WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 03: U.S. President Barack Obama waves to reporters after returning to the White House on board Marine One September 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. Obama spent three days in Alaska this week where he became the first sitting president to go to the Arctic Circle. (Photo: Getty Images)
Former President Barack Obama slammed Donald Trump for a lack of “seriousness.”
Obama joined Joe Biden and Bill Clinton during an episode of the Smartless podcast to criticize Trump’s behavior.
Actor Jason Bateman, one of the podcast’s hosts, asked Obama if he was surprised “how quickly that protection and passion for democracy was diluted” and “how primed the country was to just sort of dissolve and – and get lazy with it and let it go.”
“You know, I will say – and Bill saw this begin to happen during his presidency – it then accelerated during my presidency – I have been surprised that there haven’t been guard rails inside the Republican Party,” Obama replied.
“Trump didn’t surprise me, no,” he added. “You watch Trump’s campaign, you watch his career. If you know anybody who’s a—I mean, he comes from New York, there’s nobody in New York who does business with him, lends him money, you know, he’s not considered a serious guy here.”
“I was surprised he was elected, but I wasn’t surprised in terms of his behavior,” he admitted. “I did expect – and I suspect – Bill and Joe – you’d agree with this – that there would be some folks in the Republican Party who would say, ‘No, you can’t go that far. You can’t start praising [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and saying that his intelligence is better than the U.S. intelligence agencies.”
During a phone call Obama had with Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in late March, Obama expressed his concern that Biden’s campaign was not taking the threat of Trump returning to the White House seriously enough.
Trump is currently entangled in his New York hush money trial.
On April 15, the first day of the trial, Judge Juan Merchan, the presiding judge, warned Trump that if he disrupted the proceedings, he could face imprisonment, and the trial would proceed in his absence.
Judge Merchan also warned the former president that he might face arrest if he skipped his trial for no reason – a statement given to defendants in New York known as the Parker Warning.
On April 23, Judge Merchan slammed Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, while discussing the gag order in the case. When Blanche stated that Trump had been “doing his best” to adhere to the order, the judge cut him off, saying that the lawyer was “losing all credibility with the court.”
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