It’s been three years since Barack Obama literally and figuratively dropped the mic on his presidential duties, and as such, he’s not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to US politics. Just take his recent eulogy for civil rights leader John Lewis.
During the emotional service, Obama said, “today we witness with our own eyes, police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. We can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.”
“Even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick,” he said.
Obama’s fiery speech was part of his tribute to John Lewis – a congressmen who dedicated his life to fighting for African-Americans’ civil rights. The former president said Lewis “did everything he could to preserve this democracy and as long as we have breath in our bodies, we have to continue his cause.”
“As long as young people are protesting in the streets hoping real change takes hold, I’m hopeful,” he said. “But we can’t casually abandon them at the ballot box. Not when few elections have been as urgent on so many levels as this one.”
Speaking of US politics, hear about how Trump got trolled by K-pop fans and TikTokers below:
While Barack Obama didn’t mention Donald Trump’s name in his eulogy, at the same time he made his speech, Trump suggested delaying the 2020 presidential election as a way to protect voters from unsubstantiated claims a mail-in ballot will result in mass fraud.
During a following press conference, Trump said, “do I want to see a date change? No. But I don’t want to see a crooked election. This election will be the most rigged election in history if that happens.”
Finishing his speech at John Lewis’ service, Obama said “just everybody’s got to come out and vote” as one last-ditch effort to squash Trump’s harmful claims. And just like that, the mic has been dropped once again.
Always be in the loop with our snackable podcast breaking the biggest story of the day. Subscribe to It’s Been A Big Day For… on your favourite podcast app.