With increasing frequency, the former Democratic president is re-entering the political arena in unexpected and unsubtle ways.
In the spring, Barack Obama seemed to dip his toes into the political arena waters.
This week, as he dives in headfirst, I canât help but get the impression that this guy is fired up and ready to go. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-09-18T17:23:10.100Z
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-abuses-worsen-seems-obama-increasingly-fired-ready-go-rcna232178
When thinking about Donald Trumps most prominent and most vocal Democratic critics, Barack Obama does not immediately come to mind. That, however, is starting to change.....
In September, the former Democratic president seems even more fired up. NBC News reported:
Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday condemned the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the spate of political violence that has gripped the country while rebuking President Donald Trump and his allies for politicizing the shooting and not doing more to unite the country.
At the Jefferson Educational Societys global summit in Pennsylvania, the Democrat did not mention Trump by name. He also didnt have to: Obama drew sharp enough contrasts that were entirely unsubtle.
Obama: We have to recognize that on both sides there are people who are extremistsÂ
But I will say that those extreme views were not in my White House. I wasnât embracing them. I wasnât empowering them. I wasnât putting the weight of the government behind extremist views.
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-09-17T20:01:20.240Z
.....For good measure, Obama condemned Charlie Kirks slaying as horrific and a tragedy, and categorically rejected the very idea of political violence, calling it anathema to what it means to be a democratic country. He also made it clear that he found some of the late conservative activists ideas abhorrent.
Obama: So we have to extend to people during their period of mourning
We can also at the same time say I disagree with the idea that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake
I can disagree with the suggestion that my wife or Justice Jackson does not have adequate brain processing power.
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-09-17T20:01:08.560Z
......Just two days before the end of his presidency, Obama hosted a White House press conference in which he said
he expected the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to make their own determinations about the nations direction and, by and large, he intended to stay out of it.
Obama acknowledged at the time, however, that there might be exceptions to the rule.
Theres a difference, the outgoing president explained, between that normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake.
Nearly nine years later, I cant help but get the feeling that Obama sees our core values in jeopardy with increasing frequency.
I am so glad that President Obama is getting involved. I love the fact that trump and the MAGA idiots are upset by President Obama making comments and arguments