On Tuesday, President Obama visited Philadelphia (in his first lone campaign stop of this election season) to campaign for Hillary Clinton. In doing so, he condemned Trump for painting a “dark, pessimistic vision” of America. He also made mention of how the media’s demanding more transparency from Clinton, but it appears that he’s not taking sides on whether or not Clinton should be questioned.
Obama simply wants Trump to be held to the same standard, especially on issues like tax returns and questionable actions under the Trump Foundation umbrella. Obama asked the rally audience, “Do you mind if I just vent for a second? I sure do get frustrated with the way this campaign is covered.” He then began a rant about how the media is ignoring serious issues in favor of “the frivolous stuff that gets covered every day.” Then this happened:
“You wanna debate transparency? You’ve got one candidate in this race who’s released decades’ worth of her tax returns. The other candidate is the first in decades who refuses to release any at all … You wanna debate foundations and charities? One candidate’s family foundation has saved countless lives around the world. The other candidate’s foundation took money other people gave to his charity and then bought a 6-foot-tall painting of himself. I mean, he had the taste not to go for the 10-foot version!”
Obama also didn’t hold back when characterizing this particular election as “crazy.” He said it’s the norm to hear some absurd rhetoric while running for office, but believes “this year we’ve heard a little more crazy than usual.” Time and time again, Obama has had to answer questions regarding Trump’s rhetoric and has given the same, exasperated answer every time. On Tuesday, he continued to preach his frustration and hinted that Republicans may be feeling it too:
“What we’ve seen from the other side in this election, this isn’t Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party. This isn’t even the vision of freedom that Ronald Reagan talked about. They’re not offering serious solutions. They’re just fanning resentment and blame and anger and hate. And that is not the America we know. That’s not the America I know.”
The president continued scolding Trump, zeroing in on his affection for Russian president Vladimir Putin and called into questions Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns. For the most part, Obama has kept a low profile on the campaign trail, only offering a few frustrated responses for Trump-related questions. But he looked invigorated Tuesday, hammering home that Clinton is the most qualified candidate to be elected president:
“You want to debate who’s more fit to be our president? One candidate who’s traveled to more countries than any secretary of state ever has, has more qualifications than pretty much anyone who’s ever run for this job and the other who isn’t fit in any way, shape or form to represent this country abroad and be its commander-in-chief.”
Obama really wants you to vote for Clinton, but his message to the crowd didn’t seem forced. If Clinton could implore Obama to make a few more campaign stops like this with that sense of bravado, it could help change the election narrative, which has been somewhat dominated by non-policy issues. You can watch Obama’s full Philly speech below.
