Obama vents that media is covering presidential race as if it's a reality show
President Obama delivered an impassioned plea on Tuesday for his supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton — ending with a protracted critique of the media for covering the race as if it’s a “reality show.”
Obama didn’t mention Clinton’s bout of pneumonia, which has kept her off the campaign trail and has spurred accusations — including by David Axelrod, a former top advisor to Obama — that she hasn’t been frank about her health. However, he said he has been “frustrated” with the way the presidential race has been covered by the media, especially concerning the issue of transparency.
“Do you mind if I just vent for a second?” he asked. “You know, you don’t grade the presidency on a curve. This is serious business.”
Speaking in Philadelphia — where Democratic turnout will be crucial for Clinton’s chances of carrying Pennsylvania in the election — Obama argued that Clinton has been more transparent than Trump, pointing out that she has released decades’ worth of tax returns while Trump has refused to release any. He also tackled the controversy surrounding the Clinton and Trump family charities.
“You want to debate foundations and charities?” he asked. “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 six-foot tall painting of himself.”
He joked, “I mean, he had the taste not to go for the 10-foot version…”
The president also appeared to reference Matt Lauer’s performance as moderator of last week’s commander-in-chief forum on NBC. (The Clinton campaign conducted fundraising appeals based on Lauer’s questions, which they argued were unfair to their candidate and too easy on Trump.)
“Donald Trump says stuff every day that used to be considered as disqualifying for being president,” Obama said. “And yet because he says it over and over and over again, the press just gives up — they just say, ‘Well, yeah, OK.’”
He mentioned Trump’s false claim that he opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. “But they just accept it,” Obama said of the press. “The bottom line is, we can’t afford suddenly to treat this like a reality show.”
Obama argued that Clinton has been under the “microscope” for 40 years and has been “subjected to more scrutiny and what I believe is more unfair criticism than anybody out here.”
The president also delivered a defense of his own economic policies before criticizing Trump for painting himself as a champion of working people. “He spent most of his life trying to stay as far away from working people as he could, and now this guy is going to be the champion of working people?” he asked. “He wasn’t going to let you on his golf course. He wasn’t going to let you buy into his condo. And now suddenly this guy’s going to be your champion?”
The appearance was Obama’s first campaign appearance for Clinton since the Democratic National Convention in July.
