Former US President Barack Obama has indirectly addressed a racist video posted on social media by President Donald Trump, telling a podcast host that the "shame" and "etiquette" that once guided public officials are now lost.
The offensive video included a video depicting Obama and his wife Michelle as monkeys, which prompted widespread criticism from Democrats and Republicans.
The White House initially defended the video, calling the reaction "fake outrage." The post was later 'attributed' to a staff member and deleted, the Telegraph reports.
Obama spoke with liberal podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen, who asked the first black U.S. president about the tone of political discourse. Cohen mentioned Trump's post amid some recent controversies.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
The video - accompanied by the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight - was included at the end of a video that Trump's Truth Social account shared that contained unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The post led to outrage from politicians, including senior members of Trump's Republican party.
Senator Tim Scott - the only black Republican senator - described it as "the most racist thing I've seen from this White House."
The video is reminiscent of racist cartoons comparing black people to apes and appears to be taken from a post by X shared by conservative meme creator Xerias in October.
Trump told reporters that he "didn't see" the part of the video that showed the Obama family.
"I didn't do anything wrong," he told reporters when asked if he planned to apologize.
The 47-minute podcast with Obama was released on Saturday. The episode begins with the host asking him to comment on the US "discourse", which he says has "degraded to a level of cruelty that we have not seen before". /Telegraph/
