In a passionate speech to the Congressional Black Caucus, President Barack Obama said he would consider it a “personal insult…to my legacy” if the black community didn’t vote in high numbers for the upcoming presidential election.
Obama gave his final keynote address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation on Saturday night. He has spoken repeatedly about the dangers of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and why he supports nominee Hillary Clinton, who also spoke at the dinner. But on Saturday he spoke in even bolder terms.
“I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election,” Obama sternly told the crowd. “You want to give me a good send-off, go vote.”
He spoke about Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters in black communities by closing polling places, increasing ID requirements and cutting off early voting. But even if those efforts were prevented, he said, African-American people would still have one of the lowest voting rates in the country.
“That’s not good,” he said. “That is on us.”
Clinton also encouraged attendees and viewers to vote, to protect and add onto the work Obama did during his two terms in office.
“We need ideas not insults, real plans to help struggling Americans in communities that have been left out and left behind, not prejudice and paranoia,” she said. “We can’t let Barack Obama’s legacy fall into the hands of someone who doesn’t understand that, whose dangerous and divisive vision for our country will drag us backwards.”
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