EXCLUSIVEObama's biographer reveals ex-president fears for his legacy after 'tone-deaf preaching' harmed Harris campaign
Barack Obama's biographer says the former president's tone-deaf preaching backfired tremendously in the election and may have tarnished his legacy
Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have been slammed by his biographer for 'talking down' to voters in 'tone-deaf and clueless' preaching that harmed Kamala Harris' ill-fated presidential campaign.
The effect was so bad that – combined with Donald Trump's victory – it is likely to reduce the 44th president's political relevance to 'Bill Clinton levels', David Garrow said in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.
'People do not want to be talked down to, no matter who they are,' the 71-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner said.
Obama applauds as Harris takes the stage at her rally in Clarkston, GA. The vice president recalled going to Springfield, Illinois 17 years ago to support then-Sen. Obama's run for president. During the rally, she borrowed a famous Obama phrase, 'Yes we can' and the crowd chanted it back
Garrow wrote the 2017 biography Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama. He won his Pulitzer for an earlier book on Martin Luther King.
He predicted that the Obamas will now largely vanish from the political scene to hang out with celebrities on Martha's Vineyard'.
Garrow said Tuesday's electoral rout has left Obama, 63, 'nervous' about the impact Trump could have on how he is seen by future generations.
'He has been and remains extremely concerned and nervous about his historical legacy,' he said.
'That has certainly taken a big hit with Trump once again triumphing.'
One of the major pillars of Obama's political legacy is the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which brought health insurance to millions and outlawed denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions.
Obama has been intensely aware of Trump's repeated attempts to repeal the law.
Trump issued an executive order in 2017 aimed at rolling it back, but failed to push the plan through Congress.
He called the act 'lousy' and said he was working to replace it during his presidential debate with Harris in September.
Historian and biographer David Garrow wrote the 2017 biography Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama
Garrow believes the Democrats' disastrous election result means they will no longer want the Obamas front and center in future campaigns
Trump later denied his opposition to the ACA, claiming he 'never even thought about such a thing'.
The biographer and historian added that he believes the disastrous election result for Democrats means they will no longer want the Obamas front and center in future campaigns.
'The conclusion for Democrats is that they've got to dispense with these people from the past, including Hillary Clinton too, and move to a new generation of figures who are not in the AOC club at all,' he said, referring to left-wing firebrand Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
But the writer predicted that Barack still has enough 'star-power' to pull in large speaking fees – such as the $400,000 he was paid for a single 2017 speech by Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, according to the New York Times.
'I'm not sure that would necessarily decline. He still has the celebrity factor of being an ex-president,' Garrow said.
The author said he expected the Obamas to 'continue to hang out with celebrities and live on Martha's Vineyard', the millionaires' playground island off the coast of Massachusetts.
'I certainly expect them to be spending less time in Washington after early January,' he said.
Garrow believes Michelle's admonishing voters considering voting for Trump in a rally speech last month hurt, rather than helped, Harris
Obama's heavy-handed messaging to voters 'backfired' on the campaign, he said
Obama also drew criticism for comments he made to a room of black men on October 11 suggesting that 'brothers' who don't vote for Kamala Harris are sexist
'They're not under any financial pressure,' he added. 'I don't expect them to sell the DC house. They haven't sold the Chicago house even though they spend like two nights a year there.'
The Obamas bought an 8,200 sq ft home in the Kalorama district of the nation's capital for $8.1million in 2017.
Their 6,892 sq ft Martha's Vineyard, house on a 29.3-acre estate is estimated to be worth $14million by Realtor.com.
They have owned their six-bed red-brick Georgian home in Chicago since 2004.
But the jewel in their real estate crown is now their three-acre compound on O'ahu – the Hawaiian island where Obama was born – with stunning views over Waimanalo Bay.
It has been under construction since Obama bought it for $8.7million in 2015, through the chairman of the Obama Foundation, Marty Nesbitt.
In 2022 he was pictured at the waterfront site for the first time talking with workers, when construction was apparently nearing completion.
The power couple will be keeping themselves busy with their business endeavors including their TV company Higher Ground Productions, which was behind the movies Leave the World Behind and Crip Camp – which credited one or both of the Obamas as an executive director – the Barack-narrated documentary Our Great National Parks and the Michelle Obama Podcast.
Former First Lady Michelle, 60, is also lending her personal brand to a fruit drink PLEZi, marketed as healthy and for younger kids.
She surprised shoppers at Costco in Livermore, northern California in September when she showed up promoting the drink, which has eight grams of sugar per can and 45 calories.
Garrow said Obama will not be playing puppet-master in the Democratic party, and he believes the former president was not involved in Joe Biden's ousting in July – but only because it would have made Biden dig his heels in.
'Before Biden withdrew, I said that if he had the impression that Barack was pushing him to get out, that would backfire, because Biden has had very sore feelings going back eight years now, that he didn't think Barack sufficiently respected him,' Garrow said.
'I think the "credit" for that goes largely to Nancy Pelosi.'
Garrow predicted that the Obamas will now largely vanish from the political scene to hang out with celebrities on Martha's Vineyard, where they own a summer home. They are pictured leaving a restaurant on the island in 2010
Their 6,892 sq ft Martha's Vineyard, house on a 29.3-acre estate is estimated to be worth $14million
Garrow, who lives in the crucial state of Pennsylvania that nixed Harris' hopes when it swung for Trump on Tuesday night, said he believes the Obamas' heavy-handed messaging to voters 'backfired'.
'Even before last night, I was of the quite strong belief that the tone and condescension with which both Barack and Michelle spoke, particularly towards black men, was self-defeating to the point of backfire,' Garrow told DailyMail.com.
Barack Obama drew criticism for comments he made to a room of black men on October 11, saying he detected a lack of 'energy' that was 'more pronounced with the brothers' – and added that 'it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president'.
Michelle Obama gave a speech on October 27 railing against Trump's stance on abortion, admonishing men considering voting for the former president that 'a vote for him is a vote against us'.
'Do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump, who knows nothing about us, who has shown deep contempt for us,' she said.
Garrow believes those comments hurt, rather than helped, Harris.
'Certainly at the margins, I think they both harmed her,' he said.
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