President Obama Apologizes After Trump-Induced Rant

President Obama has made it clear in the past that he does not much care for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump or his policy proposals.

While the president doesn’t usually reference the New York billionaire directly, that was not the case at a summit with the leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico in Ottawa on Wednesday. A reporter asked at a joint press conference if Trump’s name had come up during the meetings.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto largely brushed the question aside, saying that Mexico was prepared to respect the result of the United States’ presidential elections.

Obama was next and took the opportunity to excoriate Trump.

“I think I’ve made myself clear, setting aside whatever the candidates are saying, that America is a nation of immigrants. That’s our strength. Unless, you are one of the first Americans — unless you are a Native American — somebody, somewhere in your past showed up from someplace else. And they didn’t always have papers,” he said

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Trump has been accused of using offensive rhetoric and proposing policies that have been dubbed by his opponents as racist, including a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants and the construction of a wall on the U.S.- Mexico border in an attempt to stop people from illegally coming into the United States.

Obama struck much the same tone, telling reporters that scapegoating immigrants has been done many times throughout the country’s history.

“It was directed at the Irish. It was directed at Poles and Italians. And you can go back and read what was said about those groups,” he said.

He continued drawing parallels to today, “And it’s identical what they’re now saying about Mexicans or Guatemalans or Salvadorans or Muslims or Asians. Same stuff: ‘They’re different. They’re not going to fit. They won’t assimilate. They bring crime.’ Same arguments.”

The president assured the reporter that the views held by the presumptive Republican nominee do not reflect those of Americans in general.

“But guess what? They kept coming. And they kept coming because America offered possibility for their children and their grandchildren. And even if they were initially discriminated against, they understood that our system will, over time, allow them to become part of this one American family. And so we should take some of this rhetoric seriously — and answer it boldly and clearly. But you shouldn’t think that is representative of how the American people think.”

The president concluded by apologizing for going off on a long rant, chalking it up to being near the end of his term and just wanting to get some things off his chest.

h/t: Independent Journal

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