Archive for the ‘Obama’ Category

Obama Plans On Stepping Back Into National Spotlight – The Daily Caller

Former President Barack Obama plans to resurface on to the national scene this fall, albeit slowly, according to The Hill.

In the next few weeks, Obama and his staff will strategize a way allowing him to be part of the political conversation, while not making him the loudest voice in the party.

Aides say his role is to be more behind the scenes than anything else, in terms of fundraising for example, as opposed to a front man.

The Hill notes Obama has already given advice to the party since its devastating 2016 presidential loss, and he met with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez last July.

However, Obamas re-emergence to the national scene, described as a delicate dance, may not be completely welcomed and could backfire.

Past presidents traditionally leave Washington and do not involve themselves in the national political scene, often opting to involve themselves in charity work and speaking engagements.

However, President Obamas younger age, as opposed to most former presidents, as well as his history of a political community organizing sets him up to continue work for the Democrats for years to come. His renewed public presence could reenergize Republicans and conservatives who feel Trump is not being treated fairly by the media.

He has to be careful, Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University told The Hill. At a moment when President Trumps approval is falling so fastincluding with his basethere is a risk for Obama taking center stage and triggering the energy that many Republicans currently lack.

President Obama could begin his journey in the public eye by campaigning for Democrat Ralph Northams run for Virginia governor. (RELATED: Obama Going Back To Campaigning Months After Leaving Office)

David Turner, a campaign spokesman for the Northam camp, told The Washington Post last June that Obama promised to campaign for Northman in the state that the former president won in 2008 and 2012.

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Obama Plans On Stepping Back Into National Spotlight - The Daily Caller

200 days in: Obama still on Trump’s mind – CNN

"What's your judgment as to the chances they'll fire these things off?" Kennedy asked Dwight Eisenhower, a retired Army general whom he'd once derided as a "cold bastard."

Now, as North Korea presents fresh nuclear danger, those types of consultations appear to be history.

President Donald Trump, six months into his presidency and facing simmering tensions in Asia, has not only ignored his predecessors, he's rekindled his deep-seeded animosity for the man who handed him the nuclear codes.

This week, as Pyongyang issued threats to launch missiles at Guam, Trump retweeted a series of messages that criticized Obama, including an unscientific Twitter poll that had been inactive for days.

"Who is a better President of the United States," the poll asked, using the hashtag #ObamaDay to note that the state of Illinois will now mark August 4, the former president's birthday, as Barack Obama Day.

Trump also retweeted two messages on Wednesday evening, one from a Fox News show and another from John Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations, that knocked Obama.

Their spat is conducted from afar; Trump has not spoken with Obama since the pair parted ways on January 20. Before that, their face-to-face conversations were limited to a meeting in the Oval Office and pleasantries over coffee ahead of Trump's swearing-in.

Trump's tussles this week with an increasingly hostile North Korea only serve as a reminder of those brief conversations with Obama. In the Oval Office the week he won, Obama warned North Korea would present Trump with his gravest global challenge. Trump later suggested he and Obama discussed the matter further during a shared limousine ride from the White House to the US Capitol on Inauguration Day.

It was the last time they spoke.

"This President has a very unusual obsession with his predecessor and constantly comparing himself to President Obama," Derek Chollet, former assistant defense secretary under Obama. "This is not a president who seems to be singularly focused on what is a genuinely a global security threat in North Korea."

"I think he has got to be shaking his head," Chollet said of the former president. "Clearly, he tried in raising this issue with President Trump by singling it out in their meeting in the Oval Office last year."

Speaking from his golf club here on Thursday, Trump maligned Obama's stance on North Korea, suggesting Obama had ignored an issue that he is intent on confronting.

"You look what happened with Obama. Obama -- he didn't even want to talk about it. But I talk," Trump said on the steps of his clubhouse. "It's about time. Somebody has to do it. Somebody has to do it."

Much of Trump's initial governing agenda has focused on reversing Obama's legacy, either on climate change or trade or diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Trump has grown frustrated in areas he hasn't been able to separate himself from his predecessor, according to a senior administration official. He's lashed out at his national security council for presenting strategies in Afghanistan and against ISIS that aren't markedly different from the previous administration's. When his team insisted he re-certify Iran's compliance with the multi-nation nuclear deal, Trump balked and took the disagreement public.

Obama, it seems, is never far from Trump's mind, at least based on his public comments and his statements on Twitter.

"I inherited a mess," Trump said in February during the only solo press conference of his presidency. "It's a mess. At home and abroad, a mess."

Abroad, too, Trump has slammed Obama.

Standing next to Polish President Andrzej Duda, Trump blamed Obama for Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, saying that he did nothing to counter their attempt to help Trump and damage Clinton.

