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U.S. NEWSFriday 8 April 2016
The anti-Trump: Obama slowly stepping into campaign fray
JOSH LEDERMAN President Barack Obama speaks about his Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, Thursday, House risks further elevating
Associated Press April 7, 2016, at the University of Chicago Law School in Chicago. him, while giving Obama’s
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi- critics a fresh reason to get
dent Barack Obama has (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) behind the billionaire busi-
opened his final presiden- nessman.
tial campaign — against on the race to replace him. coming with increasing fre- half-baked notions coming Obama has said repeat-
Republican front-runner When Obama waded quency and ease. Asked out of the White House. We edly he doesn’t believe
Donald Trump. in, it was only to offer im- this week whether Trump’s can’t afford that.” Trump will win, and White
His name won’t be on plicit rebukes of the Trump proposals were already The Democratic National House officials said there
November’s ballot, but phenomenon, such as damaging U.S. relations, Committee quickly circu- was no concerted effort to
Obama is slowly embrac- Obama’s assertion in Sep- Obama answered un- lated video of Obama’s insert Obama more visibly
ing his role as the anti- tember that “America is equivocally: “Yes.” remarks, arguing they illus- into the election debate.
Trump, using the contrast great right now” — a not- “I am getting questions trated how Trump “simply After all, every minute
between himself and the so-veiled reference to the constantly from foreign doesn’t have the tempera- Obama spends talking
boastful billionaire to paint business mogul’s cam- leaders about some of the ment necessary to be com- about Trump is a minute
Trump as anything but paign promise to “make wackier suggestions that mander in chief.” wasted when it comes to
presidential. America great again.” are being made,” Obama Yet by calling attention to Obama’s many unfinished
A Trump victory in the presi- Now the Trump critique is said. “They don’t expect Trump’s positions, the White pieces of business.
dential race would mark Still, the president in recent
an overwhelming rebuke days has rarely passed
to Obama and the likely up a chance for a Trump
demise of many of his poli- takedown — especially
cies. So with Hillary Clinton on foreign policy, where
and Bernie Sanders still Obama’s status as com-
fighting it out in the Demo- mander in chief gives him a
cratic primary, it has fallen unique perch to besmirch
increasingly to Obama to Trump’s approach. Closing
take on Trump in ways that out a nuclear security sum-
no other Democrat can. mit last week, Obama said
For months, Obama and his Trump’s suggestion that
aides mostly avoided get- South Koreaand Japan
ting dragged into the fray develop nuclear weap-
or letting the campaign ons “tell us that the person
din distract from Obama’s who made the statements
agenda. The White House doesn’t know much about
would sidestep questions foreign policy, or nuclear
about the latest Trump policy, or the Korean Pen-
controversies, refusing to insula, or the world gener-
turn Obama into a pundit ally,” he added wryly.q
Trump shakes up team as all campaigns shift to New York
Alice Attebery, of Laramie, waits in the aisle to help people to their seats for Democratic presi- are no pollsters, no media native, Democratic front-
dential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during a campaign rally at the University of Wyoming consultants and few out- runner Hillary Clinton is a
campus in Laramie, Wyo. side policy advisers, with former senator from New
the candidate determin- York, and she has been
(Blaine McCartney/The Wyoming Tribune Eagle via AP) ing much of the messaging highlighting her economic
himself. record in visits to struggling
Continued from front Trump’s unconventional known for being unusu- Trump is now focusing on cities throughout the state.
campaign operation is ally small and insular. There the April 19 primary in his Trump’s remaining Repub-
home state of New York, lican rivals, Cruz and Ohio
where early opinion sur- Gov. John Kasich, were
veys show him with a com- both in New York City on
manding lead. His team Thursday.
has cleared his schedule, Former mayor Rudy Giuliani
cancelling planned trips to announced that he will be
California and Colorado. voting for Trump in the pri-
On the Democratic side, mary.
Bernie Sanders hopes to Cruz has been criticized for
turn his recent winning a comment he made in a
streak into concrete mo- debate in January, where
mentum toward the party he said, “Everyone under-
nomination. But the Ver- stands that the values in
mont senator must win 68 New York City are socially
percent of the remaining liberal or pro-abortion or
delegates and uncommit- pro-gay marriage. Not a lot
ted superdelegates, which of conservatives come out
would require blowout of Manhattan.”
victories in states big and The Texas senator has insist-
small, including New York. ed he wasn’t talking about
While Sanders is a Brooklyn the state as a whole.q
