Former US President Barack Obama issues blunt message to Democrats
'I think it's going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in foetal positions. And it's going to require Democrats to just toughen up,' Obama said at the fundraiser, according to excerpts of his remarks exclusively obtained by CNN.
'You know, don't tell me you're a Democrat, but you're kind of disappointed right now, so you're not doing anything. No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something,' he said. 'Don't say that you care deeply about free speech and then you're quiet. No, you stand up for free speech when it's hard. When somebody says something that you don't like, but you still say, 'You know what, that person has the right to speak.' … What's needed now is courage.'
Obama's comments come as the Democratic Party searches for its path forward in the second Trump term and beyond. Many in the party's base have called for a more forceful response from Democratic leaders at a time when the party is locked out of power.
As Democrats debate who should lead the party, Obama encouraged them to channel their energy into the governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia, saying the off-year elections could be 'a big jumpstart for where we need to go.'
'Stop looking for the quick fix. Stop looking for the messiah. You have great candidates running races right now. Support those candidates,' Obama said, calling out the New Jersey and Virginia elections, according to the excerpts of his remarks.
'Make sure that the DNC has what it needs to compete in what will be a more data-driven, more social media-driven cycle, which will cost some money and expertise and time,' he continued.
Obama spoke at a private fundraiser hosted by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife, Tammy Murphy, at their home in Red Bank, New Jersey. The intimate dinner drew in US$2.5 million ($3.8m) through in-person and online donations for the Democratic National Committee, a source familiar with the event said.
A portion of the haul will be allocated to Democratic efforts in the governor's race in New Jersey. The Democratic nominee, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, and DNC Chair Ken Martin were on hand for the event.
Obama described Sherrill and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, as 'powerful spokespersons for a pragmatic, commonsense desire to help people and who both have remarkable track records of service.'
'The most important thing you can do right now is to help the team, our candidate to win,' he said. 'And we've got to start building up our coffers in the DNC.'
Obama also argued that Democrats need to focus on how to 'deliver for people,' acknowledging the different views within the party about how best to do that.
'There's been, I gather, some argument between the left of the party and people who are promoting the quote-unquote abundance agenda. Listen, those things are not contradictory. You want to deliver for people and make their lives better? You got to figure out how to do it,' he said.
'I don't care how much you love working people. They can't afford a house because all the rules in your state make it prohibitive to build. And zoning prevents multifamily structures because of NIMBY,' he said, referring to 'not in my backyard' views. 'I don't want to know your ideology, because you can't build anything. It does not matter.'
Obama has spoken selectively since Trump's return to power in January. He has criticised the president's tariff policy and warned the White House was infringing on Americans' rights. Last month, Obama warned the country was 'dangerously close' to a more autocratic government.
At the closed-press fundraiser on Friday, the former president said he has not been 'surprised by what Trump's done' or that 'there are no more guardrails within the Republican Party.' He repeated his calls for institutions, including law firms and universities, to push back on intimidation efforts by the Trump administration.
'What's being asked of us is make some effort to stand up for the things that you think are right. And be willing to be a little bit uncomfortable in defence of your values. And in defence of the country. And in defence of the world that you want to leave to your children and your grandchildren,' he said. 'And if we all do that, if we do our jobs over the next year and a half, then I think we will rebuild momentum and we will position ourselves to get this country moving in the direction it should.'
