. was notable for both the highly public setting — a televised speech — and the vitriol that Trump aimed at sitting judges still deciding the case.

Here’s how it compares with other recent presidents weighing in on pending court cases, ranging from cajoling to avoiding the topic altogether.

Lyndon Johnson, Civil Rights Act

In a speech at a dinner in Cleveland, Johnson lamented the struggles of implementing the 1964 Civil Rights Act while a challenge to the law — a case known as Heart of Atlanta Motel vs. United States — sat before the court. He did not comment on the case itself.

“It is now in the Supreme Court and we have had lots of difficulty with it, but we have tried to be patient and we have tried to be understanding.”

The court would go on to decide that the Constitution gave the government the power to force businesses to comply with the Civil Rights Act.

Jimmy Carter, affirmative action

Asked during a Q&A about Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke, which challenged affirmative action, Carter pointed to the separation of powers in avoiding comment.

“It’s in the hands of the Supreme Court and we have filed our position, that there’s nothing additionally that we would do until after the Supreme Court rules.”

Ronald Reagan, separation of powers

Bowsher vs. Synar, a case that challenged a key provision of the Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing act, produced a landmark decision on the separation of powers itself. Reagan opened a news conference by remarking on a recent lower-court ruling in the case but chose to steer the conversation to the underlying issue, the federal budget.

“We await a final Supreme Court decision, but nothing the court says should or will remove our obligation to bring overspending under control.”

George H.W. Bush, abortion

On the day that an abortion-related case, Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services, was argued before the Supreme Court, Bush was asked about it at a news conference but demurred. When a reporter pressed him, Bush, who had spoken out multiple times against abortion, hinted that he wanted to make his position known but stopped short of stating it plainly.

“I hate to not respond to your question,” he said. “But the court is probably going to make a decision very soon, and I would prefer to address myself to the question after the court has decided.”

Barack Obama, Affordable Care Act

Obama was the first president to make a persistent public push for his side of a pending court case; his landmark healthcare law hung in the balance.

But his tone was subtler than Trump.

First, during a news conference in 2012, Obama, who once taught constitutional law, urged justices to respect the separation of powers.

“I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” he said.

Obama followed up a day later by suggesting the justices follow precedent. “I expect the Supreme Court actually to — to recognize that and to abide by well-established precedents out there,” he said.

His persistence marked a departure for the presidency, Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law, wrote in his book “Unraveled.”

“Very few presidents have spoken about pending Supreme Court cases after arguments were submitted. Even fewer discussed the merits of the cases,” Blackman wrote. “Only a handful could be seen as preemptively faulting the justices for ruling against the government.”

The Supreme Court eventually ruled in favor of the Obama administration in the case, National Federation of Independent Business vs. Sebelius, as it would later in King vs. Burwell.

Obama, money in politics

The Affordable Care Act was not Obama’s first venture into court commentary, though. He also used one of the president’s most high-profile venues to address a ruling: the State of the Union.

In addressing lawmakers in late January 2010, Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission of a few days earlier that held that corporations had the same right to free speech as people. The court’s conservative majority concluded that the government thus could not stop corporations from spending on candidates.

“With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said. “I’d urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems.”

Obama drew applause from Democrats, but an immediate rebuke from one justice who was present: Samuel Alito shook his head and mouthed “not true” as Obama spoke.

As a senator, Obama had voted against Alito’s confirmation in 2006.

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Twitter: @amyfiscus

ALSO:

Trump takes aim at judges, saying ‘a bad high school student’ would see the law favors him

Not just ‘bad hombres’: Trump is targeting up to 8 million people for deportation

Homeland Security secretary says a border wall won’t be built all at once

UPDATES:

12:40 p.m., Feb. 9: This story was updated with Obama’s comments on the Citizens United ruling.

This story was originally published at 3:20 p.m. on Feb. 8.

July 24 (UPI) — U.S. Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are calling for a special counsel to investigate allegations against former President Barack Obama.

The senators said they want the truth about Obama’s alleged “manipulation” before the 2016 election.

“For the good of the country, Senator @JohnCornyn and I urge Attorney General (Pam) Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the extent to which former President Obama, his staff and administration officials manipulated the U.S. national security apparatus for a political outcome,” Graham posted on X.