"Barack Obama, when he was president, found out about this, in terms of whether it was Russia, found out about it in August," Trump said. "Now the election was in November. That's a lot of time. He did nothing about it."

Trump's disdain for Obama, according to those close to him, was cemented when the then-President took aim at the reality TV star during the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner, mocking Trump as a conspiracy theorist whose most consequential decisions are whether to fire people on his TV show.

Omarosa Manigault, a former contestant on NBC's "The Apprentice," Trump's reality show, told PBS in 2016 that she thought at that time that Obama was "starting something that I don't know if he'll be able to finish" by publicly slamming Trump during that event.

Manigault, now a White House aide, said "every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump" when he wins.

"It's everyone who's ever doubted Donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him," she said. "It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe."

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200 days in: Obama still on Trump's mind - CNN

Susan Rice concedes Obama-era strategy to curtail North Korea’s nuclear program was a ‘failure’ – Washington Examiner

Obama national security adviser Susan Rice said Thursday that the U.S. has consistently failed to curtail North Korea's nuclear ambitions, even during the Obama era.

"You can call it a failure," Rice told CNN. "I accept that characterization of the efforts of the United States over the last two decades."

Rice, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for eight years before transitioning to the role of national security adviser, said the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has now vexed four successive American administrations, both Democrat and Republican. She said each administration has tried a range of measures, from sanctions and pressure, cooperation with China, and "other methods that we shouldn't speak about on television," to no avail.

"The fact of the matter is, that despite all of those efforts, the North Korean regime has been able to succeed in progressing with its program, both nuclear and missile," Rice said. "That's a very unfortunate outcome. But we are where we are. And we now need to decide how to proceed."

Rice advocated in a Thursday morning opinion piece in the New York Times that President Trump should tamp down his rhetoric and learn to live with a nuclear North Korea.

"History shows that we can, if we must, tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea the same way we tolerated the far greater threat of thousands of Soviet nuclear weapons during the Cold War," she wrote. "It will require being pragmatic."

Trump has retweeted views on Twitter that argue former President Barack Obama is to blame for the current escalated tensions with Kim Jong-Un and the perception that the U.S. is vulnerable to a nuclear attack.

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Susan Rice concedes Obama-era strategy to curtail North Korea's nuclear program was a 'failure' - Washington Examiner

Trump Nominee Was an Obama Birther – New York Magazine

Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE August 10, 2017 08/10/2017 1:49 pm By Adam K. Raymond Share

On the surface, Sam Clovis doesnt seem like an obvious choice to serve as the Department of Agricultures chief scientist. For starters, hes not a scientist. Hes not a farmer, either. Other than vocal support from the agriculture industry, he has no clear qualifications for the job. But Clovis is a loyal Trump supporter, perhaps the quality the president prizes above all. And thanks to CNN, we now know he has another quality Trump surely appreciates a deep animosity for President Obama and a history of peddling the same conspiracy theories that turned Trump into a conservative darling.

Cloviss lack of qualifications is not news. Democrats and climate groups have been grousing about that, along with his climate-change skepticism, since Trump sent his nomination to the Capitol. But Cloviss birtherism was revealed only Thursday, when CNN dug deep into his days as an Iowa talk-radio host and blogger.

In one blog post, Clovis wrote, For over a decade, Obama allowed his publisher to carry a biography that had him born in Kenya.Only after beginning his pursuit of public office did he correct the entry. He goes on to call Obama a lying egoist.

Along with his questioning President Obamas place of birth, CNN found that the former fighter pilot and defense contractor had called former attorney general Eric Holder a racist bigot and a racist black. He also called former Labor secretary Tom Perez a racist Latino. But Obama was the target of most of his barbs.

Clovis is not the first Trump nominee who has beat the birther drum. Attorney John Bush was also criticized for pushing the conspiracy in blog posts, but that didnt prevent the Senate from confirming him to a lifetime appointment to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Clovis also trashed Obama on his radio program Serious Civics With Sam Clovis. In one 2012 episode, he said Obama appeared to be happy about the attack in Benghazi. This is something that tells you that he is dismissive of the entire affair and, in fact, I would even hate to stretch this out, but its almost as if it was intentional. As if he is happy that these things have occurred, Clovis said.

In another blog post, Clovis called Obama a dangerous person and wrote that he wants to be a dictator and he wants to enslave all who are not part of his regime. Clovis also wrote that if Obama won reelection in 2012 it could very well mean the total deconstruction of our Constitutional republic. Fortunately, it did not. Unfortunately, that might still be on the way.

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Kim Jong-un might not care about wiping the tiny U.S. territory off the map, but he does want Americans to think he might.

