The White House said today that President Obama is putting in campaign miles for Hillary Clinton to ensure that Donald Trump opponents don’t have to move miles away from the United States after Election Day.
Obama was in Southern California on Monday for two fundraisers and a taping with Jimmy Kimmel. He campaigned for Hillary on Sunday in Las Vegas and San Diego, and heads to Orlando on Friday for another event.
On the short flight from San Diego to Los Angeles today, press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters to “expect the president to be quite active on the campaign trail” next week as well.
Earnest was asked if Obama would “feel comfortable living in an America where Donald Trump is president.”
“I think he alluded to this in his remarks over the last couple of days, indicating that despite the significant differences that he had with his opponents in 2008 and 2012, he had confidence that despite those vigorous disagreements, that those — that both Senator McCain and Governor Romney would at least pursue the country’s best interests as they saw it,” Earnest replied. “He doesn’t have that same kind of confidence about the current Republican nominee.”
The question appeared to allude to a new Clinton ad in which Khizr Khan, father of slain Army Captain Humayun Khan, asks if his son would have had a place in Trump’s America.
“Look, I think the kind of rhetoric that we’ve seen from the Republican nominee, the kinds of values that he claims to champion, I think raises questions in the minds of many Americans about whether or not he’s committed to the kind of inclusive society that are consistent with long-held American values and are consistent with the kind of country that the vast majority of Americans actually want to live in,” Earnest continued when pressed again on the question.
“So he wouldn’t move to Canada or New Zealand if Donald Trump is elected?” a reporter asked.
“He’s working very hard to make sure that nobody has to move — has to leave the country as a result of an electoral outcome that the president doesn’t support,” Earnest replied.
The press secretary stressed that Obama “is hopeful that the American people will take the opportunity before them in the context of this election and send a clear message to both parties that there are some basic things that, despite the significant differences between Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., there should be an opportunity to move forward in those areas where there is common ground.”
“And so the president is hopeful that people will make clear that Republicans can’t just pursue a political strategy that’s focused on obstruction, but that they have a responsibility, particularly if they hold on to the majority in Congress, to actually pursue an agenda that they believe is in the best interest of the country and is not just focused on their own political self-interest,” he said.
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