POLITICUSUSA
In an interview with former campaign manager David Plouffe, former President Barack Obama said President Donald Trump “takes responsibility for nothing but takes credit for everything,” behavior that would benefit him should the conditions surrounding the novel coronavirus pandemic improve.
Barack Obama has endorsed a huge number of candidates in upcoming elections across the country. The former president publicly backed 118 people in what’s been described as “the first wave of endorsements.”
Donald Trump claimed on Monday that he has a higher approval rating than Barack Obama had at this point in his presidency. The President is relying on a friendly pollster.
Trump pointed to numbers from Rasmussen – a favorite pollster of his that typically skews to the right and has been widely criticized by other prominent polling organizations.
During this past week many of us mourned the loss of John Lewis and the kind of greatness he had. The iconic civil rights leader was a man who refused to give up or give in after being beaten within an inch of his life. Those who knew him described him as someone you just had to love. Even Moscow Mitch had to take a moment to speak well of John Lewis.
When long-serving and revered lawmakers pass away, it is customary for past and current Presidents to attend the funeral. This hasn’t been the case with Donald Trump. At the request of the family, Trump was not invited to the funeral of legendary Republican John McCain.
While Trump did attend the services for former President George H.W. Bush, he was largely boxed out by the previous Presidents who were these. George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won’t need to box Trump out at John Lewis’ funeral as the current President will not be in attendance.
CNN’s Stephanie Gallman reports, “Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama will be attending and participating in Congressman John Lewis’s funeral Thursday in Atlanta. President Obama will deliver the eulogy.”
JUST IN – Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama will be attending and participating in Congressman John Lewis’s funeral Thursday in Atlanta. President Obama will deliver the eulogy.
— Stephanie Gallman (@sgallman)
July 29, 2020
The Biden campaign has released a teaser video of a conversation between Joe Biden and Barack Obama where the two men will apparently critique Donald Trump.
The socially distant conversation will be released on Thursday, 23 July but the the former Vice President’s campaign released some quotes and a short video clip on Wednesday.
“Can you imagine standing up when you were president and saying ‘it’s not my responsibility. I take no responsibility. Literally. Literally,” Biden says in the video.
Watch the video:
44 + 46
7.23.20 pic.twitter.com/ZCQ2SazieH
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 22, 2020
Barack Obama is reportedly not happy with Donald Trump for using the terms “kung flu” and “China virus” to refer to Covid-19. The former president made the comments at a fundraiser.
Obama criticized Trump’s use of the racially charged terms on Thursday. He was raising money for former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
“I don’t want a country in which the president of the United States is actively trying to promote anti-Asian sentiment and thinks it’s funny,” Obama said.
“I don’t want that. That still shocks and pisses me off.”
The New York Times reported that Obama told an aide Trump has “no idea what he’s doing.” This followed a meeting between the two men in 2016.
Obama also tries to avoid mentioning Trump’s name. The Democrat is “so determined to avoid uttering the new president’s name that one aide jokingly suggested they refer to him as ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’ — Harry Potter’s archenemy, Lord Voldemort.”
Trump has repeatedly referred to Coronavirus as “kung flu” or “China virus.” Early on in the pandemic, the term “Wuhan virus” was popular among the President’s supporters.
Many critics have pointed out that
these terms are racist
Barack Obama and Joe Biden raised a record-breaking $11 million with a virtual fundraiser on Tuesday. It’s the largest single amount raised by a campaign event so far.
The event brought in $7.6 million from around 175,000 grassroots donors and a further $3.4 million from part of the event aimed at private donors. This makes it the former Vice President’s most successful fundraiser yet.
Former President Obama spoke glowingly of the Democratic nominee.
“I am here to say that help is on the way if we do the work, because there’s nobody that I trust more to be able to heal this country and get it back on track, than my dear friend Joe Biden,” he said.
“We can’t be complacent or smug or suggest that somehow it’s so obvious that this president hasn’t done a good job because, look, he won once, and it’s not like we didn’t have a good clue as to how he was going to operate the last time,” Obama said.
Obama endorsed Biden in April once it had become clear he was the presumptive nominee. The former president also addressed the recent protests.
“I’ve run into some folks who are active in the current demonstrations and protests, are passionate about issues, but have voiced or bought into this notion that somehow electoral politics isn’t connected to what’s happening,” he said.
“In the words of Dr. King … pursuing justice, it’s never an either-or proposition, it is a both-and proposition,” he said.
“We have to raise awareness and disrupt the status quo. In order to create space for change.”
Election analysts view Obama and his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, as
major assets for the Biden campaign
Barack Obama will hold a fundraiser for Joe Biden next week following his endorsement of his former vice president. The online event will aim to raise more than $1 million.
The former president will lead the online event aimed at raising small dollar donations from tens of thousands of donors, according to an invitation seen by Axios.
