Former President Barack Obama said that GOP is a threat to democracy in a new interview.
“We have to worry when one of our major political parties is willing to embrace a way of thinking about our democracy that would be unrecognizable and unacceptable even five years ago or a decade ago,” Obama told CNN.
Trump’s attempts to claim election fraud have been dismissed by the courts, but many Republican state legislators are standing by the ex-president and are passing laws to make it harder for black and Latino voters to access the ballot in future elections.
Obama, who originally planned to stay out of politics after he left the White House, has become an outspoken critic of Trump’s divisive rhetoric. “We occupy different worlds,” Obama said. “And it becomes that much more difficult for us to hear each other, see each other.”
Obama attributed these political divisions to economic and racial “stratification” as well as the ideological consolidation of news consumption.
Even out of office, Trump has continued to promote his divisive message. During his recent speech to North Carolina Republican Convention, Trump stated: “Bad, bad things are happening to us, perhaps like never before. They want to silence you, they want to silence your voice.”
