Obama will dleliver a virtual commenceme menment speech to th Virtual High School class of 2020, which will feature actor and activist and many more. What would think a primetime speech this magnitude meant to Uplift High School seniors graduating in a time of sufficiesuch uncertainty, you would think that would be delivered by the current president of the United States. Instead it former president president obama. There is no other president as wide live embraced by the culture today than the obamas. And that fact just inturates the right. When you look at the tea partiers back in obamas term screaming no to health care, to the ones today protesting to reopen the country despite a deadly pandemic, theres a strong anger that many probably dont understand. Their party, the republicans have control of the white house, the senate, majority of governorships and the supreme court. What is there to be so angry about . Well, a big part of that anger stems from their alienation from the culture and their inact to contr inability to control it. A lot of the issues have been decisively won by the left. The resounding impact of those movements can still be felt today, and young people and people of color have shattered and rejected decadeslong traditional norms and standards at media and entertainment. We now live in a world where ariel from the Little Mermaid is black, where idris alba is a totally viable fan favorite to become the next james bond, and where more women are taking on roles originally written for men. So despite the fact that republicans rule the country, the one thing they cannot command is the culture. Joining me now is staff writer at the new yorker and author of moving forward. And e. J. Deon, offer of code red. Let me go to my historian first. I think about this a lot. When you see republicans, despite the amount of control and command that they have over the politics, the look on the face is always anger, rage, just pissed offness if thats a word. It feels like a sense of alienation, a complaining about the culture, people on twitter complaining about the culture. I feel like thats where it comes from. What do you make of my theory on that . Well, i think thats part of it. I think the culture is a significant part of it. It was written about saying the condition of the white working class, which was the subject of much anxiety and hand wringing in the 1930s and 1940s, the developing labor movement, the condition of these people is not to be understood purely in socioeconomic terms. They understand their condition not only in terms of what they have but one of the things they do that is one of the most defining stats of the obama era was that significant plurality of white people who felt that whites were the most disadvantaged racial group in the United States. So if you have people thinking like that, its not that far of a leap that you would see the kind of rage of racial entitlement that underlies so of what weve seen as the political protest and the kind of death cult, you know, that has surrounded itself around donald trump. You know, i think thats right. Barack obama being president , corine, you know, felt like to so many people on the right like just a kick in the teeth to sort of whatever they thought of as what the culture should have been and the reaction to him was trump, right . And its ironic that trump was the vehicle for it. At one point donald trump actually had resonance with the culture. He was represented by 65 hip hop songs, he was the guy who was the apprentice and then the story that he was a vandalized hollywood star. And then hes not. Once there was birtherism and showed his racism, that was the end of that. He showed his face in to 11. 2011. When he became the grand wizard of birtherism, thats when in the most recent current time is birtherism. When you look at those protests, joy, of those folks who want to take over the capitol because they want to reopen the government, theyre mostly white men and theyre mostly angry and have so much hate. And donald trump plays into that and uses it as himself own benefit. Many of those out there are not single women living paycheck to paycheck. Theyre not really wanting to reopen the government for us to be back where we were in january. They want us to be where we were back in the 1950s. And heres the thing, the Republican Party used to be or they have devolved from being a party of ideas, although i disagreed with all of their ideas, definitely did not agree with any of them, they have gone from that to a party of grievance. You know, this is what it is. They have this grievance that they need to tell us about. And so when you see them in a very hateful way, clearly, and when you see the nazi flags and the ak47s, that is where they are. They are angry, theres the hatred. And its not about coronavirus and the government. Its about this fomenting the us versus them and this is where we are with this party. Joy, can i add something . Judge mcintosh made the point theyre not protesting to demand to be meat packers. Theyre demanding that meat packers go back and get them their states. E. J. , youve written about the right and sort of the way that it has gone. And this sort of alienation culture that i think both jelani and karine are talking about is sort of baked into donald trump as a human being. He is alienation embodied. I wonder why his having succeeded to power didnt even soothe it a little bit. Because i think its been a politics of grievance going all the way back to the civil rights years, to the George Wallace movement, to Richard Nixons southern strategy and its been said often because its true that there was a lot of racial politics being played on the right and in the Republican Party before trump, but it was a dog whistle and he uses a bull horn. But you still have to ask yourself why the world is he going after barack obama right now . Because barack