Obama’s Biographer Reveals Ex-President’s Fears for His Legacy After ‘Tone-Deaf Preaching’ Damaged Harris Campaign

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have been criticized by his biographer for talking “condescendingly” to voters in “tone-deaf and ignorant” sermons that damaged Kamala Harris’ ill-fated presidential campaign.

The effect was so bad that – combined with Donald Trump’s victory – it will likely reduce the 44th president’s political relevance to ‘Bill Clinton levels’, David Garrow said in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.

“People don’t want to be treated down, no matter who they are,” the 71-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner said.

“I thought it was tone deaf and they had no idea to preach the way they did,” he told DailyMail.com.

‘I expect that perception will be shared by many people. If so, I think it diminishes its relevance to Bill Clinton territory.”

Barack Obama’s biographer says the former president’s tone-deaf preaching backfired massively during the election and may have tarnished his legacy

Obama applauds as Harris takes the stage during her rally in Clarkston, Georgia. The vice president recalled going to Springfield, Illinois, 17 years ago to support then-Senator. Obama’s bid for president. During the rally, she borrowed a famous Obama line: “Yes we can,” and the crowd sang it back

Garrow wrote the biography Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama in 2017. He won his Pulitzer for an earlier book about Martin Luther King.

He predicted that the Obamas will now largely disappear from the political scene to hang out with celebrities on Martha’s Vineyard.”

Garrow said Tuesday’s election defeat has left 63-year-old Obama “nervous” about the impact Trump could have on how he is perceived by future generations.

“He remains extremely concerned and nervous about his historical legacy,” he said.

“That has certainly taken a big hit, now that Trump is victorious again.”

One of the cornerstones of Obama’s political legacy is the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which made health insurance accessible to millions of people and banned denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Obama is very aware of Trump’s repeated attempts to repeal the law.

Trump issued an executive order in 2017 to reverse this, but failed to get the plan through Congress.

He called the act “crappy” and said he was working to replace it during his presidential debate with Harris in September.

Historian and biographer David Garrow wrote the biography Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama in 2017

Garrow believes the Democrats’ disastrous election result means they no longer want to be Obama’s focal point in future campaigns

Trump later denied his opposition to the ACA, claiming he had “never thought of anything like this.”

The biographer and historian added that he believes the disastrous election result for Democrats means they will no longer want to be Obama’s focal point in future campaigns.

“The conclusion for Democrats is that they have to move on from these people of the past, including Hillary Clinton, and move on to a new generation of figures who are not part of the AOC club at all,” he said, referring to the left. -wing brand Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

But the writer predicted that Barack still has enough star power to rake in big speaking fees — like the $400,000 he got for a single speech in 2017 from Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, according to the New York Times.

“I’m not sure this will necessarily subside. He still has the celebrity factor of an ex-president,” Garrow said.

The author said he expected the Obamas to “continue associating with celebrities and living on Martha’s Vineyard,” the millionaires’ playground off the coast of Massachusetts.

“I certainly expect them to spend less time in Washington after early January,” he said.

Garrow believes Michelle’s admonishment of voters considering voting for Trump in a rally speech last month hurt rather than helped Harris

Obama’s heavy-handed message to voters backfired on the campaign, he said

Obama also faced criticism for comments he made to a room of black men on October 11, in which he suggested that “brothers” who don’t vote for Kamala Harris are sexist.

“They are not under any financial pressure,” he added. “I don’t expect them to sell the DC house. They haven’t sold the house in Chicago, even though they spend about two nights there a year.”

The Obamas bought an 8,200-square-foot home in the Kalorama district of the nation’s capital in 2017 for $8.1 million.

Their 6,892-square-foot Martha’s Vineyard home on a 29.3-acre estate is estimated by Realtor.com to be worth $14 million.

They have owned their six-bed Georgian home in Chicago since 2004.

But the jewel in their real estate crown is now their three-acre property on O’ahu – the Hawaiian island where Obama was born – with breathtaking views of Waimanalo Bay.

It has been under construction since Obama bought it for $8.7 million in 2015 through Obama Foundation Chairman Marty Nesbitt.

In 2022, he was first photographed at the waterfront chatting with workers as construction apparently neared completion.

The power couple will focus on their business ventures, including their TV company Higher Ground Productions, which was behind the films Leave the World Behind and Crip Camp — which featured one or both of the Obamas as executive directors — the Barack said. documentary Our Great National Parks and the Michelle Obama Podcast.

Former First Lady Michelle, 60, also lends her personal brand to a fruit drink PLEZi, which is marketed as healthy and for younger children.

She surprised shoppers at Costco in Livermore, Northern California in September when she promoted the drink, which contains eight grams of sugar per can and 45 calories.

Garrow said Obama will not play puppet master in the Democratic party, and he believes the former president was not involved in the July impeachment of Joe Biden — but only because it would have put Biden in the shoes.

“Before Biden withdrew, I said that if he had the impression that Barack was forcing him to leave, that would be counterproductive, because Biden has had very painful feelings for eight years, that he felt that Barack did not respect him enough . Garrow said.

“I think a lot of the credit for that goes to Nancy Pelosi.”

Garrow predicted that the Obamas will now largely disappear from the political scene to hang out with celebrities on Martha’s Vineyard, where they own a summer home. They are pictured leaving a restaurant on the island in 2010

Their 6,892-square-foot Martha’s Vineyard home on a 29.3-acre estate is estimated to be worth $14 million

Garrow, who lives in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, which dashed Harris’ hopes Tuesday night when it came down to Trump, said he believes the Obamas’ heavy-handed message to voters “backfired.”

“Even before last night, I felt quite strongly that the tone and condescension with which both Barack and Michelle spoke, especially to black men, was self-defeating and even counterproductive,” Garrow told DailyMail.com.

Barack Obama was criticized for comments he made to a room of black men on October 11, saying he found a lack of “energy” that was “more pronounced among the brothers” – adding that “it made me makes one think that, well, you I just don’t feel like having a woman as president’.

Michelle Obama gave a speech on October 27 in which she took issue with Trump’s stance on abortion, admonishing men considering voting for the former president that “a vote for him is a vote against us.”

“Do not surrender our fate to people like Trump, who knows nothing about us, who has shown utter contempt for us,” she said.

Garrow believes these comments hurt rather than helped Harris.

“Certainly on the margins, I think they both did her harm,” he said.