Former President Obama, speaking Monday on comedian Marc Maron’s latest podcast, said the Trump administration’s policies are a “test” of whether universities, businesses, law firms and voters — including Republicans — will take a stand in support of the nation’s founding principles and values.
“If you decide not to vote, that’s a consequence. If you’re a Hispanic male and you’re frustrated with inflation, and so you’ve decided, ah, you know what, all this rhetoric about Trump doesn’t matter. ‘I’m just mad about inflation,'” Obama said. “And now your sons are being arrested in Los Angeles because they look Latino and maybe without the ability to call anyone they might just be locked up, well, that’s a test.”
During a more than hour-long discussion with Maron on the popular podcast “WTF With Marc Maron,” the former Democratic president said current events could shake Americans.
“It would be great if we weren’t tested in this way, but you know what? We probably need to be shaken out of our complacency,” he said.
Obama also criticized the messaging of some Democrats in addressing important issues facing Californians and discussing the state of democracy in the country, its core beliefs and the weakening of institutional norms.
After Los Angeles-based Maron joked, “We’ve pushed the average American toward fascism,” Obama responded, “You can’t just snarl all the time.”
“You can’t constantly lecture people without recognizing that you also have blind spots and that life is complicated,” Obama said during the interview, which took place recently in the former president’s office in Washington, DC.
Criticizing the language used by some liberals as “holier than thou,” Obama argued that Democrats could remain true to their principles while respecting those with whom they disagreed.
“Saying, ‘Well, I have core beliefs [and] beliefs with which I will not compromise. But I’m also not going to claim that I’m so righteous and so pure and so insightful that there’s no possibility that I’m wrong about this, or about the fact that other people, if they don’t say things exactly the way I say them or don’t see things exactly the way I do them, that somehow they’re bad people,” he said.
Obama’s remarks come as the Democratic Party faces reckoning after losing the 2024 presidential election, in part due to declining support from the party’s base, including minority voters.
Maron, a comedian and actor, launched his podcast and radio show “WTF With Marc Maron” in 2009. Interviews with guests such as actor Robin Williams, comedian Louis CK, filmmaker Kevin Smith and “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels often took place at his Highland Park home.
Obama’s 2015 interview in Maron’s garage became the podcast’s most popular episode at the time — downloaded nearly 740,000 times within 24 hours of its release.
On Monday, the former president criticized institutions for capitulating to President Trump’s demands. His comments come as USC leaders debate whether to accept a White House proposal for favorable access to federal funding if it aligns with Trump’s agenda.
“If you’re a college president, say, Well, you know what? It’ll hurt if we lose some federal funding, but that’s what endowments are for,” Obama said. “Let’s see if we can overcome this, because what we’re not going to do is compromise our fundamental academic independence.”
