‘Americans Should Soundly Reject Language Coming Out of the Mouths of Any of Our Leaders that Feeds a Climate of Fear and Hatred or Normalizes Racist Sentiments,’ President Barack Obama

FORMER PRESIDENT Barack Obama  tweeted Monday that Americans should reject language of “fear and hatred” from U.S. leaders.

Obama denounced language from “leaders who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.”

Such language, Obama said, “has no place in our politics and our public life.”

He added that “it’s time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much — clearly and unequivocally.”

According to NPR, “Obama’s statement Monday was a rare occasion when the former president, who has generally avoided commenting on politics since leaving office, spoke out.”

From the time Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015, he has been accused of making racist and anti-immigrant remarks. He accused Mexico of sending “their worst people” to the U.S., people he said who were “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

More recently he was condemned by the House of Representatives for his remarks about four Democratic members of Congress, all women of color, who he said should “go back” to where they came from. He also launched an attack on House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., saying Cummings’ Baltimore-based district was “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”