Recently, the mayor of London blasted President Barack Obama’s opposition to the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, suggesting in an op-ed that Obama’s background and values are at odds with the British people.
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, welcomed the President to the city with a fiery broadside describing Obama as “incoherent,” “inconsistent,” and “downright hypocritical.”
In a phrase that evoked racist jibes in the United States, Johnson described Obama as “the part-Kenyan president” in an article for The Sun published Friday.
The mayor recalled an oft-repeated (and debunked) story about Obama returning the bust of Winston Churchill to the British embassy in Washington upon taking office. Watch video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwsMxGDEh78
A conservative who has been mayor of London since 2008, Johnson attacked Obama for supporting the British government’s position against a so-called Brexit.
Boris, a skeptic of the EU, whose decision to back out of Brexit has upset British politics remarked that the United States would not dream of embroiling itself in anything of the kind. Johnson said:
“For the United States to tell us in the UK that we must surrender control of so much of our democracy — it is a breathtaking example of the principle of do-as-I-say-but-not-as-I-do,” “It is incoherent. It is inconsistent, and yes, it is downright hypocritical.”
” The Americans would never contemplate anything like the EU, for themselves or for their neighbors in their own hemisphere, why should they think it right for us?”
Concluding his piece, Johnson invoked the spirit of the early Obama, using his ” Yes We Can” slogan when it came to taking back control of the borders, money and the European system of government with this quote:
“Britians should stand on our own two feet, building a new and prosperous relationship with the rest of the EU, based on free trade and intergovernmental cooperation, speaking up for the hundreds of millions around the continent who also feel estranged from the Brussels project, and become once again be the champions of democracy.” he said.
It is ironic that Conservatives both here and abroad share the same rhetoric of obstruction and division. It is even more troubling that a politician from another country feels comfortable enough to insult our president by using the very same right wing expressions the GOP uses without any blowback.
Featured image via Google Image available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license
Video via You Tube
