This is not entertainment. This is not a reality show. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States,” President Barack Obama said on Friday in his first public comments on the emergence of New York billionaire and reality TV star Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee for the White House race.
Obama, who has held a dim view of Trump’s candidacy on several occasions in recent months and even prophesied that he would not be elected to the high office, urged the American media to subject his statements, positions and proposals to close scrutiny.
“We are in serious times, and this (US Presidency) is a really serious job,” he said in reply to a question on Trump at a White House news conference. Even while saying that every candidate and nominee needs to be subject to exacting standards and genuine scrutiny, Obama’s focus was essentially on Trump.
“He has a long record that needs to be examined, and I think it’s important for us to take seriously the statements he’s made in the past,” Obama said, stressing that the American people need to know if they get plausible, workable solutions to problems.
Appearing to chide the media for its excessive focus on the spectacle surrounding Trump’s campaign events, Obama said: “What I’m concerned about is the degree to which reporting and information starts emphasizing the spectacle and the circus, because that’s not something we can afford. And the American people, they’ve got good judgment, they’ve got good instincts, as long as they get good information.”
In an obvious reference to Trump’s aggressive stance on US foreign policy including its long-time alliances and stewardship of NATO, Obama said: “If they (the presidential candidates) take a position on international issues that could threaten war, or has the potential of upending our critical relationships with other countries, or would potentially break the financial system, that needs to be reported on.”
Noting that the Republican standard-bearer at the moment is Trump, he commented that it was for Republican voters to decide “whether this is the guy who speaks for them and represents their values”. And Republican women voters have to decide if he is “the guy I feel comfortable with in representing me and what I care about”.
“The one thing that I’m going to really be looking for over the next six months is that the American people are effectively informed about where candidates stand on the issues, what they believe, making sure that their numbers add up, making sure that their policies have been vetted and that candidates are held to what they’ve said in the past,” he said, adding: “If that happens, then I’m confident our democracy will work. And that’s true whether we’re talking about Mr. Trump or Ms. Clinton, or Bernie Sanders, or anybody else.”
On the Democratic side, asked if Sanders should now step aside because of his virtually hopeless delegate math against Clinton, Obama said he was for the process playing itself out.
He acknowledged that Sanders has “done an extraordinary job raising a whole range of issues”, but at the same time noted that at some point, there’s going to be a conversation between him and Clinton as to how to move towards the Democratic convention.