Barack Obama Called Donald Trump A ‘Fascist,’ Says Tim Kaine

Hillary, an upcoming biographical series about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s life, made the headlines earlier this week when Clinton repeated the criticism directed at Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In the film, she states that “nobody likes” Sanders, slamming members of his campaign as well as his supporters.

New details about the documentary have emerged. According to a report from NBC News, in a video clip featured in the documentary, Clinton’s 2016 running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, can be heard discussing a phone call with then-President Barack Obama.

“President Obama called me last night and said: ‘Tim, remember, this is no time to be a purist. You’ve got to keep a fascist out of the White House.'”

As NBC News notes, since leaving office, Obama has largely avoided publicly criticizing President Donald Trump. In a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the former president appeared to call Trump a “demagogue,” but never went as far as describing him as a “fascist.” Obama has publicly criticized some of Trump’s policy decisions but has not explicitly criticized the president.

In the documentary, according to the publication, Clinton touches upon a variety of issues, including her failed presidential campaigns. The former secretary of state also discussed Trump’s campaign and the president himself.

“He entered the campaign with such negative energy, so much vitriol … He clearly felt comfortable attacking women, relished in denigrating women,” she says in the documentary.

Clinton also talks about her emotional state after losing the election. Upon learning the results, she “went in and laid down on the bed.”

“I was thinking, ‘Wait a minute, what is happening?’ I mean, I’ve been in lots of elections and I didn’t see this coming,” Clinton says in a wide-ranging interview recorded for the documentary.

Since leaving office, Obama has seldom commented on politics, but in November 2019, he weighed in on the state of the Democratic Party. As Common Dreams reported at the time, during an event with party donors, the former president expressed concern about Democrats moving “too far left.”

Criticizing “the activist wing” of the Democratic Party, Obama said that the average American voter does not feel like the system needs to be torn down.

The comments were met with an intense backlash from the very activist wing Obama criticized, sparking a viral social media campaign, which featured prominent left-wing figures pushing back against the former president’s suggestion, and arguing that a progressive agenda championed by the likes of Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just what the American people want.