President Barack Obama on Monday chided the Republican presidential field, in particular Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee, for cheapening the political debate with what he said were “outrageous attacks.”
During a news conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Obama was asked to respond to a remark that Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, made over the weekend comparing a landmark nuclear deal with Iran to the Holocaust. Huckabee said that in sealing the deal, the President “will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.”
Obama said Huckabee’s remark was “part of just a general pattern that we’ve seen that would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad.”
He then suggested Huckabee may have made the comment in an effort to steal headlines away from real estate mogul Donald Trump, who’s dominated the news in recent weeks for his disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants and Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) war record, according to CBS News.
“The Republican Party is shocked and yet that arises out of a culture where those kind of outrageous attacks have become far too commonplace and yet circulated nonstop through the Internet and talk radio and news outlets,” Obama added.
The President further criticized congressional Republicans for playing “fast and loose” with the facts of the Iran deal. He pointed to presidential candidate and Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) allegation that the deal would make America a backer of “radical Islamic terrorism” and Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) comparison of Secretary of State John Kerry to Pontius Pilate.
“I have not yet heard a factual argument on the other side that holds up to scrutiny,” he said, as quoted by CBS News. “There’s a reason why 99 percent of the world thinks this is a good deal. It’s because it’s a good deal. So if you’re asking me how do you think our argument’s going, it’s going great.”
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