Harry Belafonte criticizes President Obama saying 'his mission has failed'

Singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte had some harsh words for President Barack Obama and congress over the debt ceiling debate.
During the Television Critics Association Press Tour, where he was promoting his upcoming HBO documentary "Sing Your Song," Belafonte told reporters, "Barack Obama and his mission has failed because it has lacked a certain kind of moral courage, a certain kind of moral vision that we are in need of." According to the Wall Street Journal, he later added, "There is still a lot of opportunity for that corner to be turned."

"When he said, 'Yes, we can,' it may have been politically clever," Belafonte continued. "He never defined for us what he said ... So those of us who felt that we needed change filled in that space with our own images of what we thought he meant only to find out we are all disappointed because none of those things have been satisfied."

The 84-year-old singer is known for the "Banana Boat Song" and has been dubbed "the king of Calypso." He also took Congress to task saying, "My question would be to the Congress and to the President and to a lot of institutions in the United States of power, 'What happened to moral truth? What happened to moral courage? Why has it been so eliminated from our DNA?"

Belafonte is not the first celebrity to criticize the president. Ted Nugent called President Obama a "clueless, rookie president." Clint Eastwood claimed he was "not a fan" of the president's work and Peter Fonda called President Obama a "traitor" over his handling of the Gulf oil spill.

"Sing Your Song" is a documentary set to air on HBO on October 17.