Quotes
It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me or a whole bunch of my predecessors,
Obama said, going on to question a decision by the White House to restrict access of the Associated Press to official events over the news agency’s decision to reject Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America It is up to all of us to fix this,
If you are a university, you may have to figure out, are we in fact doing things right?,
he said during a conversation at Hamilton College in western New York The idea of canceling a speaker who comes to your campus, trying to shout them down and not letting them speak, ... even if I find their ideas obnoxious, well, not only is that not what universities should be about, that’s not what America should be about.”
Mr. Obama said, according to a transcript on his Medium account Believe me, a former president of Harvard, ... when I say that ways can be found in an emergency to deploy even parts of the endowment that have been earmarked by their donors for other uses.”
You let them speak, and then you tell them why they’re wrong. That’s how you win the argument.”
I don’t think what we just witnessed in terms of economic policy and tariffs is going to be good for America, but that’s a specific policy,
Obama said in his remarks at Hamilton College in New York I’m more deeply concerned with a federal government that threatens universities if they don’t give up students who are exercising their right to free speech,
I say this not on a partisan basis. This has to do with something more precious, which is who are we as a country and what values do we stand for?"
We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats,
We are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats. And these are the things that we are witnessing each day in the last few months in our country, and it understandably creates a great sense of fear,
said Harris, who ran against Trump during the 2024 presidential election When a few stand with the courage, that is the courage exhibited by the leaders in this room every day, to have the courage to say, ‘I feel fear,’ the courage to say, ‘What is happening is wrong,’ the courage to say, ‘There is a way we must chart to get through this,
It has been easy during most of our lifetimes to say you are a progressive, or say you are for social justice, or say you are for free speech, and not have to pay a price for it…And now we’re in one of those moments when…it’s not enough just to say you’re for something. You may actually have to do something and possibly sacrifice a little bit,
All of you have grown up in an international order that was created by America after World War II. … This is an important moment because in the last two months, the U.S. government has been trying to destroy that order,
The idea that a White House can say to law firms, if you represent parties that we don’t like, we’re going to pull all our business or bar you from representing people effectively ... that kind of behavior is contrary to the basic compact we have as Americans,
he said, ... per Wright’s reporting Imagine if I had said to law firms that were representing parties that were upset with policies my administration had initiated that you will not be allowed into government buildings. We will punish you economically for dissenting from the [ACA] or the Iran Deal.”
Obama, per Wright’s rundown, continued Imagine if I had done any of this. Imagine I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps.”
