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Speaking with CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, Sanders labeled the transaction "not a good idea" and said he was "sorry President Obama made that choice."

"I just think it does not look good," Sanders said. "I just think it is distasteful -- not a good idea that he did that."

"Look, Barack Obama is a friend of mine, and I think he and his family represented us for eight years with dignity and intelligence," Sanders said. "But I think at a time when we have so much income and wealth inequality ... I think it just does not look good."

"It's not a good idea, and I'm sorry President Obama made that choice," he added.

Despite the objections, an Obama spokesperson dismissed the idea that the large speaking fee compromised the former President's convictions.

"As we announced months ago, President Obama will deliver speeches from time to time," Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to Obama, said in a statement Wednesday. "Some of those speeches will be paid, some will be unpaid, and regardless of venue or sponsor, President Obama will be true to his values, his vision, and his record."

"With regard to this or any speech involving Wall Street sponsors, I'd just point out that in 2008, Barack Obama raised more money from Wall Street than any candidate in history -- and still went on to successfully pass and implement the toughest reforms on Wall Street since FDR," he added.

Schultz added that Obama will continue to focus most of his post-presidency on writing a book, giving speeches and "training and elevating a new generation of political leaders in America."

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Sanders: Obama's paid Wall Street speech 'distasteful' - CNN

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One hundred days ago, a Harvard-educated, self-made constitutional scholar handed over the White House keys to a stubby-fingered, cheddar-colored colostomy bag in a cheap toupee. To celebrate the fact that Donald Trump has yet to reduce the country to a pile of rubble smoldering under the dark cloud of nuclear winter while roving gangs of neo-Nazis ride around on state-sanctioned pussy-grabbing tours, we thought wed compare the first 100 days of the last two presidents.

We split them into categories and chronicled the good (yes, Trump did some good things; did I mention how he hasnt started a thermonuclear war yet?), the bad (no, we cant list them all; the internet isnt big enough) and the ugly (well, that part is kinda obvious). We present to you a scientific, peer-reviewed comparison of Barack Obamas vs. Donald Trumps first 100 days in office.

They say a picture says 1,000 words, but sometimes it says only one: Damn.

Obamas first swearing-in was watched by 37.8 million, while Trump had an American Idol-finale-like viewership of 30.6 million. Twenty-five million people livestreamed Obamas inauguration on CNN, while 16.9 million watched Trump.

Obama: He opened with Bruce Springsteen, then had a line of star speakers and performers including Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, Tiger Woods, U2 and an unknown, upstart little singerI think her name was Beyonc.

Trump: Toby Keith, Three Doors Down, some white people whose names I wont list because you wouldnt know them anyway, Jon Voight, some more white people, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Piano Guys (no, Im not being snarky; thats the actual name, not to be confused with Some Muhfuckas Playing the Keyboards) and ... umm ... thats about it. Oh, dont forget that Chrisette Michele built some bridges or something at one of his inaugural balls.

Obama: Obamas Cabinet featured Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, banker Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, Superior Court Judge Eric Holder as attorney general, CEO of Chicago Public Schools Arnie Duncan as secretary of education and physicist Steven Chu as secretary of energy. By the end of March, only one Obama Cabinet member (Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services) had not been confirmed by the Senate.

Trump: Trump nominated Betsy DeVos, a lady with no experience or training in education, as secretary of education. He put Steve Mnuchin, a banker who made a fortune foreclosing on people and who ran a bank into the ground, in charge of the Treasury Department. He put a brain surgeon with no background in housing or urban development in charge of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and a politician who promised to close the Department of Energy in charge of the Department of Energy.

Obama: Zero.

Trump: Russian election collusion, white supremacist chief of staff, the Russian-prostitute pee report, the income tax thing, the nepotism debate, the business-blind-trust thing, the anti-Semitism, the tweets, accusing a former president of a felony, the Angela Merkel handshake, the golf, the Mar-a-Lago trips, the Senate investigation, the House investigation, Jeff Sessions and the Russians, Carter Page and the Russians, Jared Kushner and the Russians, Michael Flynn and the Russians, Rex Tillerson and the Russians ...

