"Obama can say things that will be heard differently from the Democratic candidates for president," says Professor Grant Reeher. "He has the role of former president and that de facto gives you a statesmanlike role. And he fills that role in the way he expresses himself."

In the wake of President Trump's recent tweets about four Democratic congresswomen of color, Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science, assesses that coded racial language began to be used as a political strategy under President Richard Nixon.

Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, says that Governor Cuomo's signing of new legislation that allows Congressional committees to acquire President Trump's New York tax filings "represents a new escalation in the level of political polarization that we're seeing."