Finger slip or truth or dare night at the golf club?

I want to thank him because were trying to cut down our payroll.

Nazi salutes are indefensible.

Why a shocking poll tells us a lot about the state of the party.

The president finds a way to undo all the clean-up the White House just did on his fire and fury comments.

Bloomberg says Robert Mueller is working hard to turn the former Trump campaign manager into an asset for the prosecution.

Republicans block early voting opportunities in areas favoring Democrats, while expanding them on their own turf.

Sam Clovis, nominee for the Department of Agricultures chief scientist, has a history of troubling statements.

The U.S. has expelled two Cuban diplomats in retaliation.

It made for a bizarre scene, captured on video by one subway passenger.

A central tenet of Obama-era conservatism dies a quiet, lonely death.

An analysis of approval data shows Trump struggling with college-educated white voters, and even with his blue-collar base, in battleground states.

Billionaire Robert Mercer has already ponied up $300,000 to evict Jeff Flake from the Senate for sullying Donald Trumps good name.

If Trump said it was delayed to prevent voter fraud, 52 percent would support him, a new survey shows.

Fear of a Trumpocalypse is helping too.

Their unsuccessful effort to gut the Affordable Care Act spooked insurers and helped drive up premiums for next year.

Seemingly undeterred by Trumps red line, they offered more details on their potential plan to strike the U.S. territory.

Allies of the Venezuelan president are swiftly cracking down on the opposition.

The Senate Majority Leader suggests Trumps impatience led to Trumpcares defeat. Trump thinks McConnell is just making excuses.

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Trump Nominee Was an Obama Birther - New York Magazine

Trump officials begin review of Obama emissions standards for cars – Washington Post

The Trump administration gave notice it intends to relax the rules governing greenhouse gas emissions on new model cars Thursday, in its latest move to undo President Barack Obamas climate policies.

In a notice on the federal register, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department announced they were considering rewriting emissions standards for cars and light trucks made between 2021 and 2025.

While other climate-change initiatives spearheaded by President Obama like the EPAstrategy for reducing emissions from power plants, called the Clean Power Plan received more scrutiny from industry and conservative critics,emissions standards for cars are just as consequential for curbing the buildup ofatmosphere-warming gases, analysts said.

The benefits from thoserulesarecomparableto the Clean Power Plan in terms of greenhouse gas reductions, said Dave Cooke, a senior vehicles analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The program as a whole is quite significant.

The notice begins a 45-day public comment period on a potential relaxation of the rules for cars and light trucks.

We are moving forward with an open and robust review of emissions standards, consistent with the timeframe provided in our regulations, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in a statement. As recently as Wednesday, Pruitt in a radio interviewbrushed offthe large body of research establishing that human activity is warming the Earth as so-called settled science.

In March, the EPAannounced that it wished towithdraw final determination on the stricter fuel-efficiency standards. But critics of the administration were surprised how expansive the review announced this week will be.

The EPA stretched the review period to include 2021 model vehicles, instead of starting at 2022 model cars as the agency had initially indicated.

The agencies also added 10 additional factors, such as consumer preference, to be considered when finalizing the new standards.

It was really surprising to see that, said Shannon Baker-Branstetter of Consumers Union, the public policy division of Consumer Reports, adding that the decision to include 2021 vehicles in the review was a sign of aggression on the part of the administration.

In 2012, theEPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a part of the Transportation Department, adopted rules requiring the nations car and light trucks toaverage 54.5miles per gallon by 2025.

Automakers objected, arguing that the standards were too stringent to meet. After Trumps surprise election victory, industry groups, including the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers, pressedthe new administration to reconsider the rule.

In my opinion, these additional factors reflect direct input from the manufacturers, said Margo Oge, a former director of the EPAs Office of Transportation and Air Quality, in an email.

The review begins amid signs thatcar companies are moving toward greater efficiency, with or without the federal governments guidance.

In July, Swedish automaker Volvo vowed to make all its vehicles hybrids or electrics starting in 2019. Earlier this month, Japan-based Honda introduced a new all-electric sedan in California and Oregon to compete with Teslas new line of more affordable electric vehicles.

It is clear that the Asian manufacturers in the United States are fully capable of meeting this standard, said Jack Gillis, director of the Consumer Federation of America and author of The Car Book. Noting consumer surveys that indicate car buyers prefer fuel-efficient vehicles that save them money at the gas pump, he added: The first loser will be the domesticcar companies.

And climate policies set by nations such as France and the United Kingdom, which both plan to ban all diesel and gasoline vehicles by 2040, will continue to shape international auto markets and drive car companies to continue lowering emissions.

Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.

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Trump officials begin review of Obama emissions standards for cars - Washington Post