Former United States President Barack Obama launched his strongest attack to date against President Donald Trump on Thursday, condemning the use of federal agents against protesters and attempts at voter repression in the United States.
“Today we witness with our own eyes, police officers kneeling on the neck of African-Americans,” Obama said in an emotional speech at the emotional Atlanta funeral of civil rights leader John Lewis.
“We can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful protesters,” said the former president.
Obama did not mention Trump by name, but was clearly referring to moves by the Republican president, who used troops to clear Lafayette Square protesters outside the White House and sent federal agents to quell protests in Portland, Oregon.
Obama struck a blow at alleged Republican attempts to suppress the minority vote and Trump’s repeated attacks on the mail vote less than 100 days before the November competition against Democrat Joe Biden.
“Even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing everything possible to discourage people from voting by closing polling places and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with precision. surgical, even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that will rely on mail ballots to keep people from getting sick, “he said.
United States President Donald Trump walks past a graffiti-defaced building in Lafayette Park near the White House, while U.S. Secret Service agents and a White House photographer do so. they follow the Church of San Juan, where Trump posed for the photos after riot police had violently withdrawn peaceful protesters from the park; Washington, DC, June 1, 2020 [File: Tom Brenner/Reuters]
Paying tribute to Lewis, who died on July 17 at the age of 80, Obama said that the lifelong fight by Congressman for the civil rights of African-Americans had paved the way for him to become the first black president of the United States. United.
Lewis, a 17-year-old Democratic congressman from Georgia, did “everything possible to preserve this democracy and as long as we have breath in our bodies, we have to continue its cause,” Obama said.
“As long as young people protest on the streets in the hope that real change will occur, I hope,” he said.
“But we cannot casually abandon them at the polls. Not when few elections have been so urgent on so many levels like this.”
Lewis’s funeral service was also attended by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
Former President Jimmy Carter, 95, was unable to attend, but sent a letter that was read to mourners at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr served as a pastor in the 1960s.
Former US President George W. Bush speaks at the funeral of the late Congressman John Lewis, a pioneer of the civil rights movement at the Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 30, 2020. [Alyssa Pointer/Pool via Reuters]
“His tremendous contributions will continue to be an inspiration to future generations,” Carter wrote.
Bush, a Republican, said he had his “differences” with Lewis, a staunch Democrat, but “we live in a better and more noble country today because of John Lewis.”
“He believed in humanity and he believed in the United States,” said Bush.
In her tribute, Clinton referenced a column Lewis wrote for publication in The New York Times on the day of his funeral.
“While my time here has come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me.”
Representative John Lewis wrote this essay shortly before his death. @NYTOpinion publishes it today, the day of his funeral. https://t.co/kAms0ogrCU
– The New York Times (@nytimes) July 30, 2020
“Although I may not be here with you, I urge you to respond to your heart’s highest calling and stand up for what you really believe,” Lewis wrote. “So I tell you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of eternal love be your guide.”
“It is so fitting that the day of his service he leaves us our marching orders,” Clinton said. “I suggest we say hi, get dressed and move on.”
Before Thursday’s funeral, Lewis’s body lay in state on the United States Capitol, an honor rarely awarded, so that Americans could pay their final respects.
Obama and former Presidents Bush and Clinton addressed the service during the funeral of the late US Congressman John Lewis. [Alyssa Pointer/Pool via Reuters]
On Sunday, a lone drawer carried Lewis’s body across the Alabama Bridge, where in 1965 a police officer fractured his skull during a protest that helped build his reputation as a fearless civil rights leader.
Lewis’s death came in a year during which “Black Lives Matter” protests against police brutality have brought thousands of people to the streets of the United States, underscoring the still raw depths of the country’s racial history. .
Lewis grew up in the city of Troy in Alabama. Her parents were sharecroppers, and she once worked in a cotton field. While attending segregated schools, Lewis was inspired by the peaceful protests of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr.
State police change Billy’s clubs to break a civil rights voting march in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. John Lewis, spotlight being hit by a state police, he was president of the Nonviolent Student Coordination Committee. Future American congressman, suffered a skull fracture [File: AP Photo]
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