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Former President Barack Obama.PHILIP DAVALI/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images

Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas revealed an email former President Obama sent him in 2020.

Jackson served as the White House physician for both Obama and Trump.

He mentions Obama's letter in a forthcoming book, Fox News reported Wednesday.

Former President Barack Obama admonished his former White House physician-turned-MAGA-politician in a previously unseen letter.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, a Texas Republican, revealed an email Obama sent him during the 2020 campaign in his new book, Fox News reported Wednesday. Jackson served as the White House physician for both Obama and former President Donald Trump.

Jackson told Fox News he got the stern note from Obama about 20 minutes after tweeting an attack on Biden's cognitive health, suggesting the president should be given the screener for dementia that Jackson gave Trump.

"Remember the cognitive test that I gave @realDonaldTrump?" Jackson tweeted. "The one he aced! Sounds like somebody else might need some testing done!! Scary!!"

Obama was not pleased.

"I have made a point of not commenting on your service in my successor's administration and have always spoken highly of you both in public and in private. You always served me and my family well, and I have considered you not only a fine doctor and service member but also a friend," Obama wrote in the email to Jackson, according to Fox's report.

"That's why I have to express my disappointment at the cheap shot you took at Joe Biden via Twitter," Obama continued. "It was unprofessional and beneath the office that you once held. It was also disrespectful to me and the many friends you had in our administration. You were the personal physician to the President of the United States as well as an admiral in the U.S. Navy. I expect better, and I hope upon reflection that you will expect more of yourself in the future."

The Obama foundation did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Trump popularized the test Jackson was referring to with his "person, woman, man, camera, TV" quote in an interview with Fox News.

Story continues

Jackson also gave Trump his annual physical while in office and praised the president's health, despite his weight being just a single pound below the threshold for obesity.

"The answer to your question is that he has incredibly good genes, and it's just the way God made him," Jackson told reporters when attesting to Trump's health in 2018.

Trump tapped Jackson to run the Department of Veterans Affairs that same year, but the doctor withdrew his nomination after CNN reported about his "grab and go" approach to handing out prescription pills among White House staff in the Obama administration, particularly on long trips.

Jackson was also accused of abusing White House colleagues and at times being intoxicated while at work, including at one point crashing a government vehicle while under the influence. A report by the Pentagon's inspector general last year included these allegations and others. Jackson has denied the allegations.

Jackson's book, "Holding the Line," is set for a July 26 release.

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Obama scolded former White House physician Ronny Jackson for 'cheap ...

Former President Barack Obama recently gave a speech in which he attacked the critics of identity politics.

At the June Copenhagen Democracy Summit Obama said: I have little sympathy for reactionaries who cynically condemn identity politics or cancel culture when really all theyre doing is trying to preserve existing privilege or excuse entrenched injustice, or bigotry. I mean, the original identity politics is racism and sexism and homophobia. Thats nothing if not identity politics, and its done a lot more harm than some tweet from an aggrieved liberal.

Reactionaries?

Yes, that would be the same Obama who burst on the national scene by giving a rafter-ringing keynote speech at the Boston 2004 DNC convention where he denounced identity politics. Then-Illinois state Sen. Obama said: There are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, theres not a liberal America and a conservative America theres the United States of America. Theres not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; theres the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into red states and blue states; red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats. But Ive got news for them, too. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

Days before he announced his race to become a Democratic nominee for president in 2008, Obama gave his first 60 Minutes interview:

60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft: You think the countrys ready for a black president?

Obama: Yes.

Kroft: You dont think its going to hold you back?

Obama: No. I think if I dont win this race, it will be because of other factors. Its going to be because I have not shown to the American people a vision for where the country needs to go that they can embrace.

At a 2007 speech at Brown Chapel AME church, presidential candidate Obama talked about the black struggle, how much had been achieved and what remained: The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way. They took us 90% of the way there. But we still got that 10% in order to cross over to the other side.

This is the Obama the American people assumed they had hired in November 2008. Hopeful, positive, a liberal Democrat, to be sure, but a black man who could serve, at the very least, as a racial reconciler, keenly aware of how far America has come. When he entered the Oval Office the third week of January 2009, his approval rating approached 70%. A January 2009 ABC News poll found that 58% thought race relations would improve under Obama.

But by October 2016, one month before the presidential election, a CNN/ORC poll found 54% thought race relations worsened under Obama, including 40% of blacks and 57% of whites.

Obama, as president, peddled with little evidence an ever-growing list of race grievances. The list included the Cambridge police acted stupidly; racism is still part of our DNA thats passed on; if I had a son, hed look like Trayvon (Martin); holding up Ferguson as a microcosm of racial strife in America; inviting race-hustling incendiary the Rev. Al Sharpton to the White House over 70 times; and embracing the Black Lives Matter movement, an activist organization based on the false narrative of police systemic racism against blacks.

Obama rarely missed an opportunity to be the conciliator Americans thought him to be. He knows that racism has never been a less significant factor as an obstacle to American success. His very election and re-election stand as a testament to that truth.

Obama won the presidency based on a lie. He entered the presidency as an articulate, even-tempered racial unifier and left as an articulate, even-tempered racial incendiary. Today, he plays the race card from his $12 million bunker in Marthas Vineyard.

Larry Elder is a best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an Elderado, visit LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @larryelder.

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Barack Obama plays the race card from his $12 million estate

Former President Obama said on Friday that he is shocked and saddened by the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe, the longest-serving prime minister in Japans history, was shot and killed while campaigning for his political party in the city of Kyoto. Police have arrested a suspect.