The campaign hopes to out raise a recent online fundraiser hosted by former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. That event brought in more than $1 million from around 36,000 donors.
Obama will ask donors to give ” any amount you can” to help fight “the most important election of our lifetimes”
The former president has asked that “Americans of all backgrounds and political stripes to join together” for the fundraiser and, presumably, the campaign.
Though the invitation did not address the recent protests about the death of George Floyd directly, it does hint that Obama could raise the matter during the event.
A vote for Biden would mean that “[A]l of us are equal and each of us should have the chance to make of our lives what we will,” Obama said.
Biden has enjoyed strong fundraising numbers so far. His combined total with the Democratic National Committee for May was $81 million – the most they’ve raised in one month so far.
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A former Secretary of Defense offered faint praise of Donald Trump over the weekend. Robert Gates pointed to the President’s success in not starting any wars over the last four years.
Gates served under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He’s also previously spoken critically of Vice President Joe Biden. He told Meet the Press on Sunday that Trump had had some success.
“Unlike his three predecessors, and I write about this in the book, at least he hasn’t started any new wars, and he has robustly funded the military. I supported his outreach to North Korea,” Gates told Chuck Todd.
“It hasn’t come to anything, but I thought that was a bold move and everything else had failed in the previous 25 years.”
“I thought his challenging China was about time, but there’s the other side of the coin.”
“Some of the things he says, his treatment and words about military people and military heroes like John McCain that I admire a lot that are really troublesome.”
Gates also address his previous criticism of Biden, who is now the Democratic presidential nominee. Gates had said Biden was “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue.”
“I think the important thing is the quality of his character is important,” Gates said on Sunday.
“I have a lot of policy disagreements frankly with the former vice president, but I think one of the things that people will be weighing this fall is probably the character of the two contestants.”
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Former President Obama told the nation that every single American can both protest and vote, and that is a message that scares Trump.
Barack Obama has called on protesters not to participate in violence as they campaign for justice for George Floyd. The former president offered advice on fighting racial injustice.
Obama published an article on Medium on Monday entitled “How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change.”
“As millions of people across the country take to the streets and raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing problem of unequal justice, many people have reached out asking how we can sustain momentum to bring about real change,” Obama wrote.
I wrote out some thoughts on how to make this moment a real turning point to bring about real change––and pulled together some resources to help young activists sustain the momentum by channeling their energy into concrete action. https://t.co/jEczrOeFdv
Former President Barack Obama’s popularity has endured since he left office, and the latest Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey obtained by Politico indicates that 54 percent of respondents would vote for Obama and 43 percent would vote for President Donald Trump if an election was held today. Only three percent of respondents said they were unsure how they’d vote.
The poll, paid for by Eric Schmeltzer, a progressive public relations consultant, is, of course, a hypothetical as Obama cannot run for office again because he’s already served two terms.
“IN RECENT DAYS, President DONALD TRUMP and his administration have reinjected BARACK OBAMA into the political fray. Privately around town, some Republicans have wondered about the wisdom of doing that, since polls consistently show that OBAMA is one of the best-liked people in public life,” according to Politico’s Playbook.
Trump lashed out at the former president last week after news outlets obtained a tape of a web talk between the former president and members of the Obama Alumni Association in which he said the “rule of law is at risk” in the United States after it emerged the Justice Department dismissed the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“The news over the last 24 hours I think has been somewhat downplayed – about the justice department dropping charges against Michael Flynn,” Obama reportedly said.
“And the fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury [in fact Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI] just getting off scot-free. That’s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic – not just institutional norms – but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk,” he continued. “And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as we’ve seen in other places.”
In response, Trump peddled an unsubstantiated “Obamagate” conspiracy theory, and even before that was criticized for retweeting a conspiracy theory suggesting that Obama “was the one running the Russian hoax.”
Conservative Bill O’Reilly complained on Monday that the media is treating Donald Trump differently than Barack Obama when it comes to drug use. He defended the President taking a potentially dangerous drug.
The former Fox News personality tweeted about Trump’s claim that he’s been taking hydroxychloroquine. The President hyped the drug as a treatment for Coronavirus against medical advice.
“Barack Obama said he used cocaine in high school and the press didn’t care,” O’Reilly said.
Barack Obama said he used cocaine in high school and the press didn’t care. So why the angst against President Trump for taking hydroxychloroquine? If the remedy is useless, so what? Why do they care?
Karl Rove has likened Barack Obama’s recent comments to a “drive-by shooting” during a Fox News appearance on Monday. Obama had criticized the Trump administration.
Rove was senior advisor to former President George W. Bush and he’s now a Fox News contributor. President Obama’s comments did not land well with him.
“It is so unseemly for a former president to take the virtual commencement ceremony for a series of historically black colleges and universities and turn it into a political drive-by shooting,” Rove said.
