Friday, April 4, 2025 - Former USA President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, April 3, 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.”
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.
Earlier this week, Trump announced a deal with the law firm that employs
former second gentleman Doug Emhoff – Willkie Farr & Gallagher – which the
president said includes the firm agreeing to provide at least $100 million in
pro bono legal services throughout his second term. It was another example of
firms cutting deals with the White House as Trump has targeted firms that have
done work with his perceived political enemies.
Before the Willkie agreement was announced, Emhoff addressed the matter
saying, “The rule of law is under attack. Democracy is under attack. And so,
all of us lawyers need to do what we can to push back on that.”
Harris’ Thursday remarks, video of which were first reported by MSNBC, are
her most direct comments since the start of Trump’s second term.
The former US vice president, who lost to Trump in the November
election, went on to say that while fear is “contagious,” so is courage.
“Fear has a way of being contagious. When one person has fear, it has a
way of spreading to those around them and spreading. And we are witnessing
that, no doubt,” Harris said at the gathering of female leaders of color.
“But I say this also, my dear friends, courage is also contagious,” she
added
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