Obama Condemns Anti-Muslim Rhetoric
"This isn’t a matter of political correctness – it’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong,” Obama said on Tuesday before a joint session of Congress. "The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith,” he said, the Guardian reported.
Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the US – and kick out Mexican immigrants – drew worldwide condemnation, and Obama did everything but say the name of the Republican candidate during his final State of the Union address. It represented an unusually charged campaign reference for a sitting president’s most important speech of the year – and it was not the only time Obama went after Trump-style rhetoric.
Obama cited Pope Francis, who addressed Congress last year by reminding the body that "to imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place”. Obama delivered a line that few in the chamber could have mistaken for anything other than a forceful push against the real estate mogul turned politician.
"When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer,” the president said. "That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country.”
The line was met with prolonged and robust applause from members of the audience on both sides of the Democratic-Republican divide.
"There have been those who told us to fear the future,” he said, "who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears.”
There was this, too: "Immigrants aren’t the reason wages haven’t gone up enough.”
And for those reading between every tea leaf, the president had this to say about Trump’s "make America great again” campaign slogan: "Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.”
For his part, Trump thought Obama was peddling boredom. "The #SOTU speech is really boring, slow, lethargic,” tweeted the businessman, calling the address "very hard to watch!”