“This is a moment where these young graduates that could be inspired to a life of service, to recognize that life is going to bring challenges and how we handle the challenges it’s going to demonstrate our character, there are lots of positive messages that the former president could have delivered.”
Watch the video:
"It is so unseemly for a former president to take the virtual commencement ceremony for a series of historically black colleges and universities and turn it into a political drive-by shooting" — Karl Rove on Obama's commencement speech in which he indirectly criticized Trump pic.twitter.com/stZamQFhgF
President Donald Trump continued promoting his “Obamagate” conspiracy theory on Twitter this morning in a joint attack against former President Barack Obama and media organizations that have printed unfavorable coverage of his presidency.
First Trump thanked the hosts of “Fox and Friends” for “covering, supremely, the greatest political scandal in the history of the United States, OBAMAGATE.” He added: “Fake News @CNN and Concast’s own MSDNC are only trying to make their 3 year Con Job just go away. They are embarrassed and don’t know what to do.”
He then assailed The New York Times and The Washington Post as “a disgrace to journalism,” and said that “They are all Fake News, and they know it better than anyone else. History is unfolding, and it is not a pretty picture for ‘journalism.'”
Thank you to @foxandfriends for covering, supremely, the greatest political scandal in the history of the United States, OBAMAGATE. Fake News @CNN and Concast’s own MSDNC are only trying to make their 3 year Con Job just go away. They are embarrassed and don’t know what to do….
Donald Trump has suggested that Barack Obama and Joe Biden should be in prison. The President blamed the two Democrats for conspiring against him as part of the “Obamagate” conspiracy theory.
Trump spoke to Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview that aired on Thursday. He reiterated his claims about the former president and vice president working against his administration.
“If I were a Democrat instead of a Republican, I think everybody would’ve been in jail a long time ago, and I’m talking with 50-year sentences,” Trump told Bartiromo.
Watch the video:
"If I were a Democrat instead of a Republican, I think everybody would've been in jail a long time ago, & I'm talking with 50-year sentences…people should be going to jail for this stuff…this was all Obama. This was all Biden": Trump suggests Obama & Biden should be in prison pic.twitter.com/MOwPvpYRu4
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized former President Barack Obama after news outlets obtained a tape of a web talk between the former president and members of the Obama Alumni Association in which he said the “rule of law is at risk” in the United States after it emerged the Justice Department dismissed the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“I think President Obama should have kept his mouth shut,” McConnell said in an interview with Trump 2020 senior adviser Lara Trump on an episode of Team Trump Online! “You know, we know he doesn’t like much (what this) administration is doing, that’s understandable. But I think it’s a little bit classless, frankly, to critique an administration that comes after you. You had your shot, you were there for eight years.”
“Generally former presidents just don’t do that,” he added, pointing to the tradition started by the Bush administration to not criticize presidential successors.
“The news over the last 24 hours I think has been somewhat downplayed – about the justice department dropping charges against Michael Flynn,” Obama reportedly said on the recording.
“And the fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury [in fact Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI] just getting off scot-free. That’s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic – not just institutional norms – but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk,” he continued. “And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as we’ve seen in other places.”
The former president’s comments prompted President Donald Trump to launch into an “Obamagate” conspiracy theory.
OBAMAGATE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2020
He got caught, OBAMAGATE! https://t.co/oV6fum0zIS
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2020
Larry Kudlow says he doesn’t know why Barack Obama is criticizing the Trump administration on Coronavirus. The former president has slammed Kudlow’s boss for incompetence.
Kudlow is one of President Donald Trump’s economic advisors, but he tackled the subject of Covid-19 politics on Sunday. Kudlow spoke to ABC News about Obama’s leaked remarks.
He said Obama “sounds so darn political.”
“With all due respect to the former president, and I really don’t want to get into a political back-and-forth, I just don’t know what he’s talking about,” Kudlow said.
He claimed the Trump administration was relying “heavily on the smartest people in this country” in its response to the global pandemic.
Watch the video:
Larry Kudlow says Obama's criticism of federal response to COVID-19 “sounds so darn political.”
While it “may not be 100 percent perfect,” we “created a massive health and safety infrastructure” to deal with the pandemic and “it’s working,” Kudlow adds. https://t.co/gV9k1u7NxS pic.twitter.com/RgW5yJcYJl
President Donald Trump attacked former President Barack Obama, launching into an “Obamagate” conspiracy after news outlets obtained a tape of a web talk between the former president and members of the Obama Alumni Association in which he said the “rule of law is at risk” in the United States after it emerged the Justice Department dismissed the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“OBAMAGATE!” Trump wrote. He spent the rest of the night peddling numerous conspiracy theories.
OBAMAGATE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2020
He got caught, OBAMAGATE! https://t.co/oV6fum0zIS
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2020