How Obama maneuvered behind the scenes to fight Trump on redistricting
The ex-president’s involvement reflects the deep anxieties he has about Trump’s agenda and has propelled him into a more political, public-facing role than he envisioned.
In late July, Barack Obama spoke with his former attorney general, Eric Holder, about how Democrats should respond to President Donald Trump’s
unprecedented mid-decade push to add five favorable U.S. House seats to protect the Republican majority. They had each spent days conflicted about what to do.
Both had previously championed nonpartisan redistricting. But they agreed that letting Trump’s effort in Texas go unanswered wasn’t an option. They kept coming back to a
plan from California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) that would offset the move with five new Democratic-leaning seats. Within days, Holder drafted a statement endorsing the proposal and ran it by the former president, who quickly signed off. It marked a stark shift that, in their view, was a sign of the emergency measures they believed were required.
“We’re doing things that kind of go against what we talked about,” Holder said. But they decided, “we have to preserve our democracy if ultimately we’re going to heal it.”
That phone call set in motion an urgent behind-the-scenes effort by the former president to rally support for
California’s Proposition 50, which is on the ballot in a Nov. 4 special election. If successful, it would mark a concrete
countermeasure against Trump’s agenda less than a year into his second term — the kind that Obama has increasingly come to believe is necessary.
Obama’s involvement in the redistricting fight is a reflection of the deep anxieties he harbors about Trump’s second term, according to multiple people familiar with his thinking. It has propelled the ex-president into a more
political and public-facing role than he once envisioned. With his enduring popularity and the party still struggling to unite behind new leaders after losing the White House and Congress, no other Democrat commands his level of authority or reach.
“I think it’s really clear that President Obama left office fully intending to play the role that traditionally had been played by former presidents, and that is to go about their interests, professional and otherwise, and leaving the governance up to their successors,” said Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-South Carolina), a longtime Obama ally. But, he added, “we are not living in ordinary times. And extraordinary times require extraordinary action.”
This article is based on interviews with 19 people, including those close to Obama and Newsom, as well as Democratic strategists and outside advisers, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Obama declined to be interviewed.
The ex-president has grown especially worried that some lawmakers and voters are not
confronting Trump with the same urgency they showed during his first term — and that major institutions, including
universities and
law firms, have too often capitulated to Trump’s demands, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
www.reuters.com
