Former President Barack Obama questioned President Donald Trump’s calls for civility on Friday, pointing out that Trump has repeatedly unleashed rhetorical attacks on the media and his political opponents, most of whom are Democrats.
- Trump earlier this week said it is the news media’s job to “set a civil tone.” That declaration followed a bomb scare prompted by a man accused of mailing more than a dozen packaged explosives to top Democrats and government officials this week.
- People who Trump has criticized and those who have criticized him were the ones the bombing suspect targeted.
Former President Barack Obama questioned President Donald Trump’s calls for civility on Friday, pointing out that Trump has repeatedly unleashed rhetorical attacks on the media and his political opponents, most of whom are Democrats.
“I’m hoping you think it’s wrong to hear people spend years, months, vilifying people, questioning their patriotism, calling them enemies of the people — and then suddenly you’re concerned about civility. Please,” Obama said at a political rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Friday, ABC News reported.
Obama’s comments come as Trump faced criticism for his heated attacks on the news media and his political opponents, which is believed to have played a role in motivating the suspected bomber Cesar Sayoc, Jr. to send more than a dozen package bombs to top Democrats and government officials this week.
Trump claimed on Friday that media coverage of Sayoc was intended to “score political points” against him and other Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Trump earlier this week said it is the news media’s job to “set a civil tone.” That declaration followed a bomb scare prompted by a man accused of mailing more than a dozen packaged explosives to top Democrats and government officials this week.
“There is much we can do to bring our nation together,” Trump told his supporters at a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday, NBC News reported.
Trump continued: “For example, those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective. Have to do it. The language of moral condemnation and destructive routine — these are arguments and disagreements that have to stop.”
But Obama pointed out Friday that Trump doesn’t exactly practice what he preaches.
Trump has allowed the “lock her up” chants against Hillary Clinton to continue at his rallies this week, despite the former secretary of state having been a target of one of the package bombs.
Trump previously called former CIA Director John Brennan, who was another target of the would-be bomber, a “loudmouth, partisan, political hack who cannot be trusted with the secrets to our country!”
And Trump has embraced chants of “CNN sucks” at several of his rallies, stretching back to early aughts of his 2016 election campaign.
