During an interview with former adviser David Axelrod on his podcast, President Obama said that he would have won the 2016 presidential race, arguing that “the majority does buy into the notion of a one America that is tolerant and diverse and open.”
“I am confident in this vision because I’m confident that if I — if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama told Axelrod in an interview that went online Monday. “I know that in conversations that I’ve had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would say the vision, the direction that you point towards is the right one.”
Obama’s comments drew a quick reply from Donald Trump, who said Monday afternoon that he would have beaten Obama.
President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me. He should say that but I say NO WAY! – jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2016
During the interview, Axelrod asked Obama if Hillary Clinton should have focused more on the economy.
“Look, you know, I think that Hillary Clinton performed wonderfully under really tough circumstances,” Obama responded. “I’ve said this publicly, I’ll repeat it. I think there was a double standard with her. For whatever reason, there’s been a longstanding difficulty in her relationship with the press that meant her flaws were wildly amplified relative to…”
“If you think you’re winning, then you have a tendency, just like in sports, maybe to play it safer,” the President continued. “And the economy has been improving. There is a sense, obviously, that some communities have been left behind from the recovery and people feeling anxious about that. But if she was looking at the campaign and saying OK, I’m winning right now, and her economic agenda was in fact very progressive.”
Obama said Clinton “understandably” decided to focus on Trump.
He also said that Democrats aren’t good enough at communicating their message.
“I think the issue was less that Democrats have somehow abandoned the white working class, I think that’s nonsense. Look, the Affordable Care Act benefits a huge number of Trump voters. There are a lot of folks in places like West Virginia or Kentucky who didn’t vote for Hillary, didn’t vote for me, but are being helped by this,” Obama said. “The problem is, is that we’re not there on the ground communicating not only the dry policy aspects of this, but that we care about these communities, that we’re bleeding for these communities.”
re: ISIL
screams ‘noooooooo’ and places my cover back over my head.
It’s too damn early to fact check that b.s. again. #damnyoujeb
n FTW
Part of Obama’s post presidential gig could consist of a daily 8 a.m. tweet about Trump, which would consume all of his attention for the rest of the day, and then another at 11 p.m. to keep him up all night. Trump would never sleep and would perhaps limit the damage he could do.
IF you Minus ILLegal. OterrS, black,s, women, calIfornia and New York, then Trump would win!!!
The President is right of course, but if these communities are like mine, then “we” are not even fielding candidates for several state and most local offices. I think it speaks volumes how little too many Democrats care about our communities when Republicans run unopposed for school board, county supervisor, sheriff, district attorney, judge and town clerk.
I live in WI-7, represented by Sean Duffy. A tea bagger extraordinaire, who truly stands out as an empty suit in a roomful of zeroes. His opponent, Mary Hoeft, impressively raised about $100,000 on her own. Entirely on her own. The Democratic Party, having decided that Duffy wasn’t on the targeted race list and that Mary didn’t stand a chance, offered no support whatsoever. Well guess what ladies, it’s a self fulfilling prophecy.