I am shocked and saddened by the assassination of my friend and longtime partner Shinzo Abe in Japan, Obama wrote in a statement. Former Prime Minister Abe was devoted to both the country he served and the extraordinary alliance between the United States and Japan.

I will always remember the work we did to strengthen our alliance, the moving experience of traveling to Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor together, and the grace he and his wife Akie Abe showed to me and Michelle, wrote Obama of Abe, adding: Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the people of Japan who are very much in our thoughts at this painful moment.

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Obama shocked and saddened by Abe assassination - The Hill

Local Lunchbox, a nutrition program that uses U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding to pay local chefs and caterers to cook healthy breakfasts and lunches for eligible children and teenagers launched this month with help from the Obama Foundation.

"It's an amazing program," said Erica S. Hubbard, the Obama Foundation's director of Chicago programs, in an interview.

The Chicago program was created in partnership with the Shah Family Foundation, the nonprofit that originated Local Lunchbox in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 2020. Hubbard said the goal in Chicago is to provide more than 100,000 meals this summer through community partners like Gary Comer College Prep, 7131 S. South Chicago Ave., and the South Side YMCA, 6330 S. Stony Island Ave. My Block, My Hood, My City is also a partner and delivers food to recipients.

The program has gotten more than $1 million in funding from USDA. So far, around 2,500 kids are getting fed.

The program is currently in the pilot phase, and the Obama Foundation plans to extend it into the fall, perhaps targeting organizations that do fall after-school programming.

The Obama Foundation hosts a free community event with Chicago-based Community Organizations, youth, parents, mentors and other key stakeholders to celebrate the launch of the Local Lunchbox Chicago pilot program at at Overton Elementary School, 221 E. 49th, July 7.

"Everyone's wishful thinking is to expand this to where our partners are able to do this on their own," Hubbard said. "We're not there yet. I think there's a lot of learning this summer. We know this is a great program. It's a great thing to be able to share these delicious and healthy meals and provide those for these kids, but we're still talking with other partners and getting other stakeholders, bringing them to the table. This is the first time this program has been to Chicago, so obviously there's going to be some initial hesitation."

The Massachusetts Local Lunchbox program has already distributed more than 5 million meals, and Hubbard is likewise confident that the program in Chicago will find similar success. More information is online at locallunchbox.org/chi.

herald@hpherald.com

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Obama Foundation launches 'Local Lunchbox' program in Chicago, feeding thousands of kids and teens - Hyde Park Herald

Colman Domingo says his younger brother gave him the best compliment about his new autobiographical animated short, New Moon.

He was overcome, Domingo tells me on this weeks episode of the Just for Variety podcast. He said, More than anything, you brought the feeling of mom back.

New Moon tells the story of a little boy who is shown how to dream by his hardworking single mom. It is based on Domingos play A Boy and His Soul.

Domingo is the voice of the narrator as well as the mother. My siblings say I have my moms voice down pat, he says. Theyre like, You sound just like mommy.

The film will screen during Outfest on July 16 in Los Angeles.

New Moon is written by Domingo and his husband and producing partner Ral Domingo. Ral co-directed with Jrmie Balais and Jeff Leffig. When the couple first made the film, they didnt know what to do with it. It was people like Ava DuVernay, Lee Daniels and Matthew Cherry who suggested they submit it to film festivals. Theyre hoping to adapt it as a television series.

I talked to Domingo just hours after he received his first Emmy nomination for his work as Ali on Euphoria. I did something that shocked me I actually started crying, Domingo says of learning he was nominated. This felt different because I know what the character represents to many people. It sounds strange, but I wanted it for all that he represents and the language that Sam [Levinson] gives me and what hes doing in the television space, which I think is a breakthrough. And this character, this Black guy whos an addict and hes trying to do some good in the world I want that to be amplified.

After our interview, Domingo was heading to his last day of shooting the Oprah Winfrey-produced The Color Purple movie musical in Atlanta. He plays Mister in the big screen adaptation of the Tony-winning stage show. The cast also includes Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia, Danielle Brooks, H.E.R., Ciara, Halle Bailey, Aunjanue Ellis and Corey Hawkins.

He recalled seeing Winfrey on set during the early days of shooting, when they were filming the final scene. Oprah was there, and she actually stood under this tree, this big, beautiful, great Oak tree, Domingo says. Oprah couldnt help herself. She came to set, and she was in the video village and all, but then at some point she was literally right under the tree. So when the camera is going around to all of us, were literally singing at Oprah. Shes so moved and shes singing with us the finale Color Purple song. So, when everyone sees our eyes in the camera going around, were actually looking at Oprah!

Also in the can is Rustin, the George C. Wolfe-directed biopic about Bayard Rustin, the late gay civil rights leader who played a crucial role in elevating Martin Luther King Jr. to national leadership. Domingo plays Rustin in his first headlining feature role.

The film is the first narrative feature produced by Barack and Michelle Obama and their production company Higher Ground. The former first couple talked with the cast over Zoom a couple of months ago. I happened to be in Cabo for a little vacationThey just wanted to connect with the whole cast, and we just talked, Domingo remembers. Anytime you hear Barack Obama saying your name, its the weirdest thing. Hed say, Oh yeah, Colman. Youre like, Oh my god, he said [my name]. You fan out, but then youre like, let me stay focused. Theyre wonderful, theyre huge champions of this film.

You can hear the full interview with Domingo above. You can also listen to Just for Variety wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

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Euphoria Star Colman Domingo on Singing for Oprah Winfrey and Zooming With the Obamas - Variety