A special counsel is someone brought from outside to investigate independently.

“As we have supported in the past, appointing an independent special counsel would do the country a tremendous service in this case,” Fox News reported Graham and Cornyn said.

This call comes one day after Director of Homeland Security Tulsi Gabbard released a second formerly classified document alleging wrongdoing by Obama. The Department of Justice created a “strike force” to investigate the evidence.

The document cast doubts on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desire to help Trump beat Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. It backed up the argument that Russia wanted to interfere in the election.

It was part of a House Intelligence Committee report from Sept. 18, 2020, when Republicans controlled the House. Though it doesn’t dispute that Moscow interfered in the election, it shows the Obama administration’s handling of Russian activity.

Last week, Gabbard released a document that accused Obama and his Cabinet of manufacturing an intelligence report to falsely accuse Russia of acting to ensure Trump defeated Clinton during the 2016 election.

Obama’s team responded to last week’s report.

“Nothing in that document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,” Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a prepared statement on Tuesday.

“These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.”

“With every piece of information that gets released, it becomes more evident that the entire Russia collusion hoax was created by the Obama administration to subvert the will of the American people,” Graham and Cornyn said.

Trump earlier in the day accused Obama of “trying to lead a coup” with Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump has now thoroughly sullied the office of the presidency.

I’m not talking about the Oval Office, with its new, gaudy gilt trappings that seem to spread by the day, as if the famously nocturnal president multitasks there while others sleep, tapping out his nasty late-night social media screeds between applying more layers of the gold leaf fit for a king. Those golden geegaws are simply Trump’s literal stain on the Oval Office.

I’m talking about the figurative taint: What Trump does and says there by day, in full view of the media cameras, reporters and fawning retainers invited for his performances. With that behavior he besmirches not just the actual Oval Office but the very idea of the office of the president of the United States.

Who can forget, as much as one would like to, Trump’s bullying humiliation of Ukraine’s war-hero President Volodymyr Zelensky in February, and, in May, his premeditated attack on President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, with false claims of that nation’s genocide against white Afrikaner farmers?

But Trump’s performative power play on Tuesday arguably tops them all for shame. Alas, this time his target — President Obama — wasn’t present to push back. The bully wouldn’t dare get in Obama’s face, knowing his predecessor’s counterpunch against the lies could be a knockout. (In Obama’s presence, in fact, Trump is all cringey banter and bonhomie, as at Jimmy Carter’s funeral earlier this year, when the other former presidents snubbed him.)

The word “unprecedented” is used a lot, justifiably, to describe Trump’s actions, but never was it more apt: The sitting president baselessly alleged that the former president was “treasonous” — a crime punishable by death — and all but ordered his law-enforcement minions to arrest, prosecute and imprison the man.

(Apparently Trump, convicted fraudster and adjudicated sexual abuser, forgot that last year — to avoid pre-election trials tied to his alleged crimes involving Jan. 6 and classified documents — he’d persuaded a deferential Supreme Court to give presidents virtual immunity from criminal prosecution. Narcissist that he is, perhaps Trump thinks the egregious ruling only applied to him, not to Obama and every other president past and future.)

“He’s guilty. This was treason,” Trump pronounced of Obama, falsely reviving conspiracies that the then-president and his inner circle lied about Russia’s pro-Trump meddling in the 2016 campaign as a way of undermining Trump’s legitimacy. But for eight years, Vladimir Putin’s 2016 election interference has been a well-established fact, documented by multiple investigations, including one led by then-Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who’s now Trump’s secretary of State.

As Trump fulminated against Obama, seated beside him in the Oval Office’s familiar wingback chairs was yet another foreign dignitary, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., making him just the latest witness to how fully Trump has extinguished the United States’ beacon as a global exemplar of democratic norms and peaceful transfers of power.

Yes, Trump’s rant against Obama as well as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats was yet another of his manic attempts over the past three weeks to distract from the morass of his handling of what’s known as the Jeffrey Epstein files — files in which his name appears, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The administration’s refusal to release federal records of the pedophilia and sex-trafficking investigation of the late billionaire and Trump friend — despite past promises from Trump, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Patel deputy Dan Bongino — is a mess of their own making, and the first to draw condemnation from Trump’s otherwise loyal base. That’s what’s so unnerved the president.

