Obama used a lengthy podcast interview with two former aides, John Pauro and Tommy Vieter, to reflect on his own presidency, talk about Biden’s candidacy, and offer some advice to progressives within his own party. But the most pointed points in Obama’s 45-minute “Pat Save America” interview, released Wednesday, were directed at Trump.
“Trump does not seem to have been so active internationally. The truth is, he does not have the patience and focus to significantly change US foreign policy,” Obama said. It sought to systematically destroy our entire foreign policy infrastructure. “
This, Obama argued, would challenge Biden early in his presidency, saying that if he is elected in November, his former vice president will “have the respect and understanding of what the American leadership can do.”
Obama said he had seen progress from Biden in foreign policy, and that the referendum, which became a key point during the 2008 presidential election when the former Delaware senator voted to recognize military power in Iraq in 2002, “learned a lesson” from it.
“He was one of my most senior advisers on the use of military force during my presidency,” Obama said. “He continued to believe that we must show restraint and humility and think with the use of military force and that there was great hope and confidence in the use of diplomacy as a strategy to show US leadership.”
Obama highlighted Trump’s tweets suggesting he should be blamed, insulting Republican lawmakers who often ignore those comments.
“Fellow Republicans are pretending it won’t happen,” Obama laughed, mocking Republicans for often saying they “didn’t read the tweet”.
“They cheat reporters when they hear about it,” he said. “The allegations are so absurd that even Republican-controlled groups have denied them.”
Obama said Trump’s focus on such conspiracies exemplifies “complete misinformation … and conservative media infrastructure.”
“This is an issue that overwhelms Trump. Trump is a sign of it, and he’s an accelerator to it. But he did not create it,” Obama said, adding that the Cunningham conspiracy theory “enters the mainstream” to show that “there are no more protections within that media ecosystem of the Republican Party.”
What helped create Trump was the media environment system, noting that former reality TV star Trump had said some compliments about him during his first years as president, realizing that conservatives from Fox News and other companies were directing it. . Obama said this led Trump to advance the idea of a Firth conspiracy theory that the former president was not born in the United States.
Obama ended the interview with some unsolicited advice to the progressives in his party, saying that while he believes the progressives should continue to push the party, they should also realize that increasing change is better than no change at all.
“There is nothing wrong with making noise about this. There is nothing wrong with keeping everyone accountable,” he said. “The warning I always keep for progressives is that when you push as much as you can, at some point you say: ‘Well, you know what? Let’s get this done, and then let’s go fight another day.'”
Obama likened this to former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s drive to implement Social Security, a law “peachhead” but not specified.
“The FDR should not have passed Social Security,” Obama said, because it was not right. “Of course not. He’ll finish doing it, and then you’ll fight the next battle.”
The former president checked the name of Sense, two notable figures in progressive politics. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
“Sometimes I differ with Bernie and even Elizabeth, and we talk about these things in public,” Obama said. “Most of the time when I’m going to do something progressive when I’s president, it’s not because I’ve received some special interest or donations from the company.
He added: “When I look back at my presidency, the real envelope, the limit of what I can do, how many votes I got in the House, how many votes I got in the Senate.”
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