Obama urges young men not to give up on the political process

Former President Barack Obama made a direct appeal to young men not to become frustrated by the slow pace of political progress as he made the case for Vice President Kamala Harris to run for president in the opening episode of a new podcast hosted by NBA players to support.

“A lot of young people – a lot of young men – are frustrated and say, 'Well, nothing happened,'” Obama told NBA All-Star Tyrese Halliburton, 24, and producer Tommy Alter in a clip first shared with NBC News. “But let’s just say – when I was president, I didn’t cure racism or eliminate poverty. But 50 million people had health insurance. This didn’t exist before, and this has saved lives and improved people’s lives.”

Obama added that the reason for the election is because there is someone “who can see you, knows your life, cares about you” who makes “a million decisions” that will hopefully “change your life every year.” make it a little better.” ”

The Young Man and the Three podcast is a rebrand of a show called The Old Man and the Three, which had more than a million YouTube subscribers and an overwhelming young and male audience.

Obama also noted his administration's efforts to change the way nonviolent drug cases are prosecuted at the federal level, saying, “During my presidency, crime went down, and at the same time the number of people in federal prison went down . “It hasn’t eliminated criminal bias or racial bias in the criminal justice system, but it has improved it.”

Obama called the election “one of those moments where we have to sort of decide who we are as a country,” pointing to issues such as health care, the minimum wage, civil rights and policing, warning that they were all on the ballot.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that I don’t think Donald Trump is someone who works hard for ordinary people,” he said. “I think his agenda is essentially about himself. His status is ego and self-promotion.”

Harris has stepped up his efforts to win the support of black and Latino men, releasing demographic-specific policy proposals in recent weeks. Harris appeared on the “All the Smoke” podcast this month, hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.

Obama was an important part of this strategy. While public opinion polls show he is viewed favorably by the majority of voters in key swing states, he received backlash for “cursing” black men at a stop in Pittsburgh this month when he said he believed some “were “Come up with all sorts of things.” “for reasons and excuses” to withdraw from the election because they “simply don't want to have a woman as president.”

“One of the things that's a challenge for this younger generation, including, I would almost say, especially young men – and young men of color – is that you've all grown up, you were still in school when I was President and “The financial crisis has struck,” Obama said in the podcast, also mentioning the Covid pandemic.

“A lot of young men come out of school these days feeling like it's going to be difficult for me to achieve what my parents achieved, you know? “Factories are closed, or a lot of the jobs that used to exist if you didn't have a college degree are no longer there,” he continued. “But you know, what I always try to explain to people is that politics can’t solve all the problems at once.”

Obama has stormed the battleground states for the Democratic nomination, meeting Tuesday with his vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in Madison, Wisconsin, and separately with rapper Eminen in Detroit. Obama will meet with Harris for the first time this cycle on Thursday in Georgia.