



President Obama has condemned the chilling Facebook Live torture video that was filmed in his home city of Chicago this week — calling it a “horrific” and “despicable” hate crime.

The commander-in-chief spoke about the savage attack during several interviews with Chicago television stations on Thursday.

“I take these things very seriously,” Obama told local CBS affiliate WBBM.

“What we have seen as surfacing, I think, are a lot of problems that have been there a long time — whether it’s tensions between police and communities [or] hate crimes of the despicable sort that have just now recently surfaced on Facebook,” he said of the video, which showed four black teens repeatedly assaulting a mentally disabled white man

Throughout the 30 minute clip, the suspects can be heard yelling “f**k Donald Trump” and “f**k white people.”

While Obama blasted the incident — calling it “horrific” and “terrible” — he insisted that it wasn’t proof of weakening race relations, but rather evidence of the increasing public exposure that’s become more prevalent today thanks to technology.

“That’s part of how we learn and how we get better,” he told CBS. “We don’t benefit from pretending that racism doesn’t exist and hate doesn’t exist. We don’t benefit form not talking about it.

“The fact that these things are being surfaced means we can solve them,” Obama continued. “But overall, what I’ve seen as president in traveling around the country, is particularly the next generation, young people, their appreciation of people different than then (who) come from different places, have different backgrounds, my daughter’s generation, they’re far more sophisticated about race, far more tolerant and embracing of diversity. So I think that over the long arc, America will keep on getting better.”

The president was supposed to be discussing his upcoming farewell address set to take place in the Windy City, but almost all the questions seemed to be focused on racial issues and urban violence.

“In some ways, we have surfaced tensions that were already there but are getting more attention,” Obama told ABC. “I came to Chicago in 1985, in the middle of Council Wars between Harold Washington and Eddie Vrdolyak. Some of your viewers are too young to remember this stuff. I promise you, for the most part, race relations have gotten better.”

Throughout each interview, POTUS described how the digital age had ultimately given Americans the ability to access more and more information about racially-motivated incidents across the country — which would have gone unnoticed in years past.

“Part of what technology allows us to see now is the terrible toll that racism and discrimination and hate takes on families and communities,” he said.

“But that’s part of how we learn and how we get better. We don’t benefit from pretending that racism doesn’t exist and hate doesn’t exist. We don’t benefit form not talking about it. The fact that these things are being surfaced means we can solve them.”

The four teens who allegedly tortured the special-needs man were each charged with a hate crime on Thursday, along with charges of felony aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

They are scheduled to appear in court Friday.

Warning: Graphic content

