r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 1d ago

Soft Paywall Obama Breaks Silence on Trump’s ‘Unimaginable’ Presidency - “Imagine if I had done any of this,” the former two-term president said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obama-breaks-silence-on-trumps-unimaginable-presidency/
73.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

13.2k

u/jtsa5 1d ago

If anyone else other than Trump did anything wrong it was like the world was ending. When it's Trump everyone has kid gloves on.

83

u/UngodlyPain 1d ago

This isn't true. Reagan and Dubya each also got kid gloves too.

Seriously Reagan was allowed to go on national TV and almost explicitly say "I did highly illegal things with Iran Contra and I should probably be impeached then sent to prison... But I'm fucking Reagan, so who cares?" ...

Dubya was also given tons of benefits of the doubt and kid gloves about 9/11, the war on terror, and the entire 2008 financial collapse and the response to it.

26

u/SevanIII 1d ago

Don't forget that the 2008 financial collapse was exacerbated due to W's poor handling of the dot com bust in the beginning of his first term as well. 

32

u/UngodlyPain 1d ago

Exactly but I remember in 2012 tons of people were like "but Obama let 2008 happen" like my dude he was inaugurated in 09.

6

u/SevanIII 1d ago

Too many people just don't pay attention. Which is a big part of why we're here today. 

6

u/mister_buddha 1d ago

I was once told that the crash happened due to Obama being the presumptive winner of the election.

4

u/UngodlyPain 1d ago

Meanwhile it's the actual complete opposite. Obama won because the crash was blamed on the Republicans who were in control at the time, as well as the Clinton's who were largely incontrol of the Dem party.

Obama was an upstart who got pretty lucky with his timing. And the fact he has charisma and public speaking skills.

4

u/mcpickle-o 1d ago

"We'd like to get to the bottom of that."

---Trump voter when asked about why Obama wasn't in office on 9/11.

1

u/UngodlyPain 1d ago

Jesus that also extra gets me, at least with 2008 Obama was a US Senator... But back in 2001 he wasn't even a federal representative, he was in the Illinois state legislature which had nothing to do with 9/11.

1

u/mcpickle-o 1d ago

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T2IaJwkqgPk&t=4599s&pp=2AH3I5ACAQ%3D%3D

Here's a good documentary for anyone interested in how neoliberalism has basically ruined the world.

31

u/Khanscriber 1d ago

Dubya stole the election then failed to prevent 9/11. One or the other is bad, but both should’ve been a (figurative) death sentence.

2

u/Pivotalrook 23h ago

I don't think any president could have prevented 9/11 unless they had a crystal ball and wore a giant purple turban.

America wrote their own ticket after arming the Mujahideen, then just peacing out.

2

u/Khanscriber 22h ago

The various intelligence agencies had already uncovered every aspect of the 9/11 plot, however it was up to the president, who was in charge of all of those intelligence agencies, who was responsible for putting that intelligence together.

Read the 9/11 commission report. 

1

u/Pivotalrook 22h ago

Hindsight intelligence is exactly that.

1

u/mikeh95 23h ago

Actually, had Gore won there was a chance we might have been able to prevent it. A big cause for 9/11 was the transition from Clinton to Bush being delayed due to the election being undecided and Senate confirmations taking forever.

Bush's team didn't have enough time to figure out the attack. All we knew was Bin Laden was planning an attack.

Still, it wasn't anyone's fault. Just worst possible timing on our part.

0

u/Pivotalrook 22h ago

It absolutely was America's fault. Rug pulling people after you helped them. Arm the rebels, then turn your back on them...surprised they had some deep seeded resentment to your country?

1

u/mikeh95 17h ago

My comment about it being no one's fault was in response to you saying "I don't think any president could have prevented 9/11", not the second part.

If Gore had won, his administration might have been able to prevent the attacks because there probably wouldn't have been that much turnover and they could have figured it out in time.

7

u/Diligent-Phrase436 1d ago

Exactly. The Roman Republic didn't fall overnight. Gaius Marius and Sulla had to make way for Caesar.

3

u/Mrqueue 1d ago

And it was Obama who got the job done…

Imagine how hard the republicans would go if that happened under trump 

3

u/KnowsAboutMath 23h ago

A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not.

-An actual Reagan quote

2

u/UngodlyPain 23h ago

One of the quotes I was referencing. That should have resulted in an immediate removal from office; with criminal investigations following it.

But Reagan was the OG Maga Cult.

Its insane to me since Nixon the only Republican president punished for anything was Bush Sr... Doing his job and saving the American economy from a recession, lost him a re-election bid.

•

u/MageBayaz 4h ago

the only Republican president punished for anything was Bush Sr... Doing his job and saving the American economy from a recession, lost him a re-election bid.

His loss really pushed Republicans to the right. The lesson they have learned from his example is to "never raise taxes".

2

u/NatterinNabob 1d ago

I do not recall that.

2

u/HyacinthFT 22h ago

"at least he kept us safe" when the worst terrorist attack in US history happened on his watch

2

u/UngodlyPain 22h ago

Yeah lol, more accurately "he went for revenge wars that killed plenty of brown people, and poor young American soldiers"

2

u/AntoniaFauci 18h ago

He actually said that he committed crimes but “in his heart” he didn’t. It was farcical.