Speaking at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser on Saturday, President Barack Obama said candidates seeking the presidency this year should be focused on making America “even better” rather than inciting violence.
The comments marked the second time in 24 hours Obama, who is on a three-day trip to Texas, has alluded to the violent clashes that broke out Friday between GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s supporters and opponents in Chicago.
After detailing some of the successes his administration has had over the past seven years, the president said, “And what the folks who are running for office should be focused on is how we can make it even better. Not insults and schoolyard taunts, and manufacturing facts.”
“Not divisiveness along the lines of race or faith,” he added, after the audience applauded. “Certainly not violence against other Americans or excluding them.”
Rather than just singling out Trump, however, Obama faulted the Republican Party as a whole for the heightened tensions between protesters and Republican primary voters, saying “what’s been happening in our politics lately is not an accident.”
“For years, we’ve been told we should be angry about America, and that the economy is a disaster, and that we’re weak and that compromise is weakness, and that you can ignore science and you can ignore facts,” he said, “and say whatever you want about the president, and feed suspicion about immigrants and Muslims and poor people, and people who aren’t like ‘us,’ and say that the reason that America is in decline is because of ‘those’ people.”
“That didn’t just happen last week,” he said. “That narrative has been promoted now for years. It didn’t just spring out of nowhere.”
The president also suggested Republicans did not even know what they stood for anymore, citing Trump products as an example of their bankrupt ideology.
“That’s why they’re selling wine,” he said, prompting laughter from the crowd. “I had to say to – I told the folks down in Austin, I said, has anybody bought that wine? I want to know what that wine tastes like.”
As the group continued to laugh, Obama continued mocking Trump. “I mean, come on, you know that’s like some $5 wine,” he said. “They slap a label on it, they charge you $50, saying this is the greatest wine ever. Come on! Oh, boy – selling wine. That’s not what we’re for. Couldn’t make it up.”
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