Former President Barack Obama
AP“ ‘You know, you lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done.’ ”
That’s former President Barack Obama explaining to Snapchat
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“The key is deciding, do you want to actually get something done, or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with?” Obama said. “And if you want to get something done in a democracy, in a country as big and diverse as ours, then you’ve got to be able to meet people where they are. And play a game of addition and not subtraction.”
Backers of the “defund the police” movement have called for tax dollars to be funneled away from law enforcement and toward programs aimed at improving mental health services and other resources. President Trump and his supporters often used those three words over the summer to accuse Democrats of being soft on rioters.
On another topic that came up during the interview, Obama said that “new blood” like freshman lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is “always good” and should be given a louder voice in the party.
“But, you know, the fact that an AOC. only got, what? Three minutes or five minutes? When she speaks to a broad section of young people who are interested in what she has to say, even if they don’t agree with everything she says,” Obama said, referring to her brief appearance at the Democratic National Convention earlier this year.
Watch the full interview:
After the interview aired, “defund the police” climbed Twitter’s
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