And yes, we should avoid taking the bait of Trump’s distractions.

But… For a president in power to falsely allege that a former president is a traitor, and to suggest that his lickspittles at the Justice Department and FBI should act against that former president, is a distraction that must command Americans’ attention.

Certainly Obama, who’s long frustrated Democrats by his reticence about criticizing Trump, thinks so. On Tuesday he had a spokesman issue a stinger of a statement.

“Out of respect for the office of the presidency,” it began, “our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.” It pointedly alluded to Rubio’s supportive and bipartisan 2020 report to mock the “bizarre allegations” Trump is lodging.

The basis of Trump’s claims of Obama’s treason is a report released Friday by his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the conspiracy-minded former Democratic congresswoman. Not coincidentally, Gabbard lately has been desperate to get back in Trump’s good graces, having fallen from favor in recent months. Her report, along with her criminal referral to the Justice Department against Obama and others, seems to have done the trick, at least for now. Trump is singing her praises.

Gabbard outlined what she calls a “treasonous conspiracy” by Obama and Democrats to bury findings that Russia did nothing to alter the 2016 result — Trump’s victory — and to promote the “hoax” that Trump owed his election to Russia. But Obama and his aides repeatedly assured Americans that Russia did not manipulate the actual 2016 vote by hacking election machinery. Instead, Obama and his team consistently held, along with subsequent investigators, that Russia’s interference was limited to an internet-based campaign of trolls and bots promoting Trump and denigrating Clinton to U.S. voters. They never claimed that meddling determined the election outcome.

Here’s the irony: Trump is building a false case against Obama to distract his restive base from the very real case involving his pal and fellow playboy Epstein, one in which he may or may not be implicated in wrongdoing, and from his failure to bring Epstein’s elite accomplices to justice. Yet by doing so, Trump is again setting up his followers for disappointment and disillusionment. Because there is no Obama case, and so no “justice” for the salivating base.

It’s a sordid quandary that Trump deserves. Too bad he’s brought it into the presidency.

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United States President Donald Trump has called for the arrest of former President Barack Obama, repeating unproven claims that the Democrat’s administration intentionally misled the public in its assessment of the 2016 election.

At Tuesday’s Oval Office meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, Trump accused Obama, a longtime rival, of helming a criminal conspiracy.

“ The leader of the gang was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump told the media.

“ He’s guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody’s ever even imagined, even in other countries.”

President Trump has a history of spreading election-related falsehoods, including by denying his own defeat in the 2020 race.

But since taking office for a second term, he has sought to settle scores over his victory in the 2016 presidential contest, which raised questions about Russia’s alleged attempts to influence the outcome.

In 2016, in the waning days of Obama’s second term, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) concluded that Russia had attempted to sway the results in Trump’s favour. Obama responded to the allegations by expelling Russian diplomats and slapping sanctions on the country.

An intelligence community assessment in 2017 later offered details into the Russian influence campaign.

But in 2019, a special counsel’s report found there was not enough evidence to support the claim that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia. It did, however, once again underscore the government’s assertion that Russia had interfered in the election “in sweeping and systematic fashion”.

Trump, however, has described such probes as politicised attacks designed to undermine his authority.

In Tuesday’s appearance, Trump cited recent claims from his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to assert wrongdoing on the part of the Obama administration.

“They caught President Obama absolutely cold,” Trump said. “They tried to rig the election, and they got caught, and there should be very severe consequences for that.”

Tulsi Gabbard renews Obama attacks

Trump’s latest remarks about what he calls the “Russia hoax” come just days after Gabbard released a press release about the subject on July 18.

In the statement, Gabbard’s office asserts she “revealed overwhelming evidence” that “President Obama and his national security cabinet members manufactured and politicised intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump”.

Gabbard followed that release up with a series of social media posts, some indicating she had pressed the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal charges against Obama. She has called the scrutiny on the 2016 election a “treasonous conspiracy”.

“Their goal was to usurp President Trump and subvert the will of the American people,” Gabbard wrote.

