Declaring GOP rhetoric a detriment to progress, Obama even borrowed Hillary Clinton's campaign slogan of "stronger together" to argue for unity in the country.
"We don't have time for
charlatans and we don't have time for bigotry and we didn't have time
for film-flam and we don't have the luxury of just popping off and
saying whatever comes to the tops of our heads," Obama said during the
Friday evening event, held for 3,000 supporters of Washington State Gov.
Jay Inslee, a Democrat.
Obama
had likely hoped to use his barbed language about Donald Trump — who he
avoids naming, but whose policies and style Obama has plainly slammed —
during a campaign stop for Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The
pair were scheduled to campaign together in Wisconsin a week and a half
ago, the debut of what Democrats hope will be a power-team against
Trump ahead of the November election.
But the mass shooting in Orlando delayed the event, and no replacement date has yet been named.
Obama
instead used Friday's event to test-drive barbs against Republicans,
including suggesting the party is exploiting the economic fears of
white, middle-class Americans for political gain.
"Unfortunately,
when people are anxious and scared, there are going to be politicians
out there who try to prey on that frustration to get themselves
headlines and get themselves votes. And that's what the Republicans have
been doing for a while now," Obama said.
He
worked to characterize the entire party as in lock-step with Trump,
even as the party's embrace of their presumptive nominee remains
somewhat loose.
"It's the story they've been telling, not just the guy at the top of the ticket, but up and down the ticket," Obama said.
In
his remarks, Obama didn't reference Friday's results from the British
referendum on exiting the European Union. But he did push back on the
type of politics that many view as fueling the "leave" campaign,
suggesting that divisions and isolation would pull the country backward.
"Between
dividing ourselves up, looking for scapegoats, ignoring the evidence,
or not realizing that we are all stronger together — if we turn against
each other, whether it's divisions of race or religion, we're not going
to build on the progress we've started," Obama said.
He
continued: "If we get cynical and just vote our fears, or just don't
vote at all, we're not going to build on the progress we've started."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/24/politics/obama-seattle-trump-charlatans/index.html
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