The Missouri Legislative Black Caucus released a statement on Wednesday condemning President Donald Trump’s racist and since-deleted social media post that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle.
“This behavior is vile, dehumanizing, and beneath the dignity of any American, let alone the person in the highest public office in our country,” MLBC Chair Rep. Michael Johnson, D-Kansas City, said in a news release. “Such imagery is not accidental or harmless. It echoes some of the most hateful and shameful racist tropes in our nation’s history. It is an intentional attempt to demean, divide, and inflame.”
Trump’s account on his social media platform Truth Social shared the post last week. The post was taken down after about 12 hours following outrage from both Democrats and Republicans, according to reporting from CNN.
The video promoted false claims that voting machines helped steal the 2020 election, and the Obamas appeared briefly at the end, depicted as apes.
The White House blamed a staffer for the video.
In the news release, the MLBC called on Missouri’s Republican officials that have been supportive of Trump to publicly denounce his behavior.
“It’s time to stand up and speak out against racism and bigotry,” MLBC Vice Chair Rep. Yolonda Fountain Henderson, D-St. Louis, said in the release. “The time for political courage is now. We must fight back against these attacks that are only meant to divide us.”
