Obama won’t be a day to day critic of Trump, but former White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that the former president is watching and will speak out.
Video of former White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on MSNBC:
Earnest told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, “I think what would motivate President Obama to reengage in the political process is if we saw the federal government cross some clear red lines in terms of long observed norms and values that frankly, I think we’ve started to take for granted, so one example that President Obama has himself cited in the past is if we saw the federal government begin to use the information that was submitted by Dreamers to round them up and send them out of the country that would represent a broken promise to those Dreamers, you know, we made a promise to them that information we collected would not be used for enforcement purposes. It also would be a pretty stark departure from the values of this country.”
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Obama isn’t going to come back and criticize Trump over Washington legislative process. Each president is allowed to have their own agenda and policy priority. Obama doesn’t support cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans, but Trump does. Trump is president, so he gets to push that policy.
Obama is not going to stand around and do is allow the values of this country to be betrayed.
For a president as young as Obama, it is a fine line. He wants to respect the office of the presidency and let the next president do the job, but he also has a lot left in the tank as far as a leader is concerned. Former President Obama was never going to talk about or criticize Trump in his first speech back, but what he did do was lay out his values and make it clear that he is still going to influence politics in this country.
The point is that Obama is watching, and if Trump starts destroying American values, the former president will speak out and lead.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