“No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” she continued. “We are turning over all documents to the DOJ for criminal referral.”

However, the veracity of Gabbard’s report has been widely questioned. Critics have pointed out that she appears to confuse different conclusions.

Gabbard, for instance, has highlighted internal government documents from the 2016 election period that indicate Russia was not using cyberattacks to alter the overall vote count.

But the published 2017 intelligence report did not assert that Russia was attempting to hack the election. Instead, it highlighted ways that Russia tried to influence public sentiment through disinformation.

Russia’s campaign included online propaganda, the dissemination of hacked data, and targeted messaging about individuals and entities involved in the election.

Other investigations related to the matter, including a separate Department of Justice inspector general report and a Republican-led Senate investigation, all supported that Russia did indeed seek to influence the 2016 election.

Backlash against Gabbard’s statements

But Gabbard’s argument that the scrutiny over the 2016 election was criminal has prompted uproar, particularly from the Democratic Party.

Senator Mark Warner of Virginia even questioned whether Gabbard should remain in her role as director of national intelligence.

“It is sadly not surprising that DNI Gabbard, who promised to depoliticize the intelligence community, is once again weaponizing her position to amplify the president’s election conspiracy theories,” he wrote on social media.

Obama himself released a statement through his office, calling Gabbard’s claims “bizarre”.

“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,” it said.

Some critics have speculated that Trump may be using the years-old question of Russian election interference to distract from his current political woes: He recently faced backlash from members of his base over his handling of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Still, President Trump has doubled down on Gabbard’s assertions, even reposting a video generated by artificial intelligence (AI) on Monday showing Obama being handcuffed in the Oval Office, while the song YMCA played.

“ This is, like, proof – irrefutable proof – that Obama was seditious, that Obama was trying to lead a coup,” Trump said on Tuesday. “Obama headed it up.”

Experts have long speculated that Trump may use a second term as president to settle political scores and seek retaliation against his foes.

On Sunday, our thoughtful and reserved president reposted on his Truth Social site a video generated by artificial intelligence that falsely showed former President Obama being arrested and imprisoned.

There are those among you who think this is high humor; those among you who who find it as tiresome as it is offensive; and those among you blissfully unaware of the mental morass that is Truth Social.

Whatever camp you fall into, the video crosses all demographics by being expected — just another crazy Trump stunt in a repetitive cycle of division and diversion so frequent it makes Groundhog Day seem fresh. Epstein who?

But there are three reasons why this particular video — not made by the president but amplified to thousands — is worth noting, and maybe even worth fearing.

First, it is flat-out racist. In it, Obama is ripped out of a chair in the Oval Office and forced onto his knees, almost bowing, to a laughing Trump. That imagery isn’t hard to interpret: America’s most esteemed Black man — who recently warned we are on the brink of losing democracy — forced into submission before our leader.

The video comes as Trump claims that Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, has uncovered a “treasonous conspiracy in 2016” in which top Obama officials colluded with Russia to disrupt the election. Democrats say the claim is erroneous at best.

If you are inclined to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, right before this scene of Obama forced to kneel, a meme of Pepe the Frog — an iconic image of the far-right and white supremacy — flashes on the screen.

Not subtle. But also, not the first time racism has come straight from the White House. On Monday, the Rev. Amos Brown, pastor of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church and a student of Martin Luther King Jr., reminded me that not too long ago, then-President Woodrow Wilson screened the pro-KKK film “The Birth of a Nation” at the executive mansion. It was the first film screening ever held there, and its anti-Black viewpoint sparked controversy and protests.

That was due in no small part to a truth that Hollywood knows well — fiction has great power to sway minds. Brown sees direct similarities in how Wilson amplified fictional anti-Blackness then, and how Trump is doing so now, both for political gain.

“Mr. Trump should realize that Obama hasn’t done anything to him. But just the idea, the thought of a Black person being human, is a threat to him and his supporters,” Brown told me.

Brown said he’s praying for the president to “stop this bigotry” and see the error of his ways. I’ll pray the great gods give the reverend good luck on that.

But, on the earthly plane, Brown said that “the more things change, the more they remain the same.”

