The ex-POTUS especially took heat following his Thursday, October 10, address at a ‘Black Voters for Harris’ event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The 63-year-old Democrat rallying for Vice President Harris took a dig at Black men, saying it was “not acceptable” for them to be supporting the Republican presidential candidate.

Former Bernie Sanders advisor rips into Obama for ‘lecturing’ Black men

Joining an army of netizens in denouncing Obama’s now-controversial words, Democratic Ohio state Senator Nina Turner said on CNN, “Why are Black men being lectured to? Why are Black men being belittled?”

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While she claimed to have a “lot of love” for the former president, she confessed that it was “wrong” of him to single out Black men. “Some of the Black men that I have talked to have their reasons why they want to vote a different way, and even if some of us may not like that, we have to respect it,” she added.

Slamming his remarks, Turner, the former national co-chair of the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, continued, “So unless President Barack Obama is gonna go out and lecture every other group of men from other identity groups, my message for Democrats is don’t bring it here to Black men who, by and large, don’t vote much differently from Black women.”

She maintained that instead of singling out a group of voters, political leaders should address everyone at large, while hoping to win over the support of the “few good men out there who do care about the stripping away of some of women’s bodily autonomy.”

“This is wrong from President Obama. It is a wrong course for the Harris-Walz campaign to lay at the feet of Black men when they have their reasons,” she concluded.

On Thursday, Obama also pointed out a lack of “energy and turnout in all corners of our neighbourhoods and communities” compared to when he was running for the White House. He even accused Black men of “coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses” for not turning out in support of Harris. “Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”

Social media raises arms against Barack Obama

Numerous Black male voters took to social media after the former president’s speech as they further doubled down to back Trump. “I’m Black and I’m voting for Trump,” @LoveBeyondCo1or wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

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American conservative activist CJ Pearson joined the conversation and issued a statement on the microblogging platform. “My name is CJ Pearson. I’m 22 years old. And in 25 days, I’ll be joining millions of other young black men and voting for Donald J. Trump! And we don’t give a da*n about what Barack Obama has to say about it.”

Benny Johnson, a fellow conservative commentator, called out Obama’s “sickening… Pure racist identity politics.”

In follow-up tweets, he added, “The magic is gone. This is the same guy who said ‘there is not a white or black America – there is only the United Stated of America?!’ Now running on racial supremacy?! What a sad fraud. It’s grotesque. Real progressives should disavow Obama and his regressive racist ideas. There is nothing ‘progressive’ about race-hatred politics. This is literally the oldest form of politics. This is regressive. If a Republican campaigned like this I would denounce them.”

Team Trump launches attack against ‘Low IQ’ Kamala Harris

GOP’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, also came down hard on Obama with a new Truth Social rant on Friday morning. “Obama admits a total lack of enthusiasm for Kamala, especially with Black Men. I think Obama will be voting for me because he doesn’t like the fact that Kamala is an extremely Low IQ Person!” he wrote.

Similarly, Trump’s campaign communications director, Steven Cheung, told Newsweek, “Obama can’t stand Low IQ Kamala Harris, so he’ll be voting for President Trump in 2024!”