Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:31 am
Trump was called out by a reporter for lying President Obama and Russia’s annexation of Crimea during his press conference at the G7.
Video:
Journalist calls out Trump for lying about Obama. Trump responds by attacking Obama with more false claims on Russia/Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/qmeLLeynAP
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— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 26, 2019
Here was the exchange:
Q: Why did you give a misleading statement that president Putin outsmarted President Obama, why do you keep repeating what some people would see as a clear lie?
Trump: It was annexed — I know you like President Obama but it was annexed during President Obama’s term. If it was annexed during my term, I’d say, sorry, folks, I made a mistakes, or sorry, folks. President Obama was helping Ukraine. Crimea was annexed during his term. Now, it’s a very big area, very important area. Russia has its submarine. That’s where they do their submarine work and that’s where they dock large and powerful submarines but not as powerful as ours and not as large as ours but they have their submarines. And President Obama was pure and simply outsmarted. They took Crimea during his that was not a good thing. It could have been stopped, could have been stopped with the right whatever. It could have been stopped. But President Obama was unable to stop it. And it’s too bad. Go ahead.
Trump is attacking Obama with lies because he is obsessed with the fact that he can’t measure up to the former president. Trump’s political motivation is that he is worried about running against Joe Biden in 2020, so he is trying to discredit the Obama legacy. Trump needs to paint himself as a success and Obama as a failure. The problem is that the vast majority of the electorate knows the truth. Donald Trump has been a total failure as president,
Notice that when a journalist confronted Trump with the facts, they were labeled an Obama supporter by Trump. In Trump’s view, any journalist that uses facts must be an Obama supporter.
Trump is lying about Obama because Biden represents a return to the Obama years. Trump understands the power of that appeal, which is why he is cozying up to Putin and lying about former President Obama.
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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