Trump courted the Black vote and has his supporters among people of all colors and ethnicities, but he’s also played on racist tropes for political success, from stoking fear around the Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five, decades ago to stoking fear around Black immigrants eating cats and dogs in Ohio during the recent election. It’s an old playbook, because it works.

Reposting the image of Obama on his knees is scary because it’s a harsh reminder that racism is no longer an undercurrent in our society, if it ever was. It’s a motivator and a power to be openly wielded — just the way Wilson did back in 1915.

But the differences in media from back in the day to now are what should raise our second fear around this video. A fictional film is one thing. An AI-generated video that for many people seems to depict reality is a whole new level of, well, reality.

The fear of deepfakes in politics is not new. It’s a global problem, and in fairness, this isn’t the first time (by far) Trump or other politicians have used deepfakes.

Trump last year reposted an image of Taylor Swift endorsing him (which never happened). Also last year, during the election and the height of the Elon Musk-Trump bromance, the billionaire posted a fake photo of political challenger Kamala Harris dressed in what looked like a communist military uniform.

Trump himself has not been immune. In 2023, Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative outlet Bellingcat, said he was toying with an AI tool and created images of Trump being arrested, never thinking it would go viral (especially since one image gave Trump three legs).

Of course it did, and millions of people looked at these fake pictures, at least some assuming they were real.

The list of deepfake political examples is long and ominous. Which brings us to the third reason Trump’s latest use of one is unsettling.

He clearly sees the effectiveness of manipulating race and reality to increase his own power and further his own agenda.

Obama on his knees strikes a chord all too close to the image of Latino Sen. Alex Padilla being taken to the floor by federal authorities a few weeks ago during a news conference. It bears chilling resemblance to the thousands of images flooding us daily of immigrants being taken down and detained by immigration officers in often violent fashion.

Videos like this one of Obama are the normalizing, the mockery, the celebration of the erosion of civil rights and violence we are currently seeing being aimed at Black, brown and vulnerable Americans.

There is nothing innocent or unplanned about these kinds of videos. They are a political weapon being used for a purpose.

Because when repetition dulls our shock of them, how long before we are no longer shocked by real images of real arrests?

Donald Trump gained momentum for his political career by promoting the unfounded “birther” conspiracy theory about President Obama. Now, facing a pandemic, a shattered economy and unrest after three-plus years in the White House, Trump continues to push incendiary and unsubstantiated theories about his predecessor.

Trump said last week, without evidence, that Obama had committed “treason” by spying on his campaign, in reference to his years-old claim that the Obama administration tapped his phone lines at Trump Tower before the 2016 general election.

“It’s treason,” he said during an interview with the Christian Broadcast Network that aired Tuesday. “Look, when I came out a long time ago, I said they’ve been spying on my campaign … turned out I was right. Let’s see what happens to them now.”

Trump tweeted last month that Obama committed “the biggest political crime in American history.” One missive in a Mother’s Day tweetstorm said simply, “OBAMAGATE!”

But when asked at a news conference to explain what he was claiming Obama had done, Trump declined. “You know what the crime is,” Trump told reporters. “The crime is very obvious to everybody.”

In the days that followed, it became clear that “Obamagate” was a catchall term for the unsubstantiated claim that Obama led an illegal plot to undermine Trump. It’s also one of the latest in a series of groundless accusations Trump has made against his predecessor.

Trump has often spread conspiracy theories about the people he sees as political enemies. He amplifies accusations of illegal or immoral behavior through tweets and comments, often with vague qualifiers — “people are saying.”

During the 2016 presidential election alone, Trump said the circumstances around the 1993 death of Clinton administration counsel Vince Foster were “fishy” and claims of Hillary Clinton’s involvement were “serious”; he retweeted an article that falsely claimed Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz weren’t eligible to run for president; and he cited the National Enquirer to claim Cruz’s father was linked to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Trump has returned to conspiracy theories about Obama time and again, and the accusations have grown more serious in nature.

2011: Birtherism

Trump amplified the false conspiracy theory questioning where Obama was born, becoming the face of the racist “birther” movement. Obama, who was born in Hawaii, had released his certification of live birth during the 2008 presidential campaign.

