Obama Says ‘Certain Right-Wing Media Venues’ Are Capitalizing on ‘Stoking the Fear and Resentment’ of White Americans

Former President Barack Obama said in a new interview that “certain right-wing media venues” are capitalizing on stoking the fears of white Americans.

Obama sat down with CNN’s Anderson Cooper for a lengthy interview that touched on the former president’s reflections on race in America during and after his time in office.

One example in particular Obama brought up was the reaction to him saying Cambridge police acted “stupidly” in arresting professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his own home.

“Not only did that cause a firestorm,” Obama told Cooper, “but subsequent polling showed that my support among white voters dropped more precipitously after that — what should have been a minor, trivial incident — than anything else during my presidency.”

He went on to say this about right-wing media:

I also think that there are certain right-wing media venues, for example, that monetize and capitalize on stoking the fear and resentment of a white population that is witnessing a changing America and seeing demographic changes, and do everything they can to give people a sense that their way of life is threatened and that people are trying to take advantage of them.

Obama also remarked that with all the issues facing the country, “lo and behold, the single most important issue to them apparently right now is critical race theory.”

“Who knew that that was the threat to our republic?” he asked.

You can watch above, via CNN.

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