Former President Barack Obama suggested Thursday that Vice President JD Vance was pushing a "blood and soil" vision for the country despite being married to the "daughter of an immigrant."
The vice president came up as Obama was discussing the Reconstruction era with author Malcolm Gladwell, claiming that the issues from that era are still being discussed today.
"It’s impossible to spend a lot of time thinking about Reconstruction without reflecting on the present day, right?" Obama said. "Because these issues are — well, they’re still there. If somebody is asking why it is relevant to talk about Reconstruction, I have to describe for them the degree to which we’re having the same arguments. The issues of: How are we going to help the freed people who’ve been enslaved? What are we going to give them to allow them to have a go at life? What does real freedom mean?"