Obama Laments ‘Evangelical Hispanics’ Voting for ‘Racist’ Trump: ‘They Think That’s Less Important’ than ‘Gay Marriage or Abortion’

Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday lamented “evangelical Hispanics” who voted for President Donald Trump, and lashed out at Republicans for holding the “sense” that white males are “victims.”

“People were surprised by a lot of Hispanic folks who voted for Trump,” Obama said in a morning interview on the The Breakfast Club. “But there’s a lot of evangelical Hispanics who — the fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans, or puts detainees, you know, undocumented workers in cages, they think that’s less important than the fact that, you know, he supports their views on gay marriage or abortion.”

Obama oversaw the construction of “cages” during his eight-year tenure in the White House, which were used to house migrants detained crossing the border illegally. Photos of those cages taken by the Associated Press in 2014 famously circulated online after Trump took office, with many in the media attributing responsibility to Trump. Nonetheless, Democrats have widely sought to perpetuate the misnomer, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, who notably alluded during her speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention to children being “torn from their families and thrown into cages” under Trump.

The former president also took a moment to condemn the Republican Party on the issue of race.

“You’ve seen created, in Republican politics, the sense that white males are victims, that they’re the ones who are, like, under attack, which obviously doesn’t gibe with both history and data and economics,” Obama said. “But that’s a sincere belief. That’s been internalized, that’s a story that’s being told. How you unwind that is gonna be not something that is done right away.”

Listen above via The Breakfast Club.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!