This past Wednesday CNN premiered its documentary on PresidentBarack Obama, The Legacy Of Barack Obama.
The two hour special explored Obama's most successful and disappointing political moves, as well as examined the gridlock that impacted the 44th president's tenure.
Some of that gridlock, as discussed in a clip taken from the documentary, was centered around Obama's race. In the minute long video the president sits down with CNN Fareed Zakaria to discuss how that played a part in his presidency.
"I think there’s a reason attitudes about my presidency among whites in northern states are very different from whites in southern states," Obama said. "Are there folks whose primary concern about me has been that I seem foreign — the other? Are those who champion the birther movement — feeding off of bias? Absolutely."
The scene then transitions to President-elect Donald Trump, the man that incited the birther movement against Obama for years, only to finally acknowledge that the president was born in the United States this year.
"The fact is if he wasn't born in this country he shouldn't be the president of the United States," Trump had said in a past interview. "Why doesn't he give his birth certificate? He says he has a birth certificate. So either they don't have one, which is very bad, or there's something on it he doesn't want people to see."
"The birther movement has roots in racism," David Axelrod, former senior advisor to Obama, said in the CNN documentary. "There's no question about it. It's indisputable that there was a ferocity to the opposition and a lack of respect to him that was a function of race."
The Legacy Of Barack Obama touches on much more, including the accomplishments President Obama made, as well as how a Trump presidency may affect the legacy Obama has created.
Check out the clip below.
