Tag: Barack Obama

Could Obama’s call to end Senate filibuster shift the tide?

One previous skeptic, Sen. Bernie Sanders, now on board

Former President Barack Obama’s endorsement Thursday of ending the legislative filibuster energized progressive senators and groups who’ve championed the issue and converted one previous skeptic, Sen. Bernie Sanders. But will it provide enough momentum to topple a longtime Senate rule that many view as a pivotal check against partisan politics?

The answer to that question wasn’t immediately clear in the hours after Obama’s remarks at Rep. John Lewis’s funeral in Atlanta, where he said doing away with the 60-vote threshold for legislation may be necessary if Congress is ever going to finish Lewis’s work on voting rights. With the notable exception of Sanders, most of those who celebrated Obama’s comments had already called for such a rule change.

And the true impact of Obama’s surprise endorsement may not become clear until after the November election. Discussion of further erasing the 60-vote filibuster for legislation, which both Democratic and Republican Senate majorities have eliminated for executive and judicial nominations, will be a moot point if Democrats don’t regain control of the Senate. Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made clear there are no circumstances under which he’d entertain a move to end the legislative filibuster. Continue reading.

Obama delivers call to action in eulogy for Lewis, likens tactics by Trump and administration to those by racist Southern leaders who fought civil rights

Washington Post logoFormer president Barack Obama delivered a call to action in his eulogy Thursday of late congressman John Lewis, urging Congress to pass new voting rights laws and likening tactics by President Trump and his administration to those used by racist Southern leaders who fought the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Obama, speaking for 40 minutes at the pulpit where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, tied Lewis’s early life as a Freedom Rider to the nationwide protests that followed the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. He compared today’s federal agents using tear gas against peaceful protesters, an action that Trump has cheered on, to the same attacks Lewis faced on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965.

“Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans,” the nation’s first Black president said at Lewis’s final memorial service. “George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here there are those in power who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting.” Continue reading.

Three presidents embrace the struggle for rights. Trump suggests postponing the election.

Washington Post logoThree presidents spoke in poetry, paying tribute to a fallen hero who believed — often against evidence to the contrary, including the cracking of his skull by state troopers — that America was good, its people driven by love to do right by one another.

One president, the current commander in chief, did not attend the funeral of Rep. John Lewis but instead spoke of dark forces in the country and suggested that the United States not hold its next presidential election on time.

In a country cleaved by political differences, paralyzed by a pernicious virus and suffering from a plunging economy, Thursday presented painful contrasts. It was a day of soaring tributes to the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, offered from the pulpit of the mother church of the modern civil rights movement. And it was a day of pointed reminders that the nation is struggling, even after 244 years, to define itself, to decide what freedom and equality will mean. Continue reading.

Barack Obama calls out Trump and GOP’s brutal crackdowns and voter suppression in powerful John Lewis eulogy

AlterNet logoFormer President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned, rousing, and at times blistering eulogy on Thursday at a memorial service for Rep. John Lewis. Instead of showing the usual reserve and hesitancy to criticize that has characterized most of his post-presidency, Obama took inspiration from the fallen civil rights hero and aimed his fury specifically at the myriad abuses of the Trump administration and the Republican Party on American freedoms and fair elections.

“George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators,” he said, drawing cheers and applause from the attendees. “We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power doing their darndest to discourage people from voting, by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws, and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision. Even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick!”

For those who might criticize such direct denunciations of the GOP and the president’s actions at a memorial service, Obama had a brilliant prepared response. Continue reading.

Obama calls filibuster ‘Jim Crow relic,’ backs new Voting Rights Act bill

The Hill logoFormer President Obama on Thursday called the Senate filibuster rule a “Jim Crow relic” and said it should be ended to help pass legislation that would restore a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.

Obama made the remarks while delivering a eulogy for civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who died earlier this month at the age of 80. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act would make it harder for states to enact racially suspect voting restrictions.

“Once we pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, we should keep marching,” Obama said. “And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster — another Jim Crow relic — in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do.” Continue reading.

Senate GOP set to ramp up Obama-era probes

The Hill logoSenate Republicans are preparing to ramp up their Obama-era probes, pushing the controversial investigations back into the spotlight as the 2020 elections heat up.

The efforts have sparked high-profile tensions with Senate Democrats and public rebukes from former Vice President Joe Biden’s orbit. They view the efforts as an attempt to meddle in the 2020 elections, where Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee.

But with the Senate coming back to Washington on Monday, and the number of legislative days quickly dwindling, Republicans are preparing to step up their efforts. Continue reading.

9 things Republicans trashed Obama for but are fine with under Trump

Republicans slammed Obama for golfing, signing executive orders, and going on vacation, but are mostly silent when Trump does the exact same things.

The United States passed a grim milestone over the weekend as the nation’s coronavirus death toll climbed past 125,000.

Yet, even as the number of virus cases continued to skyrocket, thanks to outbreaks in Sunbelt states like Arizona, Florida, and Texas, Donald Trump spent his weekend on the golf course.

Golfing, of course, is one of a number of things for which Republicans — including Trump himself — used to criticize former President Barack Obama when the latter inhabited the White House. Continue reading.

Obama implores Americans to feel ‘a sense of urgency’ about defeating Trump

Washington Post logoJoe Biden’s campaign has long viewed his partnership with former president Barack Obama as one of his chief assets in running for president. He spoke often of “my buddy Barack” during campaign events. To mark National Best Friends Day last year, Biden posted a photo of a friendship bracelet reading “Joe” and “Barack.” He touts work from the “Obama-Biden administration” and defends the “Obama-Biden record.”

But for the past year and a half, there has often been a critical piece missing: Obama.

That began to change in April, when Obama endorsed Biden. On Tuesday, it went a step further, as Obama and Biden made their first joint appearance in years, the former partners allied as they attempt to defeat President Trump. Continue reading.