Former President Barack Obama on Monday urged Americans to "soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred and normalizes racist sentiments" in the wake of two mass shootings within 24 hours that left more than 30 people dead and dozens injured.
Obama has largely refrained from criticizing his successor in the White House, but in his statement posted to Twitter he appeared to allude to President Donald Trump's history of rhetoric on illegal immigraton and criticized "leaders who demonize those who don't look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people."
He also noted no other nation on Earth comes close to experiencing the frequency of mass shootings the U.S. does and no other developed nation tolerates the high levels of gun violence.
Obama also urged law enforcement and Silicon Valley to act to combat the "dangerous trend" of "white supremacy."
"Like the followers of ISIS and other foreign terrorist organizations, these individuals may act alone, but they've been radicalized by white nationalist websites that proliferate on the Internet. That means that both law enforcement agencies and Internet platforms need to come up with better strategies to reduce the influence of these hate groups."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.