Barack Obama: “We have been given the opportunity to change our country for the better.”

I’m going to insist that we can do better than we’re doing right now.

It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say.

The effort, he said, “should outrage all Americans, regardless of how they feel about Congresswoman Omar’s political views.”

Because if this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her — or that future presidents, in either party, won’t do the same.