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President Obama: Republican Primary A ‘Vicious, Vulgar, Race To The Bottom’

By Jayce Wagner
Published on: 07:07 PST, Mar 15, 2016

Speaking to the press today, President Obama addressed the increasingly divisive and bitter presidential primary season unfolding in 2016, calling the race “vulgar and divisive” and a “race to the bottom.” President Obama spoke about the tenor of the Republican race when at SXSW last week, but his comments at the media festival were tongue-in-cheek and much less somber than his address today, where he seemed deeply troubled by the tone currently at play within the Republican primary and the Trump campaign.

“In America there is no law that says we have to be nice to each other or courteous or treat each other with respect. But there are norms. There are customs. There are values that our parents taught us and that we try to teach our children to try to treat others the way we want to be treated,” said President Obama during the St. Patrick’s Day luncheon today.

President Obama didn’t mention Trump by name and didn’t name the Republican race in particular, but he did make thinly-veiled allusions to the violence at Donald Trump rallies. The Trump rally violence has been something of a hot issue lately, and it’s little wonder that President Obama felt the need to address it given how bitterly divided the country was during the 2008 race between then Senator Obama and Senator John McCain.

“The longer that we allow the political rhetoric of late to continue, and the longer that we tacitly accept it, we create a permission structure that allows the animosity in one corner of our politics to infect our broader society and animosity breeds animosity,” President Obama said.

For his part, Donald Trump continues to deny that anyone has been injured at his rallies despite ample evidence to the contrary. Even his surrogates speaking to CNN have done the same, backing Trump’s statements about the conditions on the ground at his rallies. This morning, CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield spoke to one such Trump supporter, who affirmed her belief that any injuries occurred outside of the Trump rallies themselves – never inside.

“First of all let’s not even use the word violence, there’s very little disruption generally speaking. It’s a function of the press, the press likes to say what the press likes to say,” Donald Trump said, speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday.

President Obama seems to have disagreed, when he addressed the violence and the rhetoric Donald Trump has used on the campaign trail. Obama didn’t name Trump, but he did allude to the statements Trump has made about Muslims, women, and Islam, addressing his stances on refugees, immigrants, and how people around the world feel about Americans.

“I know I’m not the only one in this room who may be more than a little dismayed about what’s happening on the campaign trail lately. We’ve heard vulgar and divisive rhetoric aimed at women and minorities, at Americans who don’t look like us or pray like us. This is also about the American Brand. How are we perceived around the world?” Obama continued at the St. Patrick’s Day luncheon.

During the luncheon, Obama praised Speaker Paul Ryan in particular, stating that he has clear differences with the House Speaker, but he respects him, and they have a good working relationship. The kind of relationship, Obama said, more politicians should aspire to, where disagreement doesn’t mean disrespect.

“We can treat one another as patriots, even if we disagree. We can condemn this race to the bottom or accept it as the way things are, and sink further,” President Obama said during the luncheon.

[Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images]

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