begin quote from:
| CNN | - |
Washington
(CNN) President Barack Obama lit into Donald Trump Tuesday, turning the
tables to make the impassioned case that Trump is the one who's
un-American.
Obama goes on tirade against Trump over 'dangerous' Muslim ban, 'radical Islam'
Story highlights
- "We are now seeing how dangerous this kind of mindset and this kind of thinking can be," Obama said
- Obama also called for Congress to pass tougher gun laws and the renewal of the assault weapons ban
Washington (CNN)President
Barack Obama lit into Donald Trump Tuesday, turning the tables to make
the impassioned case that Trump is the one who's un-American.
Obama's
extraordinary denunciation of the presumptive Republican presidential
nominee was about far more than a personal intervention on behalf of
Hillary Clinton in the ugly general election campaign.
The
commander in chief's fury, which seethed out of him in a stunning
soliloquy on live television, amounted to a moment of historic
significance: a president castigating one of the two people who could
succeed him as beyond the constitutional and political norms of the
nation itself.
Obama's remarks,
motivated by his disgust over Trump's response to the worst terror
attack since 9/11, were also deeply ironic, given that Trump has hounded
him for years with insinuations that he's not a real American.
The
real estate mogul had returned to that theme on Monday, hinting that in
some way the President was complicit or approved of Islamic terror
attacks, saying on Fox News, "There is something going on."
Trump
has based his attacks on conspiracy theories that Obama was born
outside the country or a closeted Muslim. Obama's charge, in contrast,
was based on his perception that the billionaire Republican's views are
so extreme that he threatens the fabric of America itself.
And
Obama sought to shame Republican leaders, many of whom were left
squirming by Trump's views. Though they differ with many of his views --
House Speaker Paul Ryan again on Tuesday rejected the GOP presumptive
nominee's stance on Muslims -- they are trapped by his millions of
primary voters, who made it clear to the party leadership that the
billionaire businessman should be heeded.
"That's not the America we want," he said. "It doesn't reflect our democratic ideals. It will make us less safe."
Obama
has pilloried Trump before. But Tuesday's remarks displayed a deeper
intensity and anger, reflecting his apparent belief that America had
reached a dangerous moment given Trump;s new status as the presumptive
Republican presidential nominee.
"I
think the key for President Obama -- is he is talking to the world,"
presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told CNN's Anderson Cooper.
"Donald Trump isn't just a candidate who a few months back was talking
about banning Muslims from the United States. He has got a lot of
momentum."
He continued, "President
Obama wanted to make clear that the United States government, the
federal government says no to what Donald Trump is suggesting, that it
is hateful bigotry."
He concluded, "There was ire in his eyes and sarcasm in the way he went after Trump."
Obama
told his aides on Monday that he wanted to deliver a speech rebutting
the Republican nominee's comments after stewing over them, a senior
administration official told CNN's Dana Bash.
The
result was the kind of public venting that Obama, one of the world's
most self-contained politicians, rarely indulges in publicly -- though
this side of his character is familiar to those who have witnessed the
much more impassioned rhetoric he adopts in private.
In
some ways, it recalled the angry tirade against American politics that
Obama delivered after the Newtown massacre of defenseless schoolchildren
in 2012 and the subsequent rant he delivered about politicians that he
implied were too cowardly to embrace his crusade for gun control.
He
hammered Trump over his "dangerous" mindset and "loose talk and
sloppiness" about who exactly America was fighting, implying that
Trump's remarks were actually driving Muslims who might be prone to
radicalization into the arms of ISIS.
And
he doubled down to repudiate Republican campaigns that he was abetting
terrorism by refusing to use the words "radical Islamic terrorism."
"What
exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it
change?" Obama asked during remarks at the Treasury Department. "Would
it make ISIL less committed to try and kill Americans?" he continued,
using a different acronym for ISIS.
"Would
it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by
this? The answer is none of the above," he said. "Calling a threat by a
different name does not make it go away."
How Obama responds to shooting attacks 02:34
Speaking
after Obama's remarks, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said
the President had grown frustrated at hearing "political talking points"
being wielded in place of a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy.
But
while the President's remarks likely cheered many of his supporters,
the tone of his comments -- which included a call for gun control --
contained little reassurance for Americans scared about a new wave of
homegrown terror on U.S. soil.
And
while Obama mounted a stern defense of his administration's battle to
eradicate ISIS in its self-declared caliphate in parts of Syria and
Iraq, his remarks will not assuage critics who argue he was late to the
fight and is still not doing enough.
Mike
Rogers, former head of the House Intelligence Committee, faulted Obama
for treading the same kind of political terrain as Trump with his angry
remarks.
"This was the chance for
the President to try to bring us together. I think he is so focused on
this presidential campaign he let himself go," Rogers, now a CNN
commentator, said on "The Lead" with Jake Tapper. "I just don't think it
looked presidential."
Obama's intervention also seemed motivated by a desire to help Clinton.
The
former secretary of state lit into Trump herself on Tuesday, warning
that Trump was temperamentally unfit to serve in the Oval Office.
She also made the case that his obsession with the words "radical Islam" was a smokescreen for his own lack of knowledge.
"Is
Donald Trump suggesting that there are magic words that once uttered
will stop terrorists from coming after us?" Clinton said in Pittsburgh.
"What I will not do is demonize and declare war on an entire religion."
Trump
is didn't immediately respond to Obama. But he did put out a Tweet
addressed to LGBT Americans traumatized by the attack on the nightclub
in Orlando.
"Thank you to the LGBT
community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that
will threaten your freedoms and beliefs."
The
Republican Party did lash out at Obama, however, with RNC Chairman
Reince Priebus hitting out at the administration's record on fighting
terrorism and faulting Clinton and Obama for pushing for gun control in
the wake of the tragedy in Florida.
"Let's
not forget: President Obama's hasty and politically-driven withdrawal
from Iraq, which Hillary Clinton supported, created the vacuum that
enabled the rise of this terrorist group," Priebus said in a statement.
"Their
failure to secure Libya after their military intervention gave ISIS a
beachhead on another continent. Democrats want to talk about anything
else because they have lost the national security debate."
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