Topics: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Racism, Truth Social, Michelle Obama
Barack Obama has finally addressed the racist video shared by the account of the current occupier of the Oval Office, which depicted the former president and first lady as apes.
The offensive video, which was posted on President Donald Trump's Truth Social account earlier this month, showed America's first black president and his wife as primates while the song 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' played in the background.
It featured at the end of a larger video making unsubstantiated claims about election fraud, but when the White House was first asked why the POTUS had shared such racist imagery, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt decried the questions as 'fake outrage'.
Speaking on the latest episode of Brian Taylor Cohen's podcast, Obama said: "First of all, I think it's important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling."
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These comments have been Obama's first since the video was shared, which the White House ultimately blamed on a staffer who 'erroneously made the post' and removed.
At the time, Senator Tim Scott simply called it 'the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House'.
Typically for the former president, he did not want to get into the weeds about why the video had been shared from Trump's account. Instead, Obama set it in a wider context, adding: "It is true that it gets attention. It's true that it's a distraction.
"You meet people, they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness, and there's this sort of clown show that's happening in social media and on television."
While he did not mention Trump by name, Obama went on to blast the lack of 'decorum' in public office.
He continued: "And what is true is that there doesn't seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right?
"That's been lost."
Press Secretary Leavitt's initial response to claims that the video was racist was to appear to tell the public not believe their eyes, saying: "This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.
"Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public."
The president also commented on the video as he told reporters that ‘of course’ he condemned the racist parts.
But when pressed on whether he would apologize, Trump said: "No, I didn’t make a mistake.
"I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine."
He added: "I looked in the first part and it was really about voter fraud in, and the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is.
"Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they'd look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn’t, and they posted."
The US leader noted: "We took it down as soon as we found out about it."
Trump later confirmed that the staffer in question had not been fired or disciplined.
