President
Barack Obama has a message for Donald Trump — being president is
tougher than being on a reality show and the American people are too
"sensible" to elect him.
"I
continue to believe Mr. Trump will not be president," Obama said at a news
conference in California after a meeting with southeast Asian leaders.
"And the reason is that I have a lot of faith in the American people. Being
president is a serious job. It's not hosting a talk show, or a reality
show."
He
went on: "It's not promotion, it's not marketing. It's hard. And a lot of
people count on us getting it right."
The
comments marked a political resurgence for a lame-duck President in his final
year in office. Obama offered surprisingly frank assessments of the campaign to
replace him, taking shots at Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. He also
hinted hint that he was sympathetic to Hillary Clinton's position on
the difficulty of enacting political change, as she faces a tough challenge
from a candidate in Bernie Sanders, who has fired up Democratic primary
voters who are demanding sweeping reform.
But
it was the potential of a Trump administration that Obama seemed most eager to
critique.
The
presidency isn't "a matter of pandering and doing whatever will get you in
the news on a given day. And sometimes, it requires you making hard decisions
even when people don't like it," Obama said, adding that whoever succeeds
him needs to be able to reflect the importance of their office and give foreign
leaders confidence he or she knows their names and something about their
nations' histories.
Obama
also appeared to raise the question of whether Trump was prepared to be
commander-in-chief.
"Whoever's
standing where I'm standing right now has the nuclear codes with them, and can
order 21-year-olds into a firefight, and (has) to make sure that the banking
system doesn't collapse, and is often responsible for not just the United
States of America, but 20 other countries that are having big problems, or are
falling apart and are gonna be looking for us to something."
He
added: "The American people are pretty sensible, and I think they'll make
a sensible choice in the end."
Trump
responded to Obama during an event in Beaufort, South Carolina.
"He
has done such a lousy job as president," Trump said, before adding that he
didn't mind being targeted by Obama, saying he took it as a "great
compliment."
Trump
wasn't the only Republican who took a shot from the President.
When
he bemoaned Republican warnings that his nominee to replace late Justice
Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court would not even get a hearing, Obama rebuked
people who claim to be "strict interpreters" of the Constitution --
except regarding his right to propose a nominee.
That
seemed to be a clear jab at Cruz, who has helped lead calls to prevent the
president installing a nominee who could tilt the ideological balance of the
court to the left.
Rubio
also came under fire when the president mocked "a candidate who sponsored
a bill, that I supported, to finally solve the immigration problem, and he's
running away from it as fast as he can."
The
President stepped more carefully when he was asked about the Democratic race.
He opened by making it look like he was delivering a veiled endorsement of
Clinton, who is facing a stronger than expected challenge from Sanders.
"You
know, I know Hillary better than I know Bernie, because she's served in my
administration, and she was an outstanding secretary of state. And I suspect
that, on certain issues, she agrees with me more than Bernie does," Obama
said.
But
then added: "On the other hand, there may be a couple issues where Bernie
agrees with me more. I don't know, I haven't studied their positions that
closely."
Obama
who, like Sanders, once wowed young Democrats with soaring calls for change in
the 2008 election, also appeared to give credence to Clinton's election
argument that pushing through fundamental reforms is harder than it looks.
"Ultimately,
I will probably have an opinion on it, based on both -- (having) been a
candidate of hope and change and a President who's got some nicks and cuts and
bruises from -- you know, getting stuff done over the last seven years."
Obama
was clear on one thing -- he's happy not to be in the race himself.
"The
thing I can say unequivocally," he said, "I am not unhappy that I am
not on the ballot."
No comments:
Post a Comment