Obama thought experiment. What are YOUR thoughts? Without any whataboutism are his points valid?

[DrPepper12]

"Imagine if I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps.…{regarding not using "Gulf Of Mexico" in its reporting}

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. 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. 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."

[ProbablyClueless]

I would say that they are very valid, yes. I supported it under Obama and I support it under Trump. The Executive is not our "buddy" and we need to remember that.

The White House is well within its rights to have an adversarial relationship with the Press, expel foreigners who support its enemies, and punish government contractors for sabotaging the administration's efforts. It's not even a question of whataboutism, it's just what happened. Obama very literally and directly did each of those things in spades.

Obama press relations https://www.cato.org/commentary/barack-obamas-war-free-press

Obama expelling foreigners: https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/exiled-obama-administrations-horrifying And that's not even including the extrajudicial killings he conducted overseas on people for keeping the wrong company.

Obama punishing government contractors for disagreeing with him. https://www.jacksonkelly.com/government-contracts-blog/its-official-obama-administration-to-limit-role-of-contractors-threatens-to-cancel-existing-contract

[AyChingao]

Spot on. They beat him to death over wearing a tan suit for heaven sake. Not to mention the fact that Obama would never have dreamt of behaving in such a punitive manner. The Republicans (yes I say all of them because they enable the orangutan in charge by refusing to do ANYthing at all when he does blatantly cruel AND illegal things)
How many investigations into Benghazi and Hillary's e-mails again? And the Hunter's laptop stupidity? The entire Republican party refuses to operate in the real factual world.

[unknowngurll1212]

Honestly, he’s got a point. If he had done half of that, the backlash would've been wild. The silence now kinda exposes how selective outrage works depending on who’s in power. It’s less about actions and more about who's doing them, sadly...

[DrPepper12]

Wise beyond your years!

[Anonymous]

Whataboutism mean nothing really outside the US. It was first used in the 50s to excuse the racial oppression of African Americans when trying to criticise the USSR in the United Nations.

[sawno]

Doesn't matter if its Trump or Obama I am very consistent since I have integrity.
The gulf of mexico thing is whatever, but if an outlet keeps spreading lies then why not replace them with new media?

The main one I care about in this list is the anti free speech stance, if its more than just protesting they have a case. But they need to leave opinions and regular protests alone.

[DrPepper12]

The law firms being banned really bothers me because without zealous representation, or in this case targeting law firms because of who they represented is bullshit. If we don't have personnel and mechanisms to exercise our rights, IE attorneys, then we don't have any rights!

I'm curious, who would you have to determine whether or not a news outlet is spreading lies or not? AP is a aggregator anyway and has other clients who don't mind accuracy.

[sawno]

You can set an objective standard, any outlet pushing the very fine people hoax for example I'm fine with if they never have white house press access again. If they push a narrative that is an overt lie they should be replaced. Its how I treat my news sources anyway. So if you take something deliberately out of context to write a lie your access is gone.

I don't find gulf of mexico that level though.

[RedInnocent69]

Absolutely. Republicans would have lost their shit. He didn’t and they lost their shit about the most petty things, the tan suit, Michelle’s bare arms, literally anything. What if Michelle had modelled nude, or Obama played golf while the economy jumped off a cliff directly from his own doing. The cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy is mind blowing!

[DrPepper12]

I agree completely and I will also add that the right is much more monolithic in its hypocrisy whereas there are people like me who are very liberal but still maintain my separate views on whether women should play on men's teams and other stupid identity politics issues.

[Still-alive]

Imagine if I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps

my response to this is he friggin should have! And when someone competent gets back in office they need to ban fox, newsmax, any far right ‘news’ org forever!

[DrPepper12]

As much as I hate what Rupert Murdoch and Roger ailes and his ilk have done to the MAGAs I can't support banning them. That's not the way to combat missing disinformation although it's certainly would be easier and more efficient

[DrPepper12]

Mis & disinformation

[Still-alive]

nope i disagree and i would even argue banning misinformation aka LYING is pro free speech. free speech really only works well if everyone knows what the truth is. if we don't? well you see what happens, we get trump and now on the verge of an authoritarian regime.

I would have agreed with you pre trump but post trump im now convinced this is the way forward.

[molonski2]

I watched the full interview , very insightful and he made great points.

You read though the answers though and people talk like it's a football match , polarisation is the problem , there should be 50 swing states , not to his red/ blue bullshit.
This would allow realistic change on both sides.

Coz , how in the Fck did we end up with this piece of world destruction crp? He is a self centered nut case , surely people can see he has to go.

[AviatorTom]

How about we stop all this theoretical crap, and live in reality?

[DrPepper12]

If the MAGAs want to return to Earth prime that would be great!

[SmokinAces2000]

Imagine if he was convicted of 34 felonies and tried to run for president. They would try to give him life.

[DrPepper12]

Accurate

[Lliam]

That creep should go back to his multi million dollar mansion in Martha's Vineyard and fuck himself. He should be ignored for the dishonest, hypocritical, Democrat shill that he is.

[DrPepper12]

"again this failure to communicate" . Now do it again with that what about ism

[Sono83]

Reporters should not be forbidden in government buildings by any president.

[DrPepper12]

Nor lawyers

[Anonymous]

violent riots and firebombing ain't protests

[DrPepper12]

And what aboutism is not reading comprehension. Try again.

[Opinion Owner]

stating a fact is not whataboutism

[DrPepper12]

Obama did these things? Fool

[Opinion Owner]

Obama did way worse

[DrPepper12]

Nope

[Friendlybro79]

They would have tore him a new one. It's that simple. Maga has no logic.

[chrissykerdock]

of course not no valid reason