Obama: His first piece of legislation was the Lilly Ledbetter Act, requiring equal pay regardless of age, race or gender. During his first month in office, he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Actthe stimulus package credited with saving the economy of the entire world. The act also increased education funding by $100 billion, lowered taxes for the middle class, created programs for low-income workers, reined in Wall Street and provided $105 billion for infrastructure. He signed legislation to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump: He tried to repeal and replace Obamacare, but that failed miserably. He allowed internet companies to sell your personal information. He signed a law that made it easier for mentally ill people to buy guns. He cut Planned Parenthood funding.

Obama signed 19 orders, including these:

Trump has signed 28 executive orders, including these:

Obama: Obama made it legal for researchers to use stem cells and moved toward climate change protections in his first month. He also began a weekly address to the country to update Americans about the government and started a campaign for a nuclear-free world. During his first few weeks in office, he pledged energy independence and signed legislation that moved the auto industry toward higher fuel-efficiency standards. He signed a childrens health care act. He forced GMs CEO to resign amid scandal.

Trump: Trump made Mike Pence have sex with Mike Pence, named the offspring Neil Gorsuch, nominated the baby for the Supreme Court and got the Senate to confirm the first clone to the Supreme Court. He also banned sanctuary cities and saved a few dozen jobs at a factory in Detroit. A few days before his 100-day mark, like a teenager cramming for a final exam, he jotted down some ideas that basically said he was going to cut everyones taxes and force IRS agents to go door-to-door and wash everyones dishes. He put that on a sheet of college-ruled notebook paper, had someone type it up, sent it to the press and called it a tax plan.

Obama: Reached out to the Muslim world and assured them that we were not anti-Islam, and promised to end two wars. He eased tensions with Cuba and with Venezuelas Hugo Chvez, making the Latin world happy. He attended the G-20 summit, and Germanys Angela Merkel became his bestie, while Englands Queen Elizabeth had to reprimand Italys prime minister for shouting to get Obamas attention. Americas president was basically the cool kid in class.

Trump: Reached out to the Muslim world, slapped them and assured them that we were anti-Islam while threatening to start two wars. He insulted the president of Mexico and prime minister of Australia over the phone in his first week. He kissed up to Russias Vladimir Putin, embraced Chinas Communist leader and made calls to a human rights violator who storm-trooped his way through a Turkish election. After warning Obama to stay out of Syria, he bombed Syria (which hampered its air force for a full three or four minutes). After saying that America doesnt need NATO, hes now begging NATO to help him deal with North Korea. Americas president is basically the kid in class who the teacher patiently exhorts to sound it out when he has trouble reading aloud, as he drags his paste-eating fingers across the page, attending school only for recess so that he can bully the brown kids in the playground.

Obama: Obama found time to visit Sasha at school and played basketball with friends on a White House court. He visited Camp David to relax and went for a Valentines Day dinner in Chicago with Michelle. He was criticized for appearing on talk shows and having too much fun in the White House. He played golf one time at Andrews Air Force Base.

Trump: More than a quarter of the time he has served as president has been spent at Mar-a-Lago eating chocolate cake, golfing and doing white-people things. (I only refer to it as white-people things because I dont know what goes on at golf resorts, or what white people do on the weekend besides clean out their garages, roam Wal-Mart or go skiing.) Trump does not live with his wife, because ... I actually dont know, except that I assume her gag reflex isnt strong enough to handle the possibility of seeing his light-bulb-shaped body in the nude.

News reports say that Trump spends all of his spare time watching cable TV news and tweeting. He also installed a button in the Oval Office that orders a Coke. Congratulations, America; you elected a teenage princess as president.

Obama: 65 percent

Trump: 41 percent

There you have ita full breakdown of Trumps vs. Obamas first 100 days. After a comparison of the two, there is only one question that needs asking:

Dont you just feel great again?

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The Complete Breakdown of Obama's vs. Trump's 1st 100 Days - The Root

Barack Obama at the University of Chicago on April 24.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

The news that Barack Obama will be paid $400,000 to deliver a speech at a September health care conference sponsored by the Cantor Fitzgerald investment bank has provoked wildly different reactions among self-identified progressives. To generalize, one group thinks it's a big mistake for someone who aspires to remain prominent in progressive activism to participate in an event that perpetuates the "revolving door" influence of corporate special interests. The other group can't believe the first group thinks that it's not fair to tell Obama he can't make money for himself by doing one measly ol' speech that won't have any effect on public policy anyway.

