Barack Obama's Tweet on Charlottesville Alt Right Rally Becomes Most Liked Post of All Time
Former U.S. President Barack Obama's tweet in response to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend has become the most liked post of all time on the social media giant.
Obama posted three tweets on Saturday, the day of the rally, each a piece of a Nelson Mandela quote. In full, Obama stated: "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."
Obama's first post, which came attached with a photo of him smiling at diverse children in a window, has been liked over 3.3 million times.
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Mandela, the former president of South Africa, made the remarks in his 1994 autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.
A Twop Blog post on the Medium website pointed out that Obama's tweet has broken the social media giant's record, and is now the most liked post of all time there.
Obama has no less than six entries in the top 10 most liked Twitter posts, and three in the top five.
His post from July 20 reading, "John McCain is an American hero & one of the bravest fighters I've ever known. Cancer doesn't know what it's up against. Give it hell, John," comes in at fourth place, with over 2 million likes, referring to former GOP presidential nominee John McCain's recent cancer diagnosis.
At number five with 1.8 million likes comes Obama's post in the wake of handing over the keys to the White House to President Donald Trump. He posted on January 20: "Hi everybody! Back to the original handle. Is this thing still on? Michelle and I are off on a quick vacation, then we'll get back to work."
The violence in Charlottesville, which led to one person being killed, has caused a storm of controversy for the Trump administration.
Aides have defended President Donald Trump's remarks that "both sides" were to blame for the chaos, referring to the counter-protesters and the alt right groups. According to Fox News, a White House memo stated that the president was "entirely correct — both sides of the violence in Charlottesville acted inappropriately, and bear some responsibility."
The memo also argued that Trump "with no ambiguity" condemned the hate groups involved in the alt right rally over the weekend, and stated that the president has been "a voice for unity and calm," and that he's "taking swift action to hold violent hate groups accountable."