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7NEWS
12 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Former US President Barack Obama issues blunt message to Democrats
Former US President Barack Obama issued a call to action for Democrats at a private fundraiser in New Jersey on Friday evening, urging those frustrated by the state of the country under President Donald Trump to 'stand up for the things that you think are right.' 'I think it's going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in foetal positions. And it's going to require Democrats to just toughen up,' Obama said at the fundraiser, according to excerpts of his remarks exclusively obtained by CNN. 'You know, don't tell me you're a Democrat, but you're kind of disappointed right now, so you're not doing anything. No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something,' he said. 'Don't say that you care deeply about free speech and then you're quiet. No, you stand up for free speech when it's hard. When somebody says something that you don't like, but you still say, 'You know what, that person has the right to speak.' … What's needed now is courage.' Obama's comments come as the Democratic Party searches for its path forward in the second Trump term and beyond. Many in the party's base have called for a more forceful response from Democratic leaders at a time when the party is locked out of power. As Democrats debate who should lead the party, Obama encouraged them to channel their energy into the governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia, saying the off-year elections could be 'a big jumpstart for where we need to go.' 'Stop looking for the quick fix. Stop looking for the messiah. You have great candidates running races right now. Support those candidates,' Obama said, calling out the New Jersey and Virginia elections, according to the excerpts of his remarks. 'Make sure that the DNC has what it needs to compete in what will be a more data-driven, more social media-driven cycle, which will cost some money and expertise and time,' he continued. Obama spoke at a private fundraiser hosted by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife, Tammy Murphy, at their home in Red Bank, New Jersey. The intimate dinner drew in US$2.5 million ($3.8m) through in-person and online donations for the Democratic National Committee, a source familiar with the event said. A portion of the haul will be allocated to Democratic efforts in the governor's race in New Jersey. The Democratic nominee, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, and DNC Chair Ken Martin were on hand for the event. Obama described Sherrill and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, as 'powerful spokespersons for a pragmatic, commonsense desire to help people and who both have remarkable track records of service.' 'The most important thing you can do right now is to help the team, our candidate to win,' he said. 'And we've got to start building up our coffers in the DNC.' Obama also argued that Democrats need to focus on how to 'deliver for people,' acknowledging the different views within the party about how best to do that. 'There's been, I gather, some argument between the left of the party and people who are promoting the quote-unquote abundance agenda. Listen, those things are not contradictory. You want to deliver for people and make their lives better? You got to figure out how to do it,' he said. 'I don't care how much you love working people. They can't afford a house because all the rules in your state make it prohibitive to build. And zoning prevents multifamily structures because of NIMBY,' he said, referring to 'not in my backyard' views. 'I don't want to know your ideology, because you can't build anything. It does not matter.' Obama has spoken selectively since Trump's return to power in January. He has criticised the president's tariff policy and warned the White House was infringing on Americans' rights. Last month, Obama warned the country was 'dangerously close' to a more autocratic government. At the closed-press fundraiser on Friday, the former president said he has not been 'surprised by what Trump's done' or that 'there are no more guardrails within the Republican Party.' He repeated his calls for institutions, including law firms and universities, to push back on intimidation efforts by the Trump administration. 'What's being asked of us is make some effort to stand up for the things that you think are right. And be willing to be a little bit uncomfortable in defence of your values. And in defence of the country. And in defence of the world that you want to leave to your children and your grandchildren,' he said. 'And if we all do that, if we do our jobs over the next year and a half, then I think we will rebuild momentum and we will position ourselves to get this country moving in the direction it should.'
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
How the Trump shooting supercharged beliefs in a divine right of MAGA
