Obama Released A Statement About Trump’s Refugee Ban

If you spent the weekend protesting against the refugee ban, rest assured: Former President Barack Obama has your back. On Monday, his office released a statement saying that Obama "is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country." This is the first time we've formally heard from the former president since he left office on January 20. His spokesman Kevin Lewis alluded to the Trump administration's controversial refugee ban, but didn't address it directly. "Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organise, and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake," he said. Obama has previously spoken out against a refugee or Muslim ban, Lewis continued. "With regard to comparisons to President Obama’s foreign policy decisions, as we’ve heard before, the president fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion," Lewis said. In a news conference last autumn, Obama promised to give President Trump "room to govern." But he also said he would speak out if the president violated core U.S. values and ideas.