'Stop whining,' Obama tells Trump, chiding for fraud talk

[webfact]

'Stop whining,' Obama tells Trump, chiding for fraud talk

By KEVIN FREKING and KATHLEEN HENNESSEY

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — "Stop whining," President Barack Obama rebuked Donald Trump on Tuesday, speaking out as seldom before on next month's election and chiding the Republican for sowing suspicion about the integrity of America's presidential vote.

 

Obama also accused Trump of cozying up to Russia's Vladimir Putin to a degree "unprecedented in American politics."

 

The president said Trump's intensifying pre-emptive warnings about voter fraud are unheard of in modern politics. The rhetoric is not based on any evidence, Obama said, but is simply aimed at discrediting the outcome before the first votes are counted.

 

"You start whining before the game is even over?" Obama said at a Rose Garden news conference. "If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose you start blaming somebody else — then you don't have what it takes to be in this job."

 

Campaigning in Colorado, the GOP candidate repeated his assertions about "corrupt" elections but did not respond directly to the president. Trump vowed to "drain the swamp" in Washington, and for the first time promised to push for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.

 

The president's remarks came as Trump and his Republican allies look for ways to regain momentum after a damaging few weeks in the campaign. Heading into the third and final debate Wednesday night, Trump is trailing in the polls and running out of time for a comeback before Nov. 8.

 

Obama waded into the race to elect a successor, speaking at the White House where he was hosting his final state visit. Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at his side, the president initially said he would pull his punches when it came to politics, respecting the official setting. But when he was asked about Trump's rhetoric, he hardly held back.

 

"I would invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes," he said.

 

The GOP candidate has ramped up warnings about potential fraud. That's drawing criticism not only from Democrats but from his own party, particularly the state and county officials who run local elections, who fear the rhetoric will give losers license to dispute any results.

 

"They even want to try and rig the election at the polling booth, where so many cities are corrupt and you see that and voter fraud is all too common," Trump said at a rally in Colorado Springs.

 

Independent studies and election officials in both parties say they see no evidence that voter fraud — individuals impersonating others to cast ballots — is a widespread problem.

 

Asked about Trump's claims on Tuesday, running mate Mike Pence dodged and suggested Trump's point actually was about the "overwhelming bias in the national media."

 

Pence spoke after touring the burned-out offices of the Republican Party in Hillsborough, North Carolina. The GOP office was firebombed over the weekend in what Pence called an "act of political terrorism." Trump pointed at Clinton supporters, but Pence did not assign blame. Police are investigating.

 

Clinton held no public events Tuesday while she prepared for the debate. She has her own troubles and is certain to be asked about the latest revelations involving her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.

 

New FBI documents released Monday revived questions about whether she received classified information and whether State Department allies sought to protect her from criticism over the email arrangement.

 

The FBI notes show a State Department official asked the FBI to lower the classification of a sensitive email found on her server. The email was related to the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.

 

The documents revealed discussion of a "quid pro quo" in trying to get the email reclassified, though it's not clear who first raised the issue. Both State and FBI officials deny any bargaining took place, and the email was not declassified.

 

Trump called it an "elaborate and deliberate cover-up" and called for the State Department official, Undersecretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy, to be fired.

 

The Republican is hoping to turn the conversation away from the allegations of sexual misconduct that partly dominated his last debate against Clinton.

 

In an interview with Fox News aired Tuesday, Melania Trump vouched for her husband and blamed the accusations on political rivals: "They want to damage the presidency of my husband, and it was all planned, it was all organized from the opposition."

 

Her comments carried echoes of Clinton's allegations of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" organized to raise similar allegations against her husband two decades ago. Trump notably tried to revive Bill Clinton's history by inviting his accusers to the last debate. His guest list for Wednesday's faceoff in Las Vegas includes Pat Smith, whose son, Sean Smith, was killed in the attack in Benghazi. Smith was a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention, where she delivered an emotional speech blaming Clinton for her son's death.

 

As for Russia, Obama accused Trump of showering praise and modeling his policies on Russian President Putin to a degree that is "unprecedented in American politics."

 

He said he has been "surprised and troubled" by Republican lawmakers who he said are echoing their presidential nominee's positions. Trump has praised Putin as a strong leader and criticized Obama and Clinton for Washington's deteriorating relationship with Moscow.

 

In an interview Monday, Trump said Russia "can't stand" either Democrat. He promised a closer relationship with Putin, if elected, starting with a possible meeting before Inauguration Day.

___

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Michael Biesecker and Eric Tucker in Washington. Hennessey reported from Washington.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-10-19

[Briggsy]

I agree this childish "sore loser" behaviour from Trump clearly shows he lacks what it takes to be president.

 

Trump needs to stop whining.

[Pimay1]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The president said Trump's intensifying pre-emptive warnings about voter fraud are unheard of in modern politics. The rhetoric is not based on any evidence, Obama said, but is simply aimed at discrediting the outcome before the first votes are counted.

According to this New York election official who is a democrat there is massive voter fraud. Video included.

 

http://patrioticviralnews.com/articles/election-official-admits-democrats-commit-voter-fraud/

 

[freebyrd]

23 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

I agree this childish "sore loser" behaviour from Trump clearly shows he lacks what it takes to be president.

 

Trump needs to stop whining.

 

Any western leader of a sophisticated democratic country has to show: leadership under pressure, patience, decorum and in effect set an example to despots like Kim Jong - Un, Mugabe, Duterte and others. Trump doesn't have any of these qualities, or the sophistication to set an example to the man/woman on the street. I wasn't a fan of Johnson, Ford, Carter, GW Bush, but all of them, even Bush who was a terrible president, were able to be statesmanlike in front of the cameras. If Americans want their children to look to Trump as an example, it's testament to how far standards have fallen. I don't like Clinton, she has a great number of faults, but I will sleep nights knowing she won't rush to activate the football.

 

As a kid during the Cuban missile crisis, although I didn't realise it until years later, Kennedy's leadership and cool action when his General's were pushing him to attack ensured that my life extended to my sixth decade and that my children advancing towards middle age. If Trump gets in I have no confidence that my grandchildren will reach their 60th birthdays. He is quite simply an awful human being.

[Silurian]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

"You start whining before the game is even over?" Obama said at a Rose Garden news conference. "If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose you start blaming somebody else — then you don't have what it takes to be in this job."

 

Boom! Microphone drop. Obama out.

 

This is akin to a professional sports team crying foul even before the big game has begun. Can you imagine any sports team stating the referees will be unfair ahead of the game itself? Even before playing? Election day is weeks away and Trump wants to whine about it ahead of time? Give me a break. 

[alanrchase]

Trump is like a child playing a board game, who when realising they are going to lose, flips the board in the air and stomps off screaming that they weren't beaten.

[JLCrab]

Trump has said many times "I am a winner!" So, if he isn't winning, what other reason could there be?

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-praises-his-own-great-performance-2015-8

[Pinot]

1 hour ago, Pimay1 said:

According to this New York election official who is a democrat there is massive voter fraud. Video included.

 

http://patrioticviralnews.com/articles/election-official-admits-democrats-commit-voter-fraud/

 

 

An example of linking a tiny wingnut blog site to prove a nonsensical point.  This is the koolaid the wingnuts guzzle. 

 

The kind of crap the wingnuts inhale, as they complain about the main stream media. 

 

Please, try to do better than this ridiculous bullshit. When you throw out this crap to prove a point it discounts everything