Viewers of former President Barack Obama’s speech at the Obama Foundation’s 2024 Democracy Forum caught him during a “telling” moment as he made a series of claims about Republicans that are more aligned with his own Democratic Party.
Some observers even claimed that things the 44th president said would be considered wild conspiracy theories and ‘false claims’ of ‘election fraud’ were they uttered by a GOP figure.
Others ripped the former president for what they saw as blatant hypocrisy as he accused members of the Republican Party of doing things that Democrats have done when they are in power, such as “weaponizing” the Justice Department and “politicizing” the military.
“Pluralism depends on everyone following a certain set of rules,” Obama said during the speech. “What happens when the other side has repeatedly and abundantly made clear they are not interested in playing by the rules?”
“There are going to be times potentially when one side tries to stack the deck and lock in [pause] a permanent grip on power,” Obama said at one point, as he appeared to realize in mid-sentence that he was treading closely to exposing himself and his party’s future political plans.
“Either by actively suppressing votes, or politicizing the Armed Forces, or using the judiciary, criminal justice system to go after opponents,” he continued. “And pluralism does not call for us to just stand back and say, ‘well, I’m not sure that’s OK,’” he continued. “In those circumstances, a line has been crossed, and we have to stand firm and speak out and organize.”
Several people took to social media to call out Obama’s rhetoric, much of which sounded to them a lot like what the outgoing Biden-Harris administration did.
Former “Hercules” actor Kevin Sorbo said that Obama “[a]lmost broke character for a sec.”
Conservative media figure Collin Rugg responded to Sorbo by noting that the “pause was telling.”
Obama reportedly had a big hand — along with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — in forcing President Joe Biden to abandon his reelection bid following his horrific June debate with now-President-elect Donald Trump.
Actor George Clooney, a close friend of the 44th president, is reportedly angry and feeling used after he wrote an op-ed over the summer encouraging Biden to step down.
“George is furious with Obama for disappearing after the election disaster and leaving him holding the bag for pushing the plan with his Hollywood pals,” an unnamed entertainment industry source close to the A-list actor told RadarOnline last week.
“George feels duped and vows he’s not going to be anyone’s political water boy anymore,” another source told the outlet.
Obama reportedly “approved” the article to put pressure on his former running mate.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is not planning to “go quietly into the night” after she was thumped in the 2024 presidential election.
During a segment on CNN, reporter Isaac Dovere revealed that Harris privately tells backers she is considering running for governor of California in 2026 or president in 2028. Harris also reportedly does not want her “final act” to be certifying Donald Trump’s election victory over her.
“We haven’t seen or heard much from Vice President Kamala Harris since she lost the election last month,” CNN’s Manu Raju told CNN’s viewers. “But the Democratic Party still reeling from Trump’s victory.”
Dovere said that Harris is mulling two options.
“What she’s been saying to people over the last couple of weeks, donors, other supporters that she’s been talking with, As you haven’t seen the last of me, I’m not going quietly into the night. Advisers, people close to her are debating about what that means. They do not want her final official act ever to be essentially certifying Donald Trump’s win over her, especially four years after January 6th. And so they look at this governor’s race in California in 2026, and it seems to them like a layup essentially, that she would probably clear the field or mostly clear the field and she would get to be governor of California,” Dovere said.
“But if she does that, that means that she couldn’t turn around and run for president again in 2028. She’d need to essentially declare right away. And that is what it really comes down to because there are people close to her who say she didn’t get a fair shot this year,” Dovere added.
Dovere continued, “It wasn’t it wasn’t up to what she could have done. And look how well she performed anyway. She should get to go again in 2020. And then there are ones who say, look, with where things are with the Democratic Party at it, she would not have a clear field or a cleared field, rather, in the Democratic primary and could lose the nomination. And to come off of 2024 into that would be really terrible.”
Harris allegedly told associates she was “staying in the fight” and considering a 2028 presidential campaign or a California gubernatorial run in 2026, prompting Democratic strategist Theryn Bond to urge Harris not to run for president again.