One of former president Barack Obama’s staunchest supporters says it is disappointing to see him accept huge sums of money on the Wall Street speaking circuit after having campaigned as a “cleaner” politician.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, the man who wrote “My President Was Black: A history of the first African American White House—and of what came next,” for The Atlantic in 2017, says Mr. Obama’s actions since leaving the White House send a contradictory message to millions of voters. The author made the comments during a recent appearance on NRO’s “The Jamie Weinstein Show.”
“I sent him a letter about when he started doing the speeches, when the speech money came out,” Mr. Coates said for an interview published Wednesday. “I thought that was bad.”
“You think it was bad for him to get money?” Mr. Weinstein replied.
“I thought it was bad, yeah. I thought it was bad, so I just sent a letter,” Mr. Coates said.
The author added that he didn’t want to be an “interrogator” of the former president, although he still objected to reports of Mr. Obama’s speaking fees.
“You sent a letter saying that you were disappointed? Is that what you’re saying?” Mr. Weinstein asked.
“Yeah, like, ’You should be better,’” Mr. Coates said. “You know what? The promise of his campaign — and they talked about this all the time — they said, this notion, ’no-drama Obama,’ that they would be cleaner. […] I think people actually saw them that way. You know? I think that when you do that people view you on a different level.”
The author said that he accepts money for speeches because Americans are not investing “hopes and dreams” in him.
“It’s bad [for Mr. Obama] to take however amount of money, $200,000, whatever it was, you know what I mean, to talk on Wall Street. I just don’t think you have to do that,” he continued.
The Washington Free Beacon reported in September 2017, for example, that Mr. Obama gave a speech to Northern Trust for roughly $400,000.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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