During Tuesday's edition of The Lead With Jake Tapper, former State Department spokeswoman and Obama communications director under President Obama Jen Psaki accused President Trump's new nickname for the former President, "Cheatin' Obama" of having racial undertones.
President Trump, who has become known for branding opponents in both political parties with nicknames, finally unveiled a nickname for his predecessor. When pointing to a Rasmussen poll showing that he had a 50 percent approval rating, the President said that his approval rating was higher than that of “Cheatin’ Obama” at the same time during his presidency.
Host Jake Tapper asked Psaki, now a CNN contributor, for her take on the nickname. According to Psaki:“Given Trump’s history, you can also guess that he might have, there might be racial undertones there. He was the founder of the birther movement. Perhaps I’m going to a very evil place with that but I think that history tells us that’s a possibility.”
Tapper then asked her if “you think he’s saying that because he’s black he cheats?” She responded: “Who knows,” adding that “without the context of his history,” she would not have attributed such sinister motives to the nickname. She also discounted the Rasmussen poll, stressing that the rolling averages have more significance than individual polls: “It’s sort of sad, actually, that he’s grabbing this outlier poll.”
As for the “birther” movement, let’s remember who started it. Before President Obama could face off against the Republicans, he had to get past Hillary Clinton; who many initially viewed as the frontrunner for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in the 2008 presidential election. The Democratic primary that year closely divided the Democratic Party with Appalachian voters and older voters supporting Clinton while younger voters and African-Americans supported Obama.
Painting Obama as an outsider was one of the tactics used by Clinton campaign staffers in an attempt to boost her candidacy. Clinton confidante Sid Blumenthal had asked McClatchy’s James Asher to look into whether or not President Obama was born in Kenya. In addition, pollster Mark Penn had encouraged the Clinton campaign to focus on the young Illinois Senator’s “lack of American roots” and emphasize the fact that she was “born in the middle of America in the middle class in the middle of the last century.”
CNN has spent quite a bit of time trying to paint President Trump as a racist this week by pointing to his tweets about illegal immigration. President Trump’s new nickname for President Obama seems like the latest exhibit that Psaki and friends will use in their attempt to the President as a racist in the court of public opinion.
See transcript below. Click "expand" to read more:
The Lead With Jake Tapper
04/03/18
04:11 PM
JAKE TAPPER: Jen, I want to give you an opportunity to respond to the President brought up Former President Obama, your former boss. He blamed him for “basically” creating no border. That followed a tweet this morning in which he called, with zero context, I didn’t even understand what he was talking about, higher than, he’s talking about his poll numbers in Rasmussen, higher than Cheatin’ Obama at the same time in his Administration. I don’t know exactly what he’s referring to with the Cheatin’. It’s an interesting thing to bring up during the Stormy Daniels saga, certainly. What’s your response?
JEN PSAKI: Well, given Trump’s history, you can also guess that he might have, their might be racial undertones there. He was the founder of the birther movement. Perhaps I’m going to a very evil place with that but I think that history tells us that’s a possibility. Beyond that factually...
TAPPER: Well you think he’s saying that because he’s black he cheats? I don’t even understand what it meant anyways.
PSAKI: Who knows? I don’t know. If he cheated, if he shouldn’t be President, if he wasn’t warranted to be President. There’s lots of possibilities. I think without the context of his history, I would never go to that but I think that’s a possibility. Beyond that factually, I think, one we know, anyone who’s worked in politics, that one outlier poll tells you nothing. What you’re looking at is rolling averages. His rolling average from the first year was 38 percent, which is 10, 11 points below any other President since 1945. The next was President Clinton. So yes, it’s sort of sad, actually, that he’s grabbing this outlier poll. I don’t think anyone, President Obama and anyone who has worked for him was particularly worried about it. What it means, I don’t really know. That’s just my best guess.
