DOJ launches a major ju judge investigation into Trump Russia investigation
The Department of Justice has launched a major juju investigation into Obama-era officials regarding the 2016 election investigation.
- In a speech on Tuesday, September 16th, former President Barack Obama condemned the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk as a horrifying tragedy.
- Obama appeared as part of the Jefferson Educational Association’s annual Global Summit Speaker Series.
- Obama emphasized that democracy requires the ability to oppose and debate without resorting to violence.
ERRY, Pa. — Former President Barack Obama called the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and other recent acts of political violence “terrifying” and criticised President Donald Trump for using tragedy to curb debates that are important to democracy.
In his first public comment outside of social media on Kirk’s murder at Utah Valley University last week, Obama, the second-term president-elect, said Americans should also freely debate political violence, as well as free to discuss ideas supported by victims of such violence.
“It’s important to us at first to acknowledge that political violence is nothing new,” he told Steve Scully, a veteran broadcast journalist from Ellie, best known for his tenure at C-Span. “It happened at a certain time in our history, but it’s a disgust of the meaning of being a democratic country. And what happened to Charlie Kirk, regardless of where you are in the political light, was a horrifying tragedy.
President Obama told the crowd of 8,000 people in the Erie insurance space that the central premise of democracy can oppose it.
“And when it happens to someone, you think they’re quoting on the other side of the discussion “we’re quoting you haven’t quoted, it’s a threat to all of us, and we have to be clear and open and condemn it,” Obama said.
“We need to spread our grace.”
Since Kirk’s murder, Republicans have not only sharply criticised some on the left for appearing to celebrate the 31-year-old assassination, but also highlighted those who have highlighted the many controversial beliefs held by the founders of Turning Point USA.
“I didn’t know Charlie Kirk,” Obama said. “I was generally aware of some of his ideas. I think those ideas were wrong, but I don’t deny the fact that what happened was a tragedy. I lamented him and his family. He was a young man with two small children and a wife.
“Basic Code”
“At the same time, you could say, ‘I don’t agree with the idea that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake,'” Obama said. “It’s not criticizing your beliefs. It’s observing who we are as a nation. I can say I disagree with the suggestion that my wife or (Supreme Court) Justice (Ketangi Brown) Jackson doesn’t have the right brain processing power. By guiding illegal immigration, they are all topics that can be discussed honestly and frankly.”
Obama praised Utah Gov. Spencer Cox for his handling of Kirk’s assassination and told Republicans he wouldn’t agree “with everything,” but showed that Cox could adhere to “the basic code of how to engage in public debate.” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said that in 2028, Democratic presidential candidate Shapiro demonstrated similar capabilities just hours after he gave his own speech in Pittsburgh about political violence. Five months ago, Shapiro and his family were the targets of an attempted assassination when parts of the governor’s residence flare up while slept inside.
Obama, 64, portrayed a sharp difference with Trump throughout the evening.
“Before he could determine who the perpetrators of this evil act was, he said, “I realized there was confusion about this recent coming from the White House and some of the other authority positions.” That’s a mistake. ”
He recalled the 2015 murder of a black parishioner at the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in the hands of neo-Nazi and white supremacist Dylan Roof. Obama did not respond to the massacre, he said, “I’ll chase after my political opponents,” supposed who influenced “the young people with this problem.” His predecessor, President George W. Bush, spoke systematically and repeatedly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, as a way to split and target it, as a way to split and target it,” he said.
“I’m not in my White House.”
But Trump and some of his allies have a history of calling political enemies “enemies,” Obama said. He said there is extremism on both sides, he calls it a broader issue that all Americans have to tackle, regardless of their political affiliation.
“But I say this – those extreme views were not in my White House,” he said. “I wasn’t empowering them. I didn’t put the weight of the US government behind them. When we have the weight of the US government behind the views of extremists, we have problems. We are at an inflection point in the sense that we must always fight for democracy, and we must fight for the value that has made this country a vy desire for the world.”
Obama spoke at Ellie as part of the Jefferson Education Association’s Global Summit XVII, the annual speaker series for Regional Think Tanks. He addressed a range of issues during his 80-minute address, from serious topics including the influence of social media on society and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, which he warned will be economically disruptive and poses the risk of being “weaponized” by bad actors, to the lighthearted: his take on fellow Chicagoan and White Sox fan Pope Leo XVI, the infamous “tan suit” scandal and the work on his presidential library and the second installation of his memoirs.
He spoke at length about the Trump White House, but he didn’t mention former President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. He also did not mention the Democratic state or the efforts by US Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch a major jury investigation into allegations that members of his administration “were armed” the US intelligence news community in Russia’s 2016 election interference.
Ellie, Bellwether County with 268,000 residents, supported President Obama in 2008 and 2012, supported Trump in 2016, supported Biden in 2020, and again in 2024, becoming one of only 25 “boomerang” counties nationwide.
Matthew Link is an investigative journalist for the USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania.