In a series of interviews, Trump said he had “doubts” about where Obama was born and suggested that his birth certificate might list his religion as Muslim. (Obama is Christian.)

During an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that aired April 25, 2011, Trump repeated his claim that he had a team in Hawaii investigating Obama’s birth and said he’d been told the birth certificate was “missing” or didn’t exist. “I’ve been told…,” Trump said repeatedly, but would not say by whom. (CNN staff reporting on Obama’s birth certificate said they saw no evidence of Trump associates looking into the matter.)

Obama released his long-form birth certificate on April 27, 2011. In his remarks on the release, Obama criticized those who perpetuated the conspiracy and the news cycle and said the country was “not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.”

A few days later, at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner, Obama addressed Trump by name.

“Now he can get back to focusing on the issues that matter,” Obama said. “Like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened at Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”

But Trump kept returning to the conspiracy theory. In 2013, he tweeted: “How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s ‘birth certificate’ died in plane crash today. All others lived.”

Trump cast doubts on where Obama was born until 2016, when he pivoted to a new false theory: Hillary Clinton had started the rumors.

April 2011: Obama’s school records

In the midst of the birther controversy, Trump asked for a different set of records: proof that Obama earned his way into college.

“I heard he was a terrible student, terrible,” Trump told the Associated Press in an April 2011 interview. “How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard? I’m thinking about it; I’m certainly looking into it. Let him show his records.”

Trump continued to promote articles challenging Obama’s academic record as late as 2014. In 2012 he tweeted a Breitbart article — written by far-right activist Charles C. Johnson — that speculated Obama had lower SAT scores than President George W. Bush and benefited from affirmative action when he transferred to Columbia University. Trump also tweeted: “I wonder if @BarackObama ever applied to Occidental, Columbia or Harvard as a foreign student. When can we see his applications? What do they say about his place of birth.”

In his 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” Obama acknowledged that his mother was concerned about his “slipping” grades, and he’d had doubts about college. But, he wrote, he wasn’t “flunking out” and he did end up applying and being accepted to college. He attended Occidental College for two years before transferring to Columbia, where he began focusing more on his studies, he told Columbia College Today in 2005.

“When I transferred, I decided to buckle down and get serious,” he said. “I spent a lot of time in the library. I didn’t socialize that much. I was like a monk.”

Obama’s record at Harvard has been well-documented. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and was the first African American elected to edit the prestigious Law Review. The election was covered by the New York Times and led to a book deal to write his 1995 memoir, according to the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. As Obama prepared to launch his presidential campaign in 2007, his Harvard Law School professors described him as “brilliant” and a “serious intellectual” in a Harvard Crimson article.

Like Obama, Trump has not released his academic transcripts.

After two years at Fordham University, Trump moved to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1968. James Nolan, a former University of Pennsylvania admissions officer, was friends with Fred Trump Jr. and interviewed his brother Donald at his request, he told the Washington Post last year. Nolan said it was “not very difficult” to get into the school at the time.

March 2017: A claim of wiretapping

As the investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election ramped up in the early months of his presidency, Trump accused Obama of having tapped his phone lines in Trump Tower.

The allegation spread through conservative media outlets before making its way to the White House and eventually into a series of March 4, 2017, tweets by the president. “Terrible! Just found out Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory,” he wrote in one post. “Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

James B. Comey, the FBI director at the time, asked the Justice Department to publicly reject the claim, and a spokesman for Obama said the claim was “simply false.” House Intelligence Committee leaders said they’d seen no evidence that Trump was wiretapped by Obama. The Justice Department has since refuted the claim that Trump’s lines were wiretapped.

In the days that followed Trump’s tweets, White House officials broadened the claim to suggest the Obama administration had improperly spied on his campaign.

Trump’s allies seized on revelations that the FBI made numerous errors in a counterintelligence probe into whether associates of Trump and his campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the election. In December 2019, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report sharply criticizing the FBI for withholding information from the department about a former Trump campaign aide suspected of working with Russian intelligence. Horowitz concluded, however, that the FBI had legal and factual justification to start the investigation.

The report also said investigators found no evidence that the mistakes were influenced by political bias. But Trump claimed he had survived “an attempted overthrow.”

