Obama says 'racism,' 'mommy issues' are contributing to lack of progress in U.S.

Obama told an audience gathered in Chicago on Monday night that the United States isn’t making progress in tackling major issues because it is mired in hate, anger and racism “and all this other stuff.”

“We’ve already got the answers to the problems,” the former president told the crowd at the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit. “We know climate change is real. We’ve already got the technology and the science to reverse climate change. We’ve already got the technology and the science to deal with a lot of these diseases. We’ve already got the best ideas and theories and philosophies about how you organize folks and how you get them to cooperate. But we’re not making progress and the reason we’re not making progress is because we’re still mired in hate and anger and racism and misogyny and all this other stuff. Literally we could remake the world right now, which desperately needs remaking in lots of ways.”

Obama has not mentioned President Donald Trump by name for months, even as he campaigned aggressively against GOP candidates in the midterm elections on behalf of Democrats. Trump has made frequent use of his predecessor as a political cudgel, including spearheading the birther movement that questioned Obama’s citizenship during the Democrat’s presidency.