Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Barack Obama's Partisan Eulogy for John Lewis Reminded Many of the Paul Wellstone Funeral

Barack Obama's Partisan Eulogy for John Lewis Reminded Many of the Paul Wellstone Funeral

Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool
Former President Barack Obama eulogized the late Congressman John Lewis on Thursday in a speech loaded with partisan swipes and talking points, some indirectly referring to President Trump.
“George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators,” Obama claimed, repeating the false talking point that violent rioters were “peaceful protesters.”
“Even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting,” he falsely claimed, “by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision.”
There is no evidence that voter ID diminishes the ability of anyone to vote, and a whopping eighty percent of Americans support Voter ID laws, including 77 percent of non-white Americans.
Obama then indirectly accused Trump, without evidence, of “undermining the Postal Service in the run-up to an election that’s gonna be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick.”
Obama acknowledged the apparent partisan turn his eulogy was taking, but quickly declared it justified. “I know this is a celebration of John’s life,” he said. “There are some who might say we shouldn’t dwell on such things, but that’s why I’m talking about it.”
“Everybody’s got to come out and vote,” he said.
Not even the Supreme Court was immune from Obama’s attacks as he declared any law designed to ensure the integrity of our elections “bogus voter-suppression” laws and called for a litany of Democrat agenda items such as expanding early voting and making Election Day a national holiday. Obama also called for the end to the filibuster in the Senate—something Democrats were only willing to do as the majority—which he called a relic of Jim Crow.
Obama’s speech resulted in comparisons to the infamous funeral of Senator Paul Wellstone in 2002, which despicably turned into a campaign rally-type event.
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