{"id":200615,"date":"2026-02-16T13:32:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/obama-derides-social-media-clown-show-in-first-comments-since-trumps-racist-video-post-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T13:32:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:32:05","slug":"obama-derides-social-media-clown-show-in-first-comments-since-trumps-racist-video-post-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/obama-derides-social-media-clown-show-in-first-comments-since-trumps-racist-video-post-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama derides social media 'clown show' in first comments since Trump's racist video post – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morning Rundown: Nancy Guthrie search enters third week, Team USA goes for gold in women’s bobsled, and the victims of Iran’s protest crackdown<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Former President Barack Obama called the kind of rhetoric coming from President Donald Trump and his administration \u201ca clown show\u201d in a podcast interview that aired Saturday.
Obama was asked by YouTube podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen <\/a>about the \u201cde-evolution of the discourse\u201d coming from Trump, Vice President JD Vance and others in their administration, including a racist video Trump posted<\/a> online that depicted the former president and his wife, Michelle Obama, as apes.
Obama did not directly address the video, but discussed Trump\u2019s actions, rhetoric and his administration\u2019s mass deportation agenda.
\u201cI think it\u2019s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,\u201d Obama said, speaking broadly about the administration\u2019s behavior for the first time since Trump reposted the video. \u201cIt is true that it gets attention. It\u2019s true that it\u2019s a distraction.\u201d
People around the country \u201cstill believe in decency, courtesy, kindness, and there\u2019s this sort of clown show that\u2019s happening in social media and on television,\u201d Obama added. \u201cAnd what is true is that there doesn\u2019t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office [of the president], right?\u201d
Trump drew widespread condemnation from lawmakers in both parties after he posted the racist video to his Truth Social feed earlier this month. While he removed the post, he declined to apologize<\/a> for posting it.
Obama also criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for their brutal tactics in Minnesota, telling Cohen, \u201cThe rogue behavior of agents of the federal government … is deeply concerning and dangerous.\u201d
\u201cThis is not the America we believe in, and we\u2019re going to fight back, and we\u2019re going to push back with the truth and with cameras and with peaceful protests and shining a light on the sort of behavior that in the past we\u2019ve seen in authoritarian countries and we\u2019ve seen in dictatorships, but we have not seen in America,\u201d the former president added.
In the wide-ranging interview, Obama also discussed the problems plaguing his own party, calling for a \u201crobust\u201d primary in 2028 to determine the Democratic Party\u2019s future.
\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be afraid of having a robust debate. I want all comers to sort this out. I benefited from having about as grueling a primary as I could have. It made me a better candidate. It ultimately made me a better president because I had been tested. My ideas had been tested,\u201d the former president said.
He also called for Democrats to nominate a younger candidate who is \u201cplugged into the moment\u201d in 2028, though he did not mention former President Joe Biden, who was plagued by concerns about his age and mental acuity when he ran for re-election in 2024 and ultimately suspended his campaign.
\u201cPart of it has to do with the fact that I was young,\u201d Obama told Cohen about why he believed he was able to mobilize so many young voters when he ran for president in 2008.
\u201cI\u2019m 64 now. I\u2019m pretty healthy \u2014 64, feel great. But the truth is, half of the references that my daughters make about social media, TikTok, etc., I don\u2019t know who they\u2019re talking about. There is a element of at some point you age out, you\u2019re not connected directly to the immediate struggles that folks are going through,\u201d the former president added. \u201cAnd so, I\u2019m not making a hard and fast rule here, but I do think that Democrats do well when we have candidates who are plugged into the moment, to the zeitgeist, to the times.\u201d
Alexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morning Rundown: Nancy Guthrie search enters third week, Team USA goes for gold in women’s bobsled, and the victims of Iran’s protest crackdown news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeFormer President Barack Obama called the kind of rhetoric coming from President Donald Trump and his administration \u201ca clown show\u201d in a podcast interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":200616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-200615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}