President Obama used part of his press conference Monday at the G20 summit in Turkey to lay waste to empty slogans that some politicians develop instead of creating real plans to defeat terrorist groups.
“What I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of ‘American leadership’ or ‘America winning’ or whatever other slogans they come up with that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people,” Obama said as part of an extended response to a reporter’s question.
The answer included an anecdote about visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to visit wounded veterans, an example what happens when “tough” posturing meet reality.
Almost immediately, however, Republican politicians and conservative pundits took a truncated version of the quote to say that the President had just declared he was “not interested” in “America winning.”
Here’s what Obama really said about ‘America winning’
What I do not do is to take actions either because it is going to work politically or it is going to somehow in the abstract make America look tough. Or make me look tough.
And maybe part of the reason is because every few months I go to Walter Reed and I see a 25 year old kid who is paralyzed or who has lost his limbs and some of those are people I’ve ordered into battle.
And so I can’t afford to play some of the political games that others may. We’ll do what’s required to keep the American people safe. And I think it’s entirely appropriate in a democracy to have a serious debate about these issues. If folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan. If they think that somehow their advisers are better than the chairman of my Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them. And we can have that debate.
But what I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership, or America winning or whatever other slogans they come up with, that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people. And to protect people in the region who are getting killed. And to protect our allies in people like France. I’m too busy for that.
How Republicans and conservatives reacted on Twitter
President Obama doesn’t understand we are at war. Defeating ISIS requires America leading and America winning. https://t.co/OBawzKIRaF
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) November 16, 2015
What are you interested in? America winning, or climate change? We know which one Obama attracts Obama’s attention.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) November 16, 2015
President Hashtag says he’s not interested in pointless slogans about American national security #BringBackOurGirls https://t.co/UmeUkDcHyY
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) November 16, 2015
Kinda feel like Obama’s gone Full Matt Foley. “Look, I’m not interested in [airquote] American leadership, or [airquote] America winning…”
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) November 16, 2015
Can you imagine any other wartime president saying he’s not interested in pursuing some “notion” of America winning? Good Lord.
— CamEdwards (@CamEdwards) November 16, 2015
Obama: wont adopt “America winning, America leads’ slogans'”-” I don’t have time for that.” Same time, French Prez Hollande: “We are at war”
— Andrea Tantaros (@AndreaTantaros) November 16, 2015
So apparently the president thinks “America winning” is a slogan.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) November 16, 2015
“What I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of ‘American leadership’ or ‘America winning”’ –POTUS
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) November 16, 2015
How conservative news sites portrayed the quote
Breitbart used all capital letters.
So did Instapundit:
Here’s how The Washington Times characterized the news conference:
President Obama showed a flash of anger Monday with Republican critics of his anti-terrorism strategy, saying he is ‘too busy’ to engage in a rhetorical debate with them.