May 2020: ‘Obamagate’

On May 7, the Justice Department announced it was dropping its case against Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his calls with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. Three days later, Trump launched a tweetstorm railing against the media, the criticism of his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and “the biggest political scandal in American history.”

Trump and his allies are pushing the theory that Obama and his administration officials illegally targeted Flynn as part of a conspiracy to undermine the president-elect.

Phone transcripts show that Flynn urged Russia’s ambassador not to retaliate against Obama administration sanctions and told him “we can have a better conversation” after Trump’s inauguration. Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his talks with the ambassador. Trump fired Flynn after only 24 days in office, then said his top security advisor had been treated unfairly.

Allies of the president have pointed to two declassified documents released in May related to the investigation into Flynn. In an email, then-national security advisor Susan Rice described a Jan. 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting in which Comey expressed concern to Obama about sharing information with Flynn because of his communications with the Russian ambassador. Another document shows that Vice President Joe Biden was among dozens of senior Obama administration officials who might have been informed about Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador.

Neither document shows any wrongdoing. Rice’s email states that Obama told Comey to proceed “by the book,” and the document listing Biden as an official who learned of Flynn’s contacts states that the former Trump advisor’s “unmasking” was approved by the National Security Agency.

The Justice Department’s decision to try to drop the Flynn prosecution has prompted critics to question whether Trump was improperly influencing criminal prosecutions in a politically charged case.

But Trump has continued with the “Obamagate” narrative, and a Senate committee headed by Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is now investigating the Russia investigation.

July 19 (UPI) — The Obama administration should be investigated for abuse of power to smear President Donald Trump in 2016, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard said on Friday.

Gabbard announced the release of files and a memo related to claims of Russia’s alleged attempt to disrupt the 2016 elections to help Trump win the presidency over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“There was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of government,” Gabbard said in a news release on Friday.

“Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the president from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people,” Gabbard said.

She accused the Obama administration of an “egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution” that “threatens the very foundation and integrity of our democratic republic.”

President Barack Obama and his national security cabinet members “manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork” for falsifying claims that Russia acted to influence the election in Trump’s favor and to impeach the president, according to the DNI release.

Gabbard in 2019 was a member of the Democratic Party and a representative from Hawaii who said, “I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no,” during the Dec. 18, 2019, House vote to impeach Trump, according to Politico.

The DNI release says the U.S. intelligence community consistently concluded Russia likely was not trying to influence the 2016 election, and then-DNI Director James Clapper on Dec. 7, 2016, concluded “foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks” to alter the election results.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Gabbard says Obama and others tasked Clapper with creating a new intelligence community assessment that claimed Russia acted to influence the election.

Obama officials then leaked false statements claiming Russia tried to influence the election’s outcome and produced a new assessment on Jan. 6, 2017, that contradicted prior assessments on the matter, according to the DNI.

Gabbard said she is forwarding relevant materials to the Department of Justice for possible legal action.

Some congressional Democrats have challenged Gabbard’s announcement.

“The unanimous, bipartisan conclusion was that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told CNN on Friday.

“This is just another example of the DNI trying to cook the books, rewrite history and erode trust in the intelligence agencies she’s supposed to be leading,” Warner added.

Warner is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Member Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said “every legitimate investigation” into the matter affirmed the findings of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment, CNN reported.

File this as prett-ay, prett-ay, prett-ay good news: Larry David is returning to TV with a new six-episode sketch comedy about American history, produced the Obamas’ by Higher Ground.

He will be writing the HBO series alongside Jeff Schaffer, who was a showrunner, executive producer and director on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” David will star in the series, which will feature some actors from “Curb” as well as noteworthy guest stars.

Schaffer and David will both executive produce, with Schaffer taking the lead on directing. Barack and Michelle Obama will be executive producing the limited series for their banner Higher Ground Productions alongside Vinnie Malhotra and Ethan Lewis.

HBO’s official logline reads, “President and Mrs. Obama wanted to honor America’s 250th anniversary and celebrate the unique history of our nation on this special occasion.

…But then Larry David called.”