Politics increasingly entered the pulpit at the demand of congregants, and pastors indulged those demands for fear of losing members, according to the journalist Tim Alberta in his 2024 book The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory. Last Monday, the Trump administration said a federal prohibition on campaigning by non-profit organisations did not apply to houses of worship, implementing a long-standing campaign promise to let churches make more explicit political endorsements. Trump has never been known for his personal piety, but he has long enjoyed the overwhelming support of evangelicals. His own reaction to the Butler shooting was initially, 'I'm not supposed to be here' – meaning he was not supposed to be alive – according to a new book about the campaign, 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America. (The book is co-written by the author of this article.) His top adviser, Susie Wiles, told him, 'You do know this is God,' the book says. After that, Trump began saying: 'If anyone ever doubted there was a God, that proved there was.' In Butler the day after the shooting, county GOP chair Jim Hulings recalled trying to return to the crime scene and being unable to get near it across the police tape. But he did notice that all the church car park spaces were full. 'We cling to our guns and our Bibles,' Hulings said, reappropriating an infamous remark about small-town Pennsylvania that Barack Obama made at a San Francisco fundraiser in 2008. That morning at the Church of God at Connoquenessing, Karns preached about the fragility of life, quoting Psalm 90 likening man's time on Earth to the grass that grows and withers. His own son, daughters-in-law and grandchildren were at the rally, seated in the bleachers behind the stage. They became friendly with a kind man seated in front of them, Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old local volunteer firefighter who was there with his family. Before Trump arrived, Comperatore had helped Karns' 12-year-old granddaughter, Alexa, recover her dropped phone after it fell through the bleachers, and he passed out water bottles to help those around him stay hydrated in the heat. When the gunman opened fire from a nearby factory roof, Comperatore was struck and killed trying to protect his family. 'It's one of those things where you feel like you're in this place at a certain time, and there's a reason for it,' Lisa Karns, Alexa's mother and the pastor's daughter-in-law, said. 'I felt like, 'God, why take him? You could have taken me.'' Loading That night the Karns family met the pastor and showed him the photos of the twisted flag. He decided to put the image on a sign for the church, as a message of comfort, to thank God for keeping them safe and to honour Comperatore. 'It wasn't necessarily a political statement,' he said. On the way home, Alexa told Lisa Karns that she had prayed for Trump before the rally, asking God to protect him. Lisa Karns suggested she write Trump a card telling him. 'Dear President Trump,' the 12-year-old wrote in green pen, under a sketch of an American flag, 'I was on the same bleachers of the man who died. … Before the rally I had prayed that you wouldn't get shot because it sounded like something that might happen. God answered my prayers. … I will still pray for you. I hope you win the election!' He wrote back a few weeks later. 'For you and all those in attendance on that fateful day, we remain resolved to fight for our great country,' Trump and his wife, Melania, said. 'May God bless you and keep you safe, little one.' Lisa Karns framed the letter and hung it on a wall in their home. The Republican National Convention that immediately followed the shooting brought talk of God's hand from private rumblings to the prime-time stage. 'That was a transformation,' Tucker Carlson said on the final night in Milwaukee. 'This was no longer a man.' 'Divine intervention,' a man shouted from the floor. 'I think it was,' Carlson agreed. He went on: 'I think even people who don't believe in God are beginning to think, 'Maybe there's something to this, actually.'' Trump's son Eric embraced the sentiment in his speech introducing his father: 'By the grace of God, divine intervention and your guardian angels above, you survived.' The candidate himself attested: 'I felt very safe because I had God on my side.' By the time Trump returned to Butler for a second rally in October, a man dragged a wooden cross up and down the road to the fairgrounds. At a prayer circle the night before, Susan Sevy from East Liverpool, Ohio, who had also attended the July rally, said the time when Trump was shot, 6.11pm, corresponded to a verse of Ephesians about putting on the armour of God. On the rally stage, speakers recalled seeing signs or hearing a heavenly voice. 'That flag right there displayed like a crucifix or an angel on it,' Butler township commissioner Sam Zurzolo said. 'I know everybody has seen that, and I think that was a warning,' 'I heard a voice – loud, clear, rich and reassuring,' said James Sweetland, a retired emergency department doctor who tended to Comperatore. 'It spoke to me. It said, 'Go. Go they need your help'... I'm telling you right now that was a voice of God.' The Trump campaign worked to bring back attendees from the first rally, and the Karns family returned to sit in the rows of chairs below the bleachers. At one point during the early speeches, the sound system glitched, and someone shouted for a medic. The pastor's other daughter-in-law, Christie Karns, felt her anxiety spike. She wondered why she had come back and put herself through this, she said. At that moment, the giant flag overhead flipped on itself again, resuming the Y shape that reminded her of an angel. Then it gracefully flipped back to normal. Loading 'We just all looked at each other and we were like, 'Oh my word',' Christie Karns said. 'No one could have done that. It could have only been God. And it just gave us that peace.' In church last Sunday, Pastor Karns returned to the theme of fragility, again referencing the metaphor of grass that grows and withers. 'It's here one minute, and the next minute it's gone,' he said. In his sermon he asked worshippers to reflect on the past year, considering the trials they faced and the strength God gave them. 'It took a very strong man who could help right our country back to being God's country,' Lisa Karns said. 'I do feel like God protected him to help our country.'
