President advises Trump
Obama sent that message to Trump at a press conference in the White House’s Rose Garden Tuesday when he appeared alongside visiting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The two-term president, who beat Republicans John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012, responded to a question about Trump’s (baseless) charges that should he lose the 2016 election it will because it was “rigged.”
“I have never seen in my lifetime, or in modern political history, any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the elections process before votes have even taken place,” he said of Trump. “It’s unprecedented and it happens to be based on no facts.”
According to Trump the election won’t have been rigged if he actually beats Democrat Hillary Clinton, though he offered no explanation as to why that is so. At any rate, Obama was quick to point out that the possibility of a rigged election is remote in the extreme, and that many states are controlled by Republican elected officials, not Democrats, such as in Florida.
“The notion that somehow if Mr. Trump loses Florida it’s because of ‘those people’ that you have to watch out for is both irresponsible, and by the way, doesn’t really show the kind of leadership and toughness that you’d want out of a president,” Obama said.
“But the larger point I want to emphasize here is that there is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, in part because they’re so decentralized, and the numbers of votes involved,” he added. “There’s no evidence that that has happened in the past, or that there are instances in which that will happen this time.”
Trump twitter rant?
The president gave out one more clear and concise, and rather good, piece of advice to Donald Trump. “I’d advise Mr. Trump,” he concluded. “To stop whining and go try and make his case to get votes.”
So is Trump likely to pay heed to the president’s advice and stop his whining, name-calling and crying foul? And instead try to articulate policy to the electorate or perhaps even prepare for the third presidential debate against Clinton on Wednesday in Las Vegas?
Or will he take off on one of his patented Twitter rants, this time against Obama, like the one in which he attacked former beauty queen Alicia Machado after the first presidential debate, or when he attacked Paul Ryan and his own party? Will it be rant – or reason?
I’m thinking the safe money is on rant.
