Asked About Ape Video, Obama Laments 'Clown Show'

Barack Obama is addressing the infamous ape video for the first time, and he sees it as an example of what he calls the "clown show" of American discourse at the moment. When appearing on the No Lie podcast, host Brian Tyler Cohen asked Obama about President Trump reposting a video on social media that included a depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, reports the Hill. Cohen asked the former president how the nation could rebound from what he sees as a "de-evolution of discourse."

• "It is true that it gets attention. It's true that it's a distraction," Obama said, per USA Today. "But as I'm traveling around the country, as you're traveling around the country, you meet people, they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness."
• "There's this sort of clown show that's happening in social media and on television, and what is true is that there doesn't 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," Obama added. He did not name Trump.

• The White House took down the video after criticism from lawmakers in both parties. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially criticized the "fake outrage" of critics, but the White House later blamed a staff member for its posting. "We took it down as soon as we found out about it," said Trump himself, while rejecting the idea of an apology: "No, I didn't make a mistake."
• On the podcast, Obama also said he found hope in the protests against ICE tactics in Minneapolis and elsewhere, per France24. "Not just randomly, but in a systematic, organized way, citizens saying, 'This is not the America we believe in.' ... That kind of heroic, sustained behavior in subzero weather by ordinary people is what should give us hope."