The Age
a day ago
- The Age
How the Trump shooting supercharged beliefs in a divine right of MAGA
Politics increasingly entered the pulpit at the demand of congregants, and pastors indulged those demands for fear of losing members, according to the journalist Tim Alberta in his 2024 book The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory. Last Monday, the Trump administration said a federal prohibition on campaigning by non-profit organisations did not apply to houses of worship, implementing a long-standing campaign promise to let churches make more explicit political endorsements. Trump has never been known for his personal piety, but he has long enjoyed the overwhelming support of evangelicals. His own reaction to the Butler shooting was initially, 'I'm not supposed to be here' – meaning he was not supposed to be alive – according to a new book about the campaign, 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America. (The book is co-written by the author of this article.) His top adviser, Susie Wiles, told him, 'You do know this is God,' the book says. After that, Trump began saying: 'If anyone ever doubted there was a God, that proved there was.' In Butler the day after the shooting, county GOP chair Jim Hulings recalled trying to return to the crime scene and being unable to get near it across the police tape. But he did notice that all the church car park spaces were full. 'We cling to our guns and our Bibles,' Hulings said, reappropriating an infamous remark about small-town Pennsylvania that Barack Obama made at a San Francisco fundraiser in 2008. That morning at the Church of God at Connoquenessing, Karns preached about the fragility of life, quoting Psalm 90 likening man's time on Earth to the grass that grows and withers. His own son, daughters-in-law and grandchildren were at the rally, seated in the bleachers behind the stage. They became friendly with a kind man seated in front of them, Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old local volunteer firefighter who was there with his family. Before Trump arrived, Comperatore had helped Karns' 12-year-old granddaughter, Alexa, recover her dropped phone after it fell through the bleachers, and he passed out water bottles to help those around him stay hydrated in the heat. When the gunman opened fire from a nearby factory roof, Comperatore was struck and killed trying to protect his family. 'It's one of those things where you feel like you're in this place at a certain time, and there's a reason for it,' Lisa Karns, Alexa's mother and the pastor's daughter-in-law, said. 'I felt like, 'God, why take him? You could have taken me.'' Loading That night the Karns family met the pastor and showed him the photos of the twisted flag. He decided to put the image on a sign for the church, as a message of comfort, to thank God for keeping them safe and to honour Comperatore. 'It wasn't necessarily a political statement,' he said. On the way home, Alexa told Lisa Karns that she had prayed for Trump before the rally, asking God to protect him. Lisa Karns suggested she write Trump a card telling him. 'Dear President Trump,' the 12-year-old wrote in green pen, under a sketch of an American flag, 'I was on the same bleachers of the man who died. … Before the rally I had prayed that you wouldn't get shot because it sounded like something that might happen. God answered my prayers. … I will still pray for you. I hope you win the election!' He wrote back a few weeks later. 'For you and all those in attendance on that fateful day, we remain resolved to fight for our great country,' Trump and his wife, Melania, said. 'May God bless you and keep you safe, little one.' Lisa Karns framed the letter and hung it on a wall in their home. The Republican National Convention that immediately followed the shooting brought talk of God's hand from private rumblings to the prime-time stage. 'That was a transformation,' Tucker Carlson said on the final night in Milwaukee. 'This was no longer a man.' 'Divine intervention,' a man shouted from the floor. 'I think it was,' Carlson agreed. He went on: 'I think even people who don't believe in God are beginning to think, 'Maybe there's something to this, actually.'' Trump's son Eric embraced the sentiment in his speech introducing his father: 'By the grace of God, divine intervention and your guardian angels above, you survived.' The candidate himself attested: 'I felt very safe because I had God on my side.' By the time Trump returned to Butler for a second rally in October, a man dragged a wooden cross up and down the road to the fairgrounds. At a prayer circle the night before, Susan Sevy from East Liverpool, Ohio, who had also attended the July rally, said the time when Trump was shot, 6.11pm, corresponded to a verse of Ephesians about putting on the armour of God. On the rally stage, speakers recalled seeing signs or hearing a heavenly voice. 'That flag right there displayed like a crucifix or an angel on it,' Butler township commissioner Sam Zurzolo said. 'I know everybody has seen that, and I think that was a warning,' 'I heard a voice – loud, clear, rich and reassuring,' said James Sweetland, a retired emergency department doctor who tended to Comperatore. 'It spoke to me. It said, 'Go. Go they need your help'... I'm telling you right now that was a voice of God.' The Trump campaign worked to bring back attendees from the first rally, and the Karns family returned to sit in the rows of chairs below the bleachers. At one point during the early speeches, the sound system glitched, and someone shouted for a medic. The pastor's other daughter-in-law, Christie Karns, felt her anxiety spike. She wondered why she had come back and put herself through this, she said. At that moment, the giant flag overhead flipped on itself again, resuming the Y shape that reminded her of an angel. Then it gracefully flipped back to normal. Loading 'We just all looked at each other and we were like, 'Oh my word',' Christie Karns said. 'No one could have done that. It could have only been God. And it just gave us that peace.' In church last Sunday, Pastor Karns returned to the theme of fragility, again referencing the metaphor of grass that grows and withers. 'It's here one minute, and the next minute it's gone,' he said. In his sermon he asked worshippers to reflect on the past year, considering the trials they faced and the strength God gave them. 'It took a very strong man who could help right our country back to being God's country,' Lisa Karns said. 'I do feel like God protected him to help our country.'
