Former President Barack Obama admitted he’s trying to dig out of a ‘deep deficit’ with wife Michelle Obama, a quip he made when addressing Hamilton College students Thursday.
Hamilton College’s President Steven Tepper asked the 63-year-old former president what he’d been up to.
Obama said he’d mostly been working on the second half of his memoir.
‘This is like 50 term papers. I mean, it just goes on forever,’ he said. ‘I’m hoping to get to the finish line on that.’
‘Beyond that, look, I was in a deep deficit with my wife, so I have been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things,’ the former Democratic president admitted.
Divorce rumors have plagued the Obamas for months – especially after the former president attended the late President Jimmy Carter’s funeral solo and then went to President Donald Trump‘s inauguration alone.
Obama talked Trump at Hamilton College too, saying he couldn’t believe what the Republican president has been able to get away with.
An astounded Obama told students: ‘Imagine if I had done any of this.’
‘It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me, or a whole bunch of my predecessors,’ he also said.
Former President Barack Obama admitted he’s trying to dig out a ‘deep deficit’ with wife Michelle Obama, a quip he made when addressing Hamilton College students Thursday.
Hamilton College’s President Steven Tepper (right) asked former President Barack Obama (left) what he’d been up to, when he briefly mentioned the former first lady
Obama’s comments echoed those of Hillary Clinton – who was astonished that after years of hearing Republican criticism over her decision to maintain a private email server while at the State Department – they were using the Signal app to discuss battle plans.
‘I just want to be clear about this,’ Obama continued. ‘Imagine if I had pulled Fox News‘ credentials from the White House press corps. You’re laughing, but this is what’s happening.’
‘Imagine if I had said to law firms that were representing parties that were upset with policies my administration had initiated, that you will not be allowed into government buildings,’ he continued.
‘We will punish you economically for dissenting from the Affordable Care Act or the Iran deal. We will ferret out students who protest against my policies,’ Obama added.
The Trump administation has barred the Associated Press from participating in the press pool – the smaller group of reporters assigned to track the movements of the president daily – over the organization’s refusal to use the president’s preferred ‘Gulf of America.’
AP remains credentialed – for now – but the White House has also taken over who can participate in the daily pool, adding podcasters and conservative influencers.
The Trump administration has also gone after law firms – using executive orders – who were involved in some of the cases that the president refers to as a ‘witchhunt.’
Obama’s hands aren’t entirely clean, as his White House did try to push Fox News out of the network TV pool, but were rebuked.
‘When I watch some of what’s going on now, it does not – look, I don’t think what we just witnessed in terms of economic policy and tariffs is going to be good for America, but that’s a specific policy,’ Obama continued.
‘I’m more deeply concerned with a federal government that threatens universities if they don’t give up students who are exercising their right to free speech,’ the former Democratic president said.
Obama, a lawyer by trade, turned to the law firm issue again.
‘I am more troubled by the idea that a White House can say to law firms, ‘If you represent parties that we don’t like, we’re going to pull all our business or bar you from representing people effectively,” he said. ‘That kind of behavior is contrary to the basic compact we have as Americans.’
Obama tried to explain to the college students in the audience why he thought the country had gotten to the present political moment.
‘I do believe that our commitment to those principles has eroded, and I think it eroded in part because the government itself got really big,’ Obama suggested.
‘What that meant is sometimes it felt distant and unresponsive, and rules are a hassle. Some of the rules aren’t smart, and people get frustrated,’ he continued.
He also floated that while Congress got more diverse, members also resorted to tribalism.
‘Now it’s a little harder to agree to disagree without being disagreeable if your sense is, well, that person isn’t like me. It doesn’t look like me, maybe doesn’t think exactly the way I think,’ Obama said.
At the same time, the former president pointed out, ‘the economy wasn’t working for everybody.’
‘Now, that in part, had to do with the fact that government wasn’t as responsive as it should have been, and inequality grew,’ he said.
He then pointed a finger at the media.
‘I think one of the most important aspects of our democratic practice is having a well-informed citizenry, which is reliant on a free, objective, effective press, and that started getting attacked,’ Obama said.
He said that some of the bigger picture stuff – ‘democracy, rule of law, independent judiciary, freedom of the press’ – wasn’t taken fully into account ahead of the November election.
‘That’s all abstract stuff because it’s not affecting the price of eggs,’ he said.
‘Well, you know what? It’s about to affect the price of eggs,’ Obama added.
He then gave some advice – starting with not seeing people one-dimensionally.
‘Everybody’s got a family member who says crazy stuff,’ he said. ‘We don’t just see them through that single lens. We also see the wonderful things that they – you may have an uncle who at Thanksgiving is just wacky but is also that standup guy who helped you learn how to play hockey or is always there to haul people around during a snow storm, or is generous to a fault with his friends. That’s him, too.’
Obama also pressed that incremental change was OK.
‘And I guess the main message I have for all of you, which we talk a lot about with our leaders, is, do not get discouraged because you don’t fix everything all at once,’ he said.
‘Don’t get discouraged because racism still exists in the world,’ Obama, the country’s first black and biracial president, continued.
He noted that ‘humans aren’t that bright.’
‘We’re chimps. And when we see people who aren’t like us, we get kind of scared, and that’s a little bit embedded in us. And then it’s taught to us and passed on to us, but it’s gotten better,’ he said.
‘Women are still treated badly in a lot of the world and in our country,’ he continued. ‘And there are barriers, despite the fact – well, because, in some cases, the fact that women are operating superior to men in many ways.’
Obama also encouraged the young people to act.
‘Let me jsut close this portion of my remarks by saying it is up to all of us to fix this,’ he said. ‘It’s not going to be because somebody comes and saves you.’
‘The most important office in this democracy is the citizen, the ordinary person who says, no, that’s not right,’ he offered.
