A day after meeting with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at the White House, President Obama assured House Democrats at a retreat in Baltimore yesterday that he’s “not worried about this party staying united” even though “the other side may have some stuff to work out.”
“And everyone scouring my word to find some deeper meaning, to see if I’m trying to put my finger on the scales, so let me simplify things. Tonight, I have an announcement to make about the presidential race: Democrats will win in November and we will have a Democratic president succeeding me. Just in case there’s any confusion about that,” Obama said.
The president accused Republicans of “phony tough talk, and bluster, and over-the-top claims that just play into ISIL’s hands.”
“We’re not going to strengthen our leadership around the world by allowing politicians to insult Muslims or pit groups of Americans against each other,” he said.
He boasted of “how we worked to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.”
“And, again, you will recall that the other side was claiming this would never work, they were going to cheat. And yet, a few months later, we now know, have certified that massive amounts of existing nuclear stockpiles and their infrastructure has been dismantled or shipped out,” he said.
“And even those who were skeptical are now having to admit that, without firing a shot, we achieved something that all of us had an interest in and have been working on for years. That’s how we stopped the spread of Ebola in West Africa. Our leadership…. That’s why we’re ending 50 years of failed policies by restoring diplomatic relations to Cuba. That is true strength and true leadership, and that’s what we believe in.”
Obama added, “I’m not going to claim Democrats are perfect.”
“I’m not going to claim that we’re right on every single issue, or we have a monopoly on wisdom. But I do know that we hold ourselves to a higher standard,” he said. “…During this election season, there is a lot of noise and a lot of talk about America in decline, and as I said at the State of the Union, I don’t believe it.”
The president said his party would resonate better with voters “because we weren’t born with a silver spoon.”
“We care about healthcare because we remember what it was like for somebody in our family, if they didn’t have healthcare, and couldn’t pay the bills, and didn’t get decent care,” Obama said. “We care about the minimum wage because a bunch of us worked in minimum wage jobs and remember what it was like to try to scrimp and save.”
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