President Barack Obama mocked the Republican presidential candidates, who claimed that they could deal with or stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During his speech at a fundraiser for the Democrats in New York on Monday, President Obama emphasized that he thinks China and Russia will not be worried about the Republican presidential candidate because they can even handle the CNBC moderators during a debate last week.
“Have you noticed that every one of these candidates says, ‘Obama’s weak. Putin’s kicking sand in his face.They say when I talk to Putin; he’s going to straighten out. And then it turns out they can’t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators. If you can’t handle those guys, I don’t think the Chinese and the Russians are going to be too worried about you,” said President Obama.
Obama said Republicans “occupy a different reality”
President Obama said the Republican presidential candidates “occupy a different reality” on issues including the climate change, healthcare, and the economy.
He noted that the statement from the Republicans that “everything was really good in 2008 when the country was “going through the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes” as the unemployment and uninsured rates were high. President Obama added, “We were hopelessly addicted to foreign oil and (Osama) bin Laden was still on the loose. This apparently was the golden age that I messed up.” President Obama described the Republican presidential candidates as “so glum and frustrated.”
The President also pointed out, “Everybody here’s got a list of things we’ve got to tackle. But maybe what makes us a little different as Democrats is we try to base our analysis on facts.”
Republicans’ complaint against CNBC moderators
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carson, Senator Ted Cruz and others criticized the journalists who served as moderators during the debate. They complained that the moderators failed to ask relevant questions and accused them of failing to comply with the agreed-upon standards.
During the debate, Sen. Ted Cruz said, “The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media.You look at the questions: Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain?’ Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?’ ‘Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues the people care about?”
William Saletan of Slate noted that the complaint of Sen. Cruz against the moderators was out of line since nobody called Trump a villain, no one asked Carson if he could do math, and nobody asked Kasich to insult his colleagues. Saletan pointed out that Sen. Cruz rant was “diversion from the question posed to him” about his opposition to the agreement to raise the debt limit.
Republican developed a new plan for debates
On Sunday, the Republican presidential campaign met to develop a new plan for their party’s debate. The following day, Ben Ginsburg, a top Republican lawyer working with the presidential campaigns released a draft letter, which contains details regarding their criteria and processes for every debate.
Donald Trump and others said they will not sign the letter, which will be sent to TVnetworks.