“Once ‘Curb’ ended, I celebrated with a three-day foam party,” David said in a press release. “After a violent allergic reaction to the suds, I yearned to return to my simple life as a beekeeper, harvesting organic honey from the wildflowers in my meadow. Alas, one day my bees mysteriously vanished. And so, it is with a heavy heart that I return to television, hoping to ease the loss of my beloved hive.”

Obama added, “I’ve sat across the table from some of the world’s most difficult leaders and wrestled with some of our most intractable problems. Nothing has prepared me for working with Larry David.”

The beloved and critically acclaimed “Curb Your Enthusiasm” aired for a total of 12 seasons from 2000 to 2024.

“The characters Larry is playing didn’t change history. In fact, they were largely ignored by history. And that’s a good thing,” Schaffer said.

David and Schaffer have also worked together on “Seinfeld” and the TV movie “Clear History,” which starred David. Schaffer is also known for his work as the co-creator of “The League” and “Dave” at FX. And David is no stranger to sketch TV comedy — he was a writer and performer on ABC’s early ‘80s late-night series “Fridays.”

Former United States Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush have delivered a rare open rebuke of the Donald Trump administration in an emotional video farewell with staffers of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Obama called the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID “a colossal mistake”.

Monday was the last day as an independent agency for the six-decade-old humanitarian and development organisation, created by President John F Kennedy as a soft power, peaceful way of promoting US national security by boosting goodwill and prosperity abroad.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered USAID to be absorbed into the US State Department on Tuesday.

The former presidents and U2 singer Bono  – who held back tears as he recited a poem – spoke with thousands in the USAID community in a videoconference, which was billed as a closed-press event.

They expressed their appreciation for the thousands of USAID staffers who have lost their jobs and life’s work. Their agency was one of the first and most fiercely targeted for government cuts by Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk, with staffers abruptly locked out of systems and offices and terminated by mass emailing.

Trump claimed the agency was run by “radical left lunatics” and rife with “tremendous fraud”. Musk called it “a criminal organisation”.

Obama, speaking in a recorded statement, offered assurances to the aid and development workers, some listening from overseas.

“Your work has mattered and will matter for generations to come,” he told them.

Obama has largely kept a low public profile during Trump’s second term and refrained from criticising the seismic changes that Trump has made to US programmes and priorities at home and abroad.

“Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy. Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world,” Obama said. He credited USAID with not only saving lives, but being a main factor in global economic growth that has turned some aid-receiving countries into US markets and trade partners.

The former Democratic president predicted that “sooner or later, leaders on both sides of the aisle will realise how much you are needed”.

Asked for comment, the State Department said it would be introducing the department’s foreign assistance successor to USAID, to be called America First, this week.

“The new process will ensure there is proper oversight and that every tax dollar spent will help advance our national interests,” the department said.

USAID oversaw programmes around the world, providing water and life-saving food to millions uprooted by conflict in Sudan, Syria, Gaza and elsewhere, sponsoring the “Green Revolution” that revolutionised modern agriculture and curbed starvation and famine. The agency worked at preventing disease outbreaks, promoting democracy, and providing financing and development that allowed countries and people to climb out of poverty.

Bush, who also spoke in a recorded message, went straight to the cuts in a landmark AIDS and HIV programme started by his Republican administration and credited with saving 25 million lives around the world.

Bipartisan blowback from Congress to cutting the popular President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, helped save significant funding for the programme. But cuts and rule changes have reduced the number getting the life-saving care.

“You’ve showed the great strength of America through your work – and that is your good heart,” Bush told USAID staffers. “Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you,” he said.

More than 14 million of the world’s most vulnerable, a third of them young children, could die because of the Trump administration’s move, a study in the Lancet journal projected Tuesday.

“For many low- and middle-income countries, the resulting shock would be comparable in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict,” study co-author Davide Rasella, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, said in a statement.

Bono, a longtime humanitarian advocate in Africa and elsewhere, was announced as the “surprise guest”.

he recited a poem he had written to the agency about its gutting. He spoke of children dying of malnutrition, a reference to millions of people who Boston University researchers and other analysts say will die because of the US cuts to funding for health and other programmes abroad.

“They called you crooks,” Bono said, “when you were the best of us.”