Obama slams Trump's attempt to restrict census, says POTUS trying 'not to count people who need to be counted'
Former President Barack Obama on Friday, October 9, lashed out at incumbent President Donald Trump saying the latter’s effort to interfere with the 2020 Census was “disturbing” and that the GOP’s idea to restrict voter access is based on a belief that “democracy is for some people and not everybody.”
The Democratic leader made his remarks while speaking alongside Eric Holder, who served as the attorney general in the former’s administration and recently accused his successor William Barr of weaponizing the justice department, during a live-streamed show for All on the Line -- a campaign that fights gerrymandering with an aim to restore fairness in American democracy.
During the event that lasted nearly an hour, the 59-year-old referred to the tweet posted by the Republican senator from Utah, Mike Lee, on Wednesday, October 7, that said “democracy isn't the objective” of the US’s political system. Lee also wrote that democracy can thwart “liberty, peace, and prospefity”, misspelling the word “prosperity.”
Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) October 8, 2020
On Thursday, October 8, Lee said in another tweet: “We’re not a democracy.” Lee attacked Trump in 2016 after the controversial Access Hollywood tapes surfaced but went on to appreciate the values that he shares with the president later.
Obama takes a dig at Republican Party
Taking a dig at Lee’s party, Obama said the former was “indicating a spirit that we've been seeing in one of our major political parties.” The former commander-in-chief appealed to the viewers of the show to vote and participate in the 2020 Census. He said: “We’re gonna have a lot of work to do post-election to sustain our efforts to ensure nonpartisan districting, fair districting, voter protections, ballot access we create a system that everybody should want.”
“This shouldn't be a partisan issue, by the way. It has become a partisan issue, only because you've got one major party in this country that has made no bones about the fact that they want to make it harder for some people to vote and they want to dilute the impact of some people's votes. And they say it explicitly and they act on it explicitly across the country,” he added.
Obama then took a dig at Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying: “We right now have a president and a Senate Majority Leader who have said as much and we've got a bunch of folks at the state level who are saying the same.”
People who need to be counted left out: Obama
Referring to the 2020 Census, the Democrat said it is disturbing that the current president and the administration are trying to not count the people who need to be counted. “We have a president and an administration that seems to be doing it's best not to count people who need to be counted, but who they prefer not being counted, particularly people of color, and lower-income folks,” he said.
Last month, it was alleged that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign tried to deter 3.5 million Black Americans in the battleground states from voting by deliberately targeting them with negative ads on the Democratic candidate of the year’s election, Hillary Clinton. Last year, Trump made an effort to add a question about American citizenship to the Census which, according to the experts, would have discouraged undocumented immigrants, even though the procedure is meant to count everyone living in the country and not just the citizens.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration moved the Supreme Court asking for permission to allow it to cut short the time period for conducting the Census, something that many feared could see millions of citizens, especially in the Democratic-leaning urban areas -- remain outside the counting and miss out on government funding.
Speaking during the question-answer segment of the live streaming, Obama urged the voters to pay attention to the local and state elections since the redrawing the maps and election policies are decided on the state level. He also said that the attorneys general ensure that the police are held accountable for misconduct. The former president also explained the reason for which “folks try to suppress the vote.”
“Even if you're cynical about your own power and voting, think about it: Why would folks go to so much trouble to make it hard for you to vote if it weren't for the fact that they knew if you did vote, things would change?” he said.