Former President Barack Obama delivered a blunt message to Democrats "not doing anything" but "whining" and curling up into "fetal positions": "Toughen up."
"What’s needed now is courage," Obama told a Friday Democrat fundraiser in New Jersey, CNN reported Monday.
"I think it's going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions – and it’s going to require Democrats to just toughen up," he reportedly told donors.
"You know, don't tell me you're a Democrat but you're kind of disappointed right now, so you're not doing anything."
"Stand" and "deliver," Obama added.
"No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something," he continued. "Don't say that you care deeply about free speech and then you're quiet.
"No, you stand up for free speech when it's hard. When somebody says something that you don't like, but you still say, 'You know what? That person has the right to speak.'"
Obama urged Democrat funding for 2025 New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races in what Republicans are making off-year battlegrounds, but can be "a big jump start for where we need to go."
"Stop looking for the quick fix," Obama said. "Stop looking for the messiah. You have great candidates running races right now. Support those candidates.
"Make sure that the DNC has what it needs to compete in what will be a more data-driven, more social media-driven cycle, which will cost some money and expertise and time."
The fundraiser hosted at New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife Tammy's Red Bank, New Jersey, home brought in $2.5 million, sources told CNN.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., the Democrat gubernatorial nominee and Democrat National Committee Chair Ken Martin were in attendance.
Obama called Sherrill and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., the Virginia Democrat gubernatorial nominee, "powerful spokespersons for a pragmatic, common-sense desire to help people and who both have remarkable track records of service."
“The most important thing you can do right now is to help the team, our candidate to win,” Obama said. "And we've got to start building up our coffers in the DNC."
It is time to "deliver for people," he added.
"There's been, I gather, some argument between the left of the party and people who are promoting the quote-unquote abundance agenda," he said. "Listen, those things are not contradictory. You want to deliver for people and make their lives better? You got to figure out how to do it.
"I don't care how much you love working people. They can't afford a house because all the rules in your state make it prohibitive to build. And zoning prevents multifamily structures because of NIMBY [not in my backyard].
"I don't want to know your ideology, because you can't build anything. It does not matter."
Obama said he's not "surprised by what Trump’s done," according to the excerpts.
"What's being asked of us is make some effort to stand up for the things that you think are right," Obama said. "And be willing to be a little bit uncomfortable in defense of your values. And in defense of the country. And in defense of the world that you want to leave to your children and your grandchildren.
"And if we all do that, if we do our jobs over the next year and a half, then I think we will rebuild momentum and we will position ourselves to get this country moving in the direction it should."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.