President Obama Goes Fact Checker In Chief And Blasts The Media And Trump

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:00 pm

President Obama issued a stern warning to the media that they need not to get caught up the spectacle and report the truth about Donald Trump and his positions.

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President Obama said, “I just want to emphasize that we are in serious times and this is a really serious job. This is not entertainment. This not a reality show. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States.”

Obama said that the presidential candidates should be held exacting standards and genuine scrutiny.

The President continued:

It means that you gotta make sure that their budgets add up. It means that if they say they’ve got an answer to a problem that it is actually plausible and that they have details for how it would work. If it is completely implausible and would not work, that needs to be reported. The American people need to know that.

They take a position on international issues that could threaten war or has the potential of upending our critical relationships with other countries, or would potentially break the financial system that needs to be reported.

And the one thing that I’m going to really be looking for over the next six months is that the American people are effectively informed about where candidates stand on the issues, what they believe, making sure that their numbers add up, making sure that their policies have been vetted and that candidates are held to what they said in the past. And if that happens, I’m confident that our democracy will work, and that’s true whether we’re talking about Mr. Trump, Ms. Clinton, Bernie Sanders or anybody else. But what I am concerned about is the degree to which reporting and information starts emphasizing the spectacle and the circus, because that’s not something we can afford. The American people they’ve got good judgment. They’ve got good instincts as long as they get good information.

The President never connected Trump’s name to any policies that he mentioned, but he didn’t have to. Obama was referring to Trump’s plan to build a wall, deport Hispanics, ban Muslims. His “plan” to deal with ISIS, which involves US troops involved in a new Middle East ground war. Trump’s idea to impose taxes and tariffs that would harm the US economy.

All of these elements of Trump’s candidacy have been neglected because the media is fixated by Trump’s insults and tabloid talk.

President Obama has put Republicans and the media on alert that he will be watching, and his biggest role in the 2016 president campaign might be to make sure that voters get the facts about the real agenda of Donald Trump.

Trump’s reality TV show antics will no match for Obama’s bully pulpit.

Jason Easley

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