Democrats outraged and Republicans mostly silent after president shared racist video of former president and first lady – key US politics stories from Friday 6 February
Top Democrats erupted with fury on Friday and challenged more Republicans to respond to Donald Trump posting a racist video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
The clip appeared during one of the 79-year-old US president’s increasingly frequent late-night posting sprees to his Truth Social account, and shows the laughing faces of the former president and first lady superimposed on the bodies of primates in a jungle setting to The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader and New York congressman, in a post on X: “Why are GOP leaders like [Senate majority leader] John Thune continuing to stand by this sick individual? Every single Republican must immediately denounce Donald Trump’s disgusting bigotry.”
Only a few Republicans spoke out about the overtly racist video. Tim Scott, a South Carolina senator and the only Black Republican in that chamber, called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House” and called on the president to remove it.