Here's another perspectivea third way, if you will: Barack Obama is not selling out his ideals or taking a paycheck that's unrelated to them. He's doing this because he thinks big-money special interests have a valid place in American politics.

Let's review some of what happened during Obama's presidency.

Obama says he's against this kind of thing. On April 24, in fact, one of the topline messages of his first post-presidency public appearance was that special-interest lobbyingand the influence of money on politics more broadlyis one of the primary obstacles to making progress on problems such as economic inequality, climate change, and crime:

One thing that's nice about Obama is that his words usually match his deeds. But the words and deeds just don't match up in this case, and they haven't sincehe campaigned in 2008 on a platform of representing grass roots Americans against big-money corporate lobbyists and then went and did all the things I listed above.

There is a good argument to be made, given how strong of a backlash Obama's relatively moderate health care and financial-regulation legislation triggered, that he had no choice but to deal with lobbyists if he wanted to pass meaningful laws. His moves to expand health insurance coverage and revive a depressed economy ultimately did accomplish progressive goals. But that doesn't explain why he chooses to personally associate himself with corporate lobbying and finance executives or why, if he thinks it's a problem that big-money special interests "dominate the debate," he chooses to take money to make himself available to those interests.

Obama is obviously a careful thinker, and even on subjects like foreign policy and race relations on which he's taken significant criticism, it's hard to argue that he hasn't fully thought through the issues involvedsee for example his extensive interviews with the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg about the "Obama Doctrine" and with Ta-Nehisi Coates about race.Butas far as I knowhe has never publicly resolved the seeming tension between his articulate criticism of lobbying's warping influence on American politics and his personal comfort with lobbyists themselves. For now, though, the evidence suggests that his true feeling about big money in politics is that it's fine.

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Maybe Obama Is Doing Paid Speeches Because He Thinks Big-Money Special Interests Are Fine - Slate Magazine (blog)

BBC News

Michelle Obama: 'I won't run for office' for my children BBC News Former First Lady Michelle Obama appeared to rule out running for elected office during her first public remarks since leaving the White House. The Q&A at an architecture convention in Orlando came days after her husband made his first public comments ... OBAMA: Here's what I miss most about the White HouseBusiness Insider Michelle Obama dishes on White House life, says she won't run for officeUSA TODAY Michelle Obama says she won't run for officeCNN CBS News -AOL -Vogue.com -Orlando Sentinel all 68 news articles »

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Michelle Obama: 'I won't run for office' for my children - BBC News

President Trump on Friday faulted former President Obamas administration for authorizing a security clearance for Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser.

But just remember, he was approved by the Obama administration at the highest level, Trumptold Fox News.

And when they say we didnt vet, well, Obama I guess didnt vet, because he was approved at the highest level of security by the Obama administration, Trump added.

Trump added he respects Flynns past military service and has sympathy for the retired Army lieutenant general.

I do feelbadlyfor him, he said. He served the country. He was a [lieutenant] general."

Flynn, who was forced out of Trump's White House after misleading officials about his conversation with the Russian ambassador, received a five-year renewal of his security clearance in January 2016.

The House Oversight Committee this week said Flynnmay have broken the lawby taking payments from Russia and Turkey without approval from the military and State Department.

Flynn was reportedly warned against taking such payments when he retired in 2014.

According to Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee,Flynn applied to renew his security clearance using a Form SF-86 in January 2016, a month after he traveled to Moscow to give a paid speech.

Cummings said the committee had seen "no evidence" that Flynn disclosed that payment on the form or that he sought permission before taking the payment. He noted that knowingly falsifying or concealing a material fact on an SF-86 is a felony.

Flynn was fired as Obama's Defense Intelligence Agency chief in the spring of 2014 after less than two years leading the agency.

He was ousted after clashing with top Obama national security officials, including intelligence director James Clapper.

Flynn blamed his firing on his strong views on fighting Islamic extremist groups.

He later reemerged as close adviser to Trump, even getting a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention.

Trump named Flynn his national security adviser after winning the White House, but he was forced to resign just a few weeks into the administration.

Flynn has offered to testify before the House and Senate intelligence committees that are investigating Russian meddling in the election in return for immunity from prosecution.

The committees have so far not taken him up on the offer.

Updated at 2:25 p.m.

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Trump blames Obama for vetting of Flynn - The Hill