r/politics • u/Silent-Resort-3076 America • 1d ago

Soft Paywall Obama and Harris publicly rebuke Trump’s second term actions

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/04/politics/obama-harris-rebuke-trump/index.html
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u/Silent-Resort-3076 America 1d ago

Snippet Part 1:

Former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday each delivered remarks on the state of the country under President Donald Trump’s second term and criticized the administration’s recent actions.

Obama, who preceded Trump’s first term, sharply criticized Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal government, crackdown on immigration and dissent, and intimidate news outlets and the legal establishment.

“So, this is the first time I’ve been speaking publicly for a while,” Obama said during an on-stage interview at Hamilton College. “I’ve been watching for a little bit.”

“Imagine if I had done any of this,” Obama said, later adding: “It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me, or a whole bunch of my predecessors.”

Obama went on to say that he doesn’t think Trump’s new tariff announcement “is going to be good for America.” However, he said that he is more concerned with what he described as the White House’s infringement of rights.

“I’m more deeply concerned with a federal government that threatens universities if they don’t give up students who are exercising their right to free speech,” Obama told the crowd of college students. “The idea that a White House can say to law firms, if you represent parties that we don’t like, we’re going to pull all our business or bar you from representing people effectively. Those kinds of – that kind of behavior is contrary to the basic compact we have as Americans.”

Obama had previously warned of the dangers facing the country if Trump were reelected, while campaigning for Harris during the final stretch of the 2024 presidential race. “Just because (Trump) acts goofy,” the former president said at the time, “doesn’t mean his presidency wouldn’t be dangerous.”

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u/Silent-Resort-3076 America 1d ago

Snippet Part 2:

Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Leading Women Defined Summit in Dana Point, California, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesEnter your email to sign up for CNN's "What Matters" Newsletter.close dialogDo you want the latest in US politics summarized each day?Sign up for CNN's What Matters newsletter.Sign me upBy subscribing you agree to our Privacy Policy.

In separate remarks, Harris on Thursday said Trump’s moves since he returned to office were largely predictable.

“There were many things we knew would happen,” Harris said in a video of her remarks at the Leading Women Defined Summit. “I’m not here to say I told you so,” she added before laughing.

Harris said she recognizes that Trump’s return to the Oval Office has created “a great sense of fear.”

“We are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats. And these are the things that we are witnessing, each day in the last few months in our country and it understandably creates a great sense of fear,” Harris said.

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u/abstergo_Nigel 1d ago edited 1d ago

There she goes laughing again, not the kind of behavior you want to see in a President /s

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u/hiddenpoint 1d ago

Honestly, being cheeky with the "I'm not here to say I told you so" and then laughing is...a perfect encapsulation of why she didn't drive out the votes to beat Trump. To the Right she's a laughing maniac, to the neutral she's just stirring the pot without saying anything meaningful, and to the Left she's not attacking the right hard enough.

She SHOULD be saying I told you so at every opportunity given. Not sure how going high when they go low can fail so many times and the spineless center-left does nothing to change course.

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u/DotaThe2nd 1d ago

The right is braindead and I'm tired of pretending they aren't.

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u/Strade87 1d ago

Yup spot on. It’s depressing how absolutely painfully stupid 40% of the country really is.

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u/Falcon-Flight-UAV 13h ago

The worst part of it is that Trump didn't win the majority of the votes. Just the majority of votes from people that voted either for him or Harris (people that won't vote 3rd party). The remaining voters voted for 3rd party candidates. Or didn't vote at all and are now kicking themselves for staying home on election day.

And that proves the old adage of "whether you pay attention to politics or not, politics will pay attention to you."

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u/motherfudgersob 1d ago edited 1d ago

And to the sexust she's a woman and so not allowed to laugh like the orange idiot does, or dance like a spastic seizing moron. No her behavior us under fair scrutiny while his is ignored. I'm not saying you're not right just that if you are it is sexism not that she had a goofy laugh. I'll take her laugh over his rambling bizarre egoistic speech, his hair, his obesity, his small hands, and behavior that the would cause the rest of us to be incarcerated. But I agree Dems know how to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory. But folks should be getting a real-time feel of how great Trump is soon (those owning stock already know...everyone else will be getting theirs shortly).

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u/hiddenpoint 1d ago

Oh my complaint has nothing to do with her actual laugh. Im just saying the overall sarcastic handling of this specific message is a great example of exactly the  kind of things that harmed her campaign.

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u/Top_Brilliant7171 1d ago

The issue is our electorate, not Kamala Harris.

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u/hiddenpoint 1d ago

Yes, the electorate is comprised primarily of morons. Its important when running a campaign to realize that and adjust your public interactions to capture the morons instead of push them away. Its something the right excels at. They tell the idiots what they want to hear in a "down to earth" (read: childish) manner and rake in the votes.

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u/motherfudgersob 18h ago

Easy this next cycle. Are cars cheaper, are eggs cheaper, is your job more secure? If you even try to blame immigrants ir DEI didn't Trump cut those? Regardless of what is wrong it belongs to Republicans. They're entirely in charge. And they've fd everything up (except maybe their own profiteering). But they're dismantling even cyberdefense, so now we really CAN and SHOULD start to worry about election integrity. Especially if suddenly there's 90% support for Trump et al.

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u/sacdecorsair 1d ago

I agree, the 😂 makes everything seem not so dramatic. I'm not laughing, why are you laughing Kamala. I mean, wheres the opposition, oh yeah laughing. Fuck that.

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u/Smart_Peach1061 1d ago

Why the fuck shouldn’t she laugh? What does she actually owe the country at this point and what the absolute fuck do you actually expect her to do about any of it?

She put her polices forward during the election race, she called it too a T about what another trump presidency would be like, and she destroyed Trump in the debate and highlighted him for the rambling senile muppet he is on national television, and what did the country do? Choose the rambling senile instead because the are ignorant and/or hateful idiots.

She has ZERO power, all she can do is laugh.