Barrack Obama launched a ferocious rebuke of Donald Trump’s America, claiming it is stained by ‘bigotry, corruption and dishonesty,’ at the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s funeral.
The former president broke down in tears at a packed church on Chicago’s South Side on Friday, telling the congregation ‘we are living in a time when it can be hard to hope.’
Obama said: ‘Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency, every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible.’
The speech came weeks after Trump shared a video depicting Obama and his wife Michelle as apes, though the President claimed he was unaware of the clip, which appeared at the end of a longer video about voter fraud.
White House spokesman Steven Cheung told the Daily Mail: ‘Barack Hussein Obama is a classless moron who clearly suffers from a debilitating and severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his brain.
‘He is a total disgrace for all the hurt he has caused this country, and history will not judge him well.’
Also Read: US civil rights leader Jackson dies at 84
Obama said those in power are using ‘fear’ to make people ‘turn on each other,’ warning that some Americans are being told they ‘count more than others’ while some ‘don’t even count at all.’
Obama added: ‘Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength … while ignorance and dishonesty, and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards every single day.’
Obama said through tears: ‘If we don’t step up no-one else will. How fortunate we were that Jesse Jackson answered that call, what a great debt we owe to him.’
Trump has drawn criticism for his frequent attacks on federal judges and even conservative Supreme Court Justices, after the court struck down his tariffs last month.
Democrats have accused Trump of pitting Americans against each other in his immigration crackdown, during which two US citizens were shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis in January.
Trump is also accused of enriching his own family and friends as his administration has blended politics with business, including international real estate deals in the Middle East and a luxury jet from Qatar.
Obama, who attended without his wife Michelle, was seen sharing laughs in the front row with Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, joined by their wives, former Secretary of State Hillary and Jill.
Jackson, remembered as a ‘living bridge’ between the era of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and modern civil rights movements, died on February 17 aged 84 after a battle with a rare neurological disorder.
Trump, who praised Jackson on social media after his death and shared photos of the two together, was absent from the funeral, hosting a roundtable on collegiate sports at the White House.
Daily Mail
