CNN’s Amanpour Asks Barack Obama If Trump ‘Whitelash’ Against Black Presidency Is Receding
CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour asked former President Barack Obama if the “whitelash” against a Black presidency that some believe propelled ex-President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory has receded.
Amanpour sat with Obama for an exclusive interview special entitled “Obama & Amanpour: Will Democracy Win?” during which the subject of Trump came up more than once.
In one portion of the interview, Amanpour cited former Obama official and current CNN analyst Van Jones, who chalked Trump’s victory in 2016 up to “whitelash” to Obama — and asked if that phenomenon is receding:
AMANPOUR: And we want to talk about that a lot with the leaders in the second part of this program. I just want to ask you before I got to them finally — race.
OBAMA: Yeah.
AMANPOUR: You’re the first Black president. When Trump was elected, somebody who used to work for you now is an analyst, Van Jones, said whitelash — it was the whitelash against Black presidency.
OBAMA: Yeah.
AMANPOUR: Do you think the whitelash is receding? And I guess combined with that, how do you interpret two candidates of color, Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, Tim Scott, senator of South Carolina, who are saying that Obama wants to keep essentially race as part of the — of the equation, a part of the, you know, the conversation and you have — you don’t believe that everybody has an equal chance in the United States no matter what their color?
OBAMA: Well, look, I won’t comment on what Republican candidates say. I’m not running, so they can — they — they can find other ways to occupy their time.
I think race has always been the fault line in American life, in American politics. That’s not original to me. I think any observer in America would say that. And, by the way, that historically is not — should have been a one-sided partisan issue.
My favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, you know, did an awful lot to advance the cause of freedom and conversely, the Democratic Party was where the Dixiecrats resisted civil rights and progress for years, and impose Jim Crow.
So, it is something that America has had to grapple with for centuries. I think we have made real progress. And, you know, although I was always skeptical that my election somehow signified a post-racial America, if you look at any speech I gave throughout my presidency, I was always someone who reminded the country of the progress that was possible. That was my brand, right? That’s part of the hope and change thing.
But what I’ve also always said about hope was it can’t be blind hope. It — it can’t be a willful ignorance to our history. We reckon with our history. That’s how we then get better. That’s how we perfect our union, you know? In the same way that Germany got better when it looked squarely at what happened during World War Two, and came to terms with that. And that’s part of why it is a thriving, stable, and increasingly diverse society. And, you know, that’s part of the argument that I think all of us, not just in the United States or in Europe, but around the world have to come to terms with it.
Watch above via CNN.
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