Former President Barack Obama was ripped by one of the former delegates of Ohio for a direct message to the Black people while on the sidelines of the campaign stop for Vice President Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania.
“That part made me think, and I spoke to men directly, that part made me think, well, you just don’t feel like having a woman as president, and you’re going to make other people. alternatives and other reasons,” Obama said during the visit surprise visit to the Harris campaign’s field office in Pittsburgh before holding a rally in the city.
“So now you’re thinking about sitting down or even supporting someone who has a history of undermining you?” the former president posed, referring to former President Donald Trump. “Because you think it’s a sign of strength? Because that’s what a man is, putting women down? That’s unacceptable.”
Obama’s words were ripped apart by former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner during an appearance on CNN on Friday evening, who asked why Black male voters were “taught to” ahead of November.
“Why are blacks marginalized in a way that no other voting group is?” Turner, a Democrat, spoke on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip. “Now, there’s a lot of love for former President Obama, but if he voted for a black man it was wrong.”
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The outspoken message from Obama, who won a record among Black voters when he first became president in 2008, came less than a month before the Nov. 5 election, where voters will have the chance to choose the first black and Asian American woman president in American history.
But polls suggest that Harris’ support among blacks may be low compared to past elections. In a September survey released by the NAACP, more than a quarter (26 percent) of Black men under 50 said they plan to support Trump in November, while 49 percent said they would back Harris. The same poll found that two-thirds of black women (67 percent) support Harris.
Overall, however, Harris has a double-digit gap over Trump among Black Americans. The NAACP poll found that 78 percent of respondents felt the same or more excitement about the vote than when Obama first ran for office, and 51 percent of those surveyed plan to cast their ballot for Harris. In comparison, Trump only got 27 percent of the overall Black vote.
In 2020, nearly 90 percent of black voters supported President Joe Biden. Obama was supported by 95 percent of the voting bloc in 2008, when he became the first black president in US history.
Turner said that “some of the Black people I’ve talked to have reasons why they want to choose a different path. And even if some of us may not like that, we have to respect that.”
“So unless President Barack Obama is going to go out and lecture every group of people from another identity group, my message to Democrats is, don’t bring it to black men who, for the most part, don’t vote differently than black women,” she added. Turner said Thursday that he was a delegate for Obama in 2008 and 2012.
The 2024 election is expected to have one of the largest gender gaps in US history, and the divide between male and female voters is even more pronounced among Americans under the age of 30. According to a poll from the Harvard Institute of Politics released in September, Harris leads by 47 points ( 70 percent to 23 percent) among young female voters. Among young male voters, however, Harris only 17-point gap.
Turner said Thursday that “black people are socialized in society to be the same as everyone else, everyone else,” so issues like misogyny may be the reason why the demographics don’t seem to matter much to Harris.
“But then again, will President Obama and the Harris-Walz campaign lecture other groups of men the same way they lecture (black men)?” Turner added. “I don’t think so.”
Obama’s rally in Pittsburgh on Thursday was the first time he hit the campaign trail for Harris. The former president spoke about a variety of issues while on stage, including the future of Harris’ policies while taking multiple jabs at Trump for his economic and immigration plans.
“The reason that some people think … ‘I remember the economy when it first came in which was pretty good,'” Obama said. “Yes, it is quite good, because it is economic. We have 75 months of continuous growth of the project that I entrust to him.”
“That’s not what he did,” Obama added. “I spent eight years cleaning up the mess the Republicans left at the end of their term… They did nothing, except big tax cuts (‘for billionaires and big corporations’).”
Obama also slammed Trump for previous immigration policies like building a wall on the southern border and asked why he hasn’t “solved the problem?” Obama continued that Trump does not have a plan to solve the immigration problem but that he has a “concept” of a plan.
Newsweek Obama’s office was reached by email on Monday for additional comment.
