Outspoken liberal filmmaker Oliver Stone has been highly critical of President Barack Obama in the past, but some may find his latest rhetoric beyond the pale.
After saying last year, while promoting his book The Untold History of the United States, that he finds Obama “scary,” the Any Given Sunday director now calls the president a reptile.
“Obama is a snake,” Stone told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Monday. “He’s a snake. And we have to turn on him.”
The remarks were in reference the controversial NSA surveillance policies endorsed by the Obama administration, which Stone believes are invasive and undemocratic.
Stone has also commended leaker Eric Snowden, who is currently residing in Russia after exposing secret aspects of the NSA program.
“I’m proud of him for doing it,” Stone said of Russian President Vladimir Putin for granting Snowden asylum. “We need more countries to stand up to the U.S.”
Back in 2012, Stone said, “the country Obama inherited was indeed in shambles, but Obama took a bad situation and, in certain ways, made it worse.”