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Former President Barack Obama suggested Thursday that Vice President JD Vance was pushing a “blood and soil” vision for the country despite being married to the “daughter of an immigrant.”
The vice president came up as Obama was discussing the Reconstruction era with author Malcolm Gladwell, claiming that the issues from that era are still being discussed today.
“It’s impossible to spend a lot of time thinking about Reconstruction without reflecting on the present day, right?” Obama said. “Because these issues are — well, they’re still there. If somebody is asking why it is relevant to talk about Reconstruction, I have to describe for them the degree to which we’re having the same arguments. The issues of: How are we going to help the freed people who’ve been enslaved? What are we going to give them to allow them to have a go at life? What does real freedom mean?”
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He argued that more directly, they continue to debate over voting rights after the Supreme Court ruling on race-based congressional gerrymandering as well as Vance’s political party pushing for a “certain kind of people.”
“We have a politics now that at least one of our major parties has been captured by politics that is not that subtle about suggesting that ‘We the people’ means a certain kind of people,” Obama said. “When you have the vice president, current vice president, making a speech that is basically a blood and soil version of ‘We the people,’ that it matters who your parents were and how long they’ve been here despite him being married to a daughter of an immigrant himself.”
He continued, “That echoes, then, ideas about who can be a citizen, who belongs, who gets to make decisions. So all these issues are still being debated, sometimes not as bluntly and explicitly as they have in the past, but they’re still there.”
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“Blood and soil” refers to a phrase popularized by Nazi Germany and associated with White nationalism.
Gladwell went on to accuse Vance of “hypocrisy” for attempting to make a “nativist argument” while being married to Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants. Obama agreed that Vance was a hypocrite but conceded that it was progress compared to a century prior.
“That is progress. Listen, hypocrisy is progress. It is, because it means that you feel guilty enough to either lie to yourself or others. And that is better than not even thinking about the idea that maybe you’re doing something wrong,” Obama said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Vance’s office for comment.
Vance’s most recent speech was earlier this month honoring America’s 250th birthday on July 4 in New York. During his remarks, he urged Americans to reject the “two-dimensional view” of the country based on its failings.
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“So what I’d ask you to do, my fellow Americans, on our 250th birthday, is to reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens and reject the two-dimensional view of your country. Reject that America is a place for zero-sum thinking because it is not. Our history is one of people carving a great civilization out of the wilderness. Reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness. Everything that we have done, everything that we’ve done as a country, we have all done together, not as citizens divided against each other, but as a common people working towards a common future,” Vance said.
Obama has largely avoided discussing Vance directly in public comments. He previously took a subtle swipe against Vance during the 2024 election after then-Vice President Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as a running mate.
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“When a presidential candidate chooses a running mate, it says a lot about who they are and what kind of president they’ll be. Do they pick someone inexperienced and polarizing who will deepen our divisions?” Obama asked. “Or do they pick someone with the judgment to make tough decisions, and the character to believe that every voice counts and everyone deserves an equal chance?”
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