Former President Barack Obama rarely mentions Vice President JD Vance by name, but that changed this week with one of his sharpest public attacks since Vance took office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The comments immediately fueled speculation that Democrats are beginning to focus more attention on the vice president as Republicans look ahead to the post-Trump era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking Thursday during a conversation with author Malcolm Gladwell, Obama accused Vance of promoting what he described as a \u201cblood and soil\u201d vision of America, despite being married to Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obama made the remarks while discussing the Reconstruction era and arguing that many of the same debates over citizenship, voting rights and national identity continue today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a politics now that at least one of our major parties has been captured by politics that is not that subtle about suggesting that \u2018We the people\u2019 means a certain kind of people,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you have the vice president, current vice president, making a speech that is basically a blood and soil version of \u2018We the people,\u2019 that it matters who your parents were and how long they\u2019ve been here despite him being married to a daughter of an immigrant himself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The phrase \u201cblood and soil\u201d is historically associated with Nazi Germany and white nationalist ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obama went on to argue that debates over who belongs in America remain central to the nation\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat echoes, then, ideas about who can be a citizen, who belongs, who gets to make decisions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gladwell followed by accusing Vance of hypocrisy, arguing that the vice president was making what he called a nativist argument despite his own family\u2019s immigrant background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obama agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat is progress,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cListen, hypocrisy is progress. It is, because it means that you feel guilty enough to either lie to yourself or others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Vance\u2019s office for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obama did not identify the specific speech he was criticizing, but Vance\u2019s most recent nationally televised remarks came during Independence Day celebrations marking America\u2019s 250th birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In that speech, Vance encouraged Americans to reject what he called a \u201ctwo-dimensional view\u201d of the country focused only on its historical failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo what I\u2019d ask you to do, my fellow Americans, on our 250th birthday, is to reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens and reject the two-dimensional view of your country,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also emphasized that America\u2019s accomplishments were achieved by \u201ca common people working towards a common future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obama has generally avoided making Vance a regular target since the vice president took office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One notable exception came during the 2024 presidential campaign when then-Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without naming Vance directly, Obama contrasted Harris\u2019 choice with the Republican ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n