Barack Obama Called Out GOP Presidential Candidates Nikki Haley And Tim Scott Over Race Relations. Here's What They Said In Response.

A former president had some strong words about two candidates running for president in the 2024 election. Here’s a look at what was said.

What Happened: The 2014 election is over a year away, and more candidates are throwing their hats into the ring. Many polls show former President Donald Trump in the lead among GOP candidates, with others trailing far behind.

Two of the GOP candidates that trail Trump were the subject of comments made by Barack Obama, former president of the United States.

Speaking with Democratic strategist David Axelrod, Obama called out the history of minority candidates representing the GOP.

“There’s a long history of African American or other minority candidates within the Republican Party who will validate America and say, ‘Everything’s great, and we can make it,’” Obama said, as reported by the New York Post.

“I’m not being cynical about Tim Scott individually, but I am maybe suggesting the rhetoric of ‘Can’t we all get along.’ That has to be undergirded with an honest accounting of our past and our present,” he said.

In an interview with Mark Levin last week, Scott argued that Obama struggled with race relations while serving as president.

“Mark, he missed a softball moving at slow speed with a big bat,” Scott said. “You can’t miss this opportunity. America was hungry for bringing our country together, this coalition-building where you can see Black kids and white kids and red ones and brown ones, as MLK spoke about, joining hands.”

Scott said the far left does not want a conservative Black person.

“Democrats deny our progress to protect their power. The left wants you to believe faith in America is a fraud and progress in our nation is a myth,” Scott said.

Obama added that Nikki Haley has a “similar approach.”

Haley offered a comment to the New York Post, taking on Obama.

“Barack Obama set minorities back by singling them out as victims instead of empowering them. In America, hard work and personal responsibility matter,” Haley told the Post. “My parents didn’t raise me to think that I would forever be a victim.”

Related Link: Did Nikki Haley Just Take A Digt At Trump's Age? 

Why It’s Important: Obama, Haley and Scott have all broken barriers in politics. Obama became the first Black president when he won the 2008 election. Haley was the first Indian American to serve in the cabinet of a president and the second Indian American to be governor. Scott became the first Black senator representing the state of South Carolina.

Obama is a Democrat and will likely support Joe Biden, who was previously Obama's vice president during the former's eight years in the White House.

A recent Morning Consult poll showed Scott and Haley ranking fourth and fifth respectively in the GOP race. Scott got 4% of support and Haley got 3% of support, trailing the 59% for Trump, 19% for Ron DeSantis and 8% for Mike Pence.

Read Next: GOP Presidential Candidate Tim Scott Lashes Out On Biden's Inflationary Policies, Reckless Spending 
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