obama is actually very popular. I looked today at a ugov poll. It shows that 55 of americans have a positive view of obama. This was an average of polls, 1919 to early 1920. Only 33 , basically the trump base, are negative on him. And i think that picking this fight is really sort of risking nuclear conflagration. I think trump i think obama, as you suggest, represents a whole series of things that trump is trying to demonize. He wants a cultural war about race, about generation because Young Americans across racial lines like obama about culture and just about the fact that baums co obamas cool. So why is he doing this . I can think of only two reasons. One is he knows how much trouble he is in on the virus and he needed something really big to distract aattention. And going after obama is about as big as he can go. The second is he is losing support among older white people. Older whites are his most important constituency and they have heard what republicans and trumps have said, well, maybe were going to sacrifice some people to get the economy moving. They are the people. By picking a fight with obama by picking a cultural war, hes pulled back some of those folks who have looked at him and said you, mr. President , you are not operating in my interests. The shiny black key strategy. I thisnk one of the other issue is on the issue of competency. The first white president written about donald trump, well take any guy who was white and make him president and hell be a better president than obama. No. On the pandemic in particular it shows his competency extremely lacking here is president obama warning back in 2014 about pandemics. Take a listen. There may and likely will come a time in which we have both an airborne disease that is deadly. And in order for us to deal with that effectively, we have to put in place an infrastructure, not just here at home but globally, that allows us to see it quickly, isolate it quickly, respond to it quickly. Karine, you worked in the administration. That is what gets them, right . He would have been prepared. He would have been prepared. He had a Pandemic Office ready to be to deal with these issues, this pandemic clearly that were in now that donald trump dismantled because anything that is connected to president obama donald trump dislikes and takes down. I want to say one more thing about the Republican Party that i was saying earlier. In 2011 when birtherism came around or went to its fullfledged kind of strength and donald trump led that, in 2012 it was mitt romney, after donald trump showed his racism, who was the republican nominee who went begging for Donald Trumps endorsement. The Republican Party are so tied into this. They so own this. And now they cant run away from this. Yeah. Let me play a little bit more absolutely. They also cant run away from obama. He is speaking. Here he is speaking to students in their graduation earlier today. Take a listen. Now, look, i know this isnt the commencement any of you really imagined because while our hbcus are mostly known for an education rooted in academic r rigor, community, higher purpose, they also know how to turn you. The timing is not ideal. Lets be honest, a disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country. Jelani and then e. J. , what do you think the political outcome will be across the country once president obama speaks . First id be remiss if i i didnt mention i was a proud graduate of howard university. So i was very proud to see barack obama give that address today. On the other side of it, i think that this is the kind of damning by comparison. We see what a president , what a statesman looks like, a person who can unite the country in a time of crisis and address students who are feeling like theyve had to make a sacrifice that they didnt intend to make or never anticipated making and give up a day thats very momentous and very significant to them and their families and hes there to soothe them in a way and to talk about the bigger objectives and to do the thing that leadership does. And so implicitly i mean, he doesnt have to ever say the words of donald trump, he doesnt ever have to say anything of whats going on right now. Just by the mere comparison of what hes able to do and what donald trump, quite frankly, is completely incapable of doing makes the point for itself. Yeah. E. J. I think there are two overwhelming facts that hit people in the face in this period. One is we simply need strong, competent government. I thought the most devastating line obama spoke today, you played it earlier, a lot of them arent even pretending to be in charge. Thats how a lot of people, including people who support him, feel about donald trump. But the other is the inequalities we knew that were there in our country of race and economics are devastating our country right now because people at the bottom of suffering so much more, and thats a point obama also underscored and will probably underscore later. Absolutely. Lebron james, shaquille oneal, alycia keys, they werent trying to roll with obamdonald trump, theyre rolling with baobama. Coming up, apologizing to the man who failed to become a oneterm president. O become a oneterm president there are so many toothpastes out there, which one should i use . Try crest pro active defense. It neutralizes bacteria for a healthier mouth than even the leading multibenefit toothpaste. Crest. We hope you find our Digital Solutions helpful to bank safely from home. Deposit a check with your phone or tablet. Check balances, pay bills, transfer money and more. Send money to people you know and trust with zelle. Stay safe. Stay home. Together, well get through this. Pnc bank the returdraftinging the return of the slide job ripping the wall gasngo bumpnrun the return of loud nascar is back, and xfinity is bringing you the best seat in the house. I think president obama should have kept his mouth shut. I think its a little bit classless, frankly, to critique an administration that comes after you. Senator Mitch Mcconnell is big mad at president obama for daring to critique crutrumps coronavirus response, calling it an absolute disaster in a leaked private call. Weve now known theres something, just something, i dont know what it is about president obama that just gets under trump and companys skin and just stays there, which is perhaps why we saw republicans this week turn to the old ploy of attacking president obamas legacy, rather than, i dont know, try to defend President Trumps handling our historic pandemic crisis. Clearly the Obama Administration did not leave to this administration any kind of game plan for Something Like this. Well, of course none of that is true. Not in the very least. And it was mcconnell who had to snap his mouth shut after admitting he was wrong. You said that the Previous Administration didnt leave a plan. They pushed back against that. I was wrong. They did leave behind a plan. So i clearly made a mistake in that regard. As to whether or not the plan was followed and whos the critic and all the rest, i dont have any observation about that. Oops. Joining me now is Jonathan Capehart and michael steele. Let me read your your tweet. You tweeted im sure mitch is aware that a grown ass im on cable grown ass black man is able to speak his mind on how his successor is managing this crisis. And classless . Youre talking about Mitch Mcconnell being angry that president obama is still speaking. What do you think happened to had him walk back his little no plan statement . He had to. The reality and the truth belies the comment. The fact is that the Prior Administration did leave not just a plan but it left a department to deal with it. So, you know, he had a Pandemic Agency that was set up to deal with it, which was summarily shut down in 2018. So, you know, the reality of it is this continued looking backwards towards the Obama Administration instead of dealing with the truth that has long since emerged about the Current Administration has run its course. Not just with me and folks who have to deal with this every day, but i think also with the american people. But the yeah. For me, that comment was the height of an insult because any white man of a certain age, and Mitch Mcconnell, like donald trump, is of that age, knows that stating that a black man should keep his mouth shut has more than just connotations behind it. And i think that we as a country need to be very clear about the fact that that comment would not have been said or applied to george bush. If george bush had made a comment, theres no way in hell he would come out and say that george bush should keep his mouth shut or that he was acting classless. So lets be clear about this. And thats why the backtrack was as quick as it was when he realized, oh, i done stepped not just in it but im all up in it. Hes a man of the south, Mitch Mcconnell. I wont take credit for this but somebody on twitter said president obama and the administration left the plan in the one place that trump would never find it, in a book. Thats not me that said that. Im just repeating it. Jonathan capehart let me let president obama keep on speaking. Here he is earlier in his hbcu graduation speech. Lets be honest, a disease like this just spotlights the inequalities and burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country. We see it in the disproportionate impact of covid19 in our communities, just as we see it when a black man goes for a jog and some folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesnt submit to their questioning. Jonathan, first of all, his room is almost as nice as yours. But also, in a time when you have disproportionate deaths monday black people, people of color, it is striking to not have that kind of compassion that can speak to that. I think thats one of the things that feels like its so lacking. Listening to that clip, i thought of that time when i was in the White House PressBriefing Room in the days after the zimmerman verdict and zimmerman was found not guilty. And the president came to the white house Briefing Room and spoke from the heart about what it meant for that to happen and what it meant to a significant portion of the country that was dismayed by what happened there. And so, you know, we are like a dry to the bone plant thats been sitting out in the desert, we as a nation. And we have our former president , who when he speaks, every time he speaks because hes a decent man and a man of empathy, hes like water on that dried up plant. And its in high relief because we dont have a president who has empathy. You know, i want to jump in on michael steele, chairman steeles excellent comments about the majority leader and what he said and the connotations of what he said. Ive read lots of books about the forgotten people who President Trump reached out to and pulled out to vote, but there were two books in particular that i found very helpful in understanding what were going through. One is white rage by carol anderson. And the other one is white fragility. Carol anderson argues, quote, the trigger for white rage inevitably is black advancement. It is not the mere presence of people that is the problem, it is blackness with ambition, drives, purposes, aspirations and demand for full and equal citizenship. It is blackness that refuses to accept subjugation. The truth, is quote, despite all this, a black man was elected president of the United States, the ultimate advancement and thus the ultimate affront. That perfectly crystallizes everything that happened during president obamas tenure, everything that donald trump was saying as a private citizen and as president of the United States against barack obama. Amen. Amen. Im going to play one more clip of president obama really quick and then im going to come to the chairman.