Obama responds to Trump sharing racist AI video depicting him as an ape : NPR

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Scott Olson/Getty Photographs Former President Barack Obama has responded to the racist video posted by President Donald Trump's social media account earlier this month.

Throughout an interview with YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama stated many People "discover this conduct deeply troubling."

"There does not appear to be any disgrace about this amongst individuals who used to really feel such as you needed to have some kind of decorum and a way of propriety and respect for the workplace," Obama stated within the interview, which was posted on YouTube Saturday.

"There's this kind of clown present that is taking place in social media and on tv," Obama added, describing a lot of the noise round Trump's presidency as a "distraction".

Obama's response follows outrage over the video, which depicted Obama and former first girl Michelle Obama as apes. White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the clip, saying "please cease the faux outrage." Trump refused to apologize for the social media submit, telling reporters "I did not make a mistake" aboard Air Power One.

The video, which was posted in the beginning of Black Historical past Month, has since been deleted. The White Home blamed a staffer for "erroneously" posting the video clip.

Obama additionally shared his ideas on the immigration crackdown and protests in Minnesota and elsewhere across the nation, telling Cohen they've left a very good variety of American folks saying "we'll stay as much as these values that we are saying we consider in."

"It is crucial for us to acknowledge the unprecedented nature of what ICE was doing in Minneapolis, St. Paul, the way in which that federal brokers, ICE brokers have been being deployed, with none clear tips, coaching, pulling folks out of their houses, utilizing five-year-olds to attempt to bait their dad and mom, all of the stuff that we noticed, teargassing crowds merely who have been standing there, not breaking any legal guidelines," the forty fourth president stated.

Obama referred to as the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis final month "a heartbreaking tragedy" and stated it was "a wake-up name to each American, no matter celebration, that lots of our core values as a nation are more and more underneath assault."

He additionally stated that the Trump administration has given explanations for the deaths of Pretti and Renee Good, a 37-year-old girl killed by an immigration agent, "that are not knowledgeable by any severe investigation."