Tag: Barack Obama

Trump lashes out at Obama in Mother’s Day tweetstorm

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Sunday repeatedly lashed out on Twitter at former President Obama, days after reports that Obama had expressed concern over the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Trump spent much of his Mother’s Day tweeting and retweeting various accounts, with many of the posts aimed at his predecessor. In one tweet he simply wrote “OBAMAGATE!” In another post, in which he retweeted a supporter’s declaration that Obama was “the first Ex-President to ever speak against his successor,” Trump wrote, “He got caught, OBAMAGATE!”

Earlier on Sunday, Trump retweeted conservative commentator Buck Sexton, who claimed that “the outgoing president” — an apparent reference to Obama — “used his last weeks in office to target incoming officials and sabotage the new administration.” Trump in his retweet wrote, “The biggest political crime in American history, by far!” Sexton is a former employee of Hill.TV. Continue reading.

Exclusive: Obama says in private call that ‘rule of law is at risk’ in Michael Flynn case

WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama, talking privately to ex-members of his administration, said Friday that the “rule of law is at risk” in the wake of what he called an unprecedented move by the Justice Department to drop charges against former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn.

In the same chat, a tape of which was obtained by Yahoo News, Obama also lashed out at the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as “an absolute chaotic disaster.”

“The news over the last 24 hours I think has been somewhat downplayed — about the Justice Department dropping charges against Michael Flynn,” Obama said in a web talk with members of the Obama Alumni Association. Continue reading.

Fact-checking Trump’s knocks at Obama in his Fox town hall

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s virtual town hall on Fox News on May 3 sounded like an oral reading of our Trump database of false or misleading claims (or our upcoming book, “Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth,” being published June 2 by Scribner). There were so many old chestnuts, from his false claims about NATO spending to his tale that the United States has spent $8 trillion on Middle East wars to his ahistorical bragging that he had built the greatest economy in the history of the world.

But the president’s favorite foil is his predecessor, Barack Obama. Anything Obama did is inherently suspect, in Trump’s telling, and anything Trump has done is surely superior.

We’ve also covered many of these in the past, such as his attacks on Obama’s successful handling of the swine flu pandemic. But here are two repeated claims that we have not had the opportunity to unravel previously. We will deal with them quickly in this roundup, so we won’t be awarding Pinocchios. Continue reading.

Trump’s bizarre effort to tag Obama’s swine flu response as ‘a disaster’

Washington Post logo“Biden/Obama were a disaster in handling the H1N1 Swine Flu. Polling at the time showed disastrous approval numbers. 17,000 people died unnecessarily and through incompetence! Also, don’t forget their 5 Billion Dollar Obamacare website that should have cost close to nothing!”

— President Trump, in a tweet, April 17

As the coronavirus pandemic emerged, President Trump quickly sought to compare his performance to the pandemic that appeared in 2009 under the watch of his predecessor, Barack Obama. He called it a “big failure” and a “debacle,” compounded by “horrific mistakes.” He railed about the death toll, often inflating the figures to 17,000, as he did in this recent tweet.

These criticism might have had some resonance back when there appeared to be relatively few cases in the United States. On March 4, when Trump first attacked Obama’s handling of the swine flu, there were only about 100 reported cases of covid-19 in the United States.

But as of April 17, there were more than 700,000 cases reported in the United States and nearly 40,000 deaths, more than double than what supposedly took place under Obama. One would think Trump would drop this talking point, but apparently he thinks it still works for him. Continue reading.

Endorsing Biden, Obama Warns Of GOP’s ‘Major Propaganda Network’

Barack Obama has generally kept a low profile during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but the former U.S. president broke his silence on Tuesday, April 14 and officially gave former Vice President, Joe Biden his endorsement.

Obama tweeted, “I’m proud to endorse my friend @JoeBiden for President of the United States. Let’s go.”

Obama’s endorsement comes only one day after Sen. Bernie Sanders officially endorsed Biden. Until last week, Biden and Sanders were the only two remaining candidates in the primary. But when Sanders dropped out — declaring that he believed Biden’s lead in the number of pledged delegates to be insurmountable — Biden’s nomination became inevitable. Continue reading.

Obama endorses Biden

Axios logoFormer President Barack Obama endorsed Joe Biden, his former vice president, in a video released Tuesday.

Why it matters: Obama, following in the footsteps of other recent former presidents, chose to let the crowded Democratic primary process play out and not offer an endorsement until voters chose their presumptive nominee.

  • Biden leaned heavily on his strong relationship with Obama and his record as vice president throughout the primary race while still acknowledging that he needed to “earn” Obama’s endorsement.
  • Obama’s endorsement comes one day after Biden’s final rival in the race, Bernie Sanders, offered his own endorsement. Continue reading.

Trump administration rolls back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards

The Hill logoThe Trump administration on Tuesday rolled back an Obama-era law that pushes automakers to produce more fuel efficient vehicles, severely limiting a rule designed to decrease pollution from transportation in the face of climate change.

The new rule cuts the year-over-year improvements expected from the auto industry, slashing standards that require automakers to produce fleets that average nearly 55 mpg by 2025. Instead, the Trump rule would bring that number down to about 40 mpg by 2026, bringing mileage below what automakers have said is possible for them to achieve.

The Trump administration has argued that cutting Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards will allow automakers to produce cheaper cars, something they say will save 3,300 lives as lower prices spur consumers to upgrade to new vehicles with better safety features that guzzle less gas than older models.

McConnell Now Backs Same Stimulus He Opposed Under Obama

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday defended a potential trillion dollar stimulus amid the raging COVID-19 outbreak, stating that “these are not ordinary times.”

However, back in 2009, when he was minority leader, McConnell repeatedly voiced opposition to the Recovery Act, which was proposed by President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders to help Americans suffering from the Great Recession.

During a press conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday, a reporter asked McConnell how “Republicans became okay with spending perhaps a good trillion dollars” to boost the economy. Continue reading.

Trump used to accuse Obama of trying to ‘start a war’ with Iran to get re-elected

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump’s Pentagon on Thursday claimed credit for the “hugely consequential” assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.

Soleimani is a “revered” figure in Iran, and the country’s state television cut scheduled broadcasts to show photos of the general with a call for prayers.

With Middle East analysts expecting retaliation — and even war — it’s important to remember Trump’s views on the subject. Continue reading

 

Trump’s Obsession With Diminishing Obama’s Role in Killing Bin Laden Isn’t New

Let’s look at the tweets.

As President Donald Trump announced the death of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi this morning, it was impossible to avoid comparisons to President Barack Obama’s May 2011 announcement that Navy SEALs had killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Trump was clearly thinking about that key moment of his predecessor’s presidency as he asserted that Baghdadi had been a threat “long before I took office” and that the ISIS leader had been “the biggest one we’ve ever captured.” He also repeated the false claim that he had identified bin Laden as a threat before 9/11.

Trump’s attempts to diminish Obama’s role in taking down bin Laden aren’t new. In the years following the raid, he frequently took to Twitter to suggest that Obama was taking too much credit for getting bin Laden. The very first mention came in November 2011, in which Trump appears to sanction the waterboarding of al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed for the sake of gathering intelligence on bin Laden. (The Obama administration had banned this form of torture; Trump has since tried to resurrect the practice.)

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Waterboarding KSM gave us the intelligence that lead to Bin Laden.

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Later that year, Trump went on CNN to talk about why Obama didn’t “deserve credit for killing bin Laden.” In the spring of 2012, he reiterated that point on CNBC and in a tweet that cited an article from Breitbart.
View the complete October 27 article by Kara Voght on the Mother Jones website here.