Obama blames Sarah Palin for Donald Trump

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last updated 3 October 2016

If we didn't have Sarah Palin, would we have Donald Trump? President Obama isn't so sure. In an interview published Monday in New York, Obama explained that he sees a "straight line" from when Sarah Palin became John McCain's vice-presidential nominee in 2008 to Trump's surprise success in 2016:

I see a straight line from the announcement of Sarah Palin as the vice-presidential nominee to what we see today in Donald Trump, the emergence of the Freedom Caucus, the tea party, and the shift in the center of gravity for the Republican Party. Whether that changes, I think, will depend in part on the outcome of this election, but it's also going to depend on the degree of self-reflection inside the Republican Party. There have been at least a couple of other times that I've said confidently that the fever is going to have to break, but it just seems to get worse. [Barack Obama, via New York]

Obama said he noticed at the beginning of his first term that the "moods ... Palin captured during the election increasingly were representative of the Republican activist base, its core." As that oppositionist "mood" gained steam, the more difficult deal-making became: "If they cooperated with me, then that would validate our efforts. If they were able to maintain uniform opposition to whatever I proposed, that would send a signal to the public of gridlock, dysfunction, and that would help them win seats in the midterms," Obama said.

The success of such gridlock, Obama said, produced a "much sharper party-line approach to managing both the House and the Senate" that will have "consequences for years to come." Head over to New York for the full story on Obama's battles with Republicans, as told through five days that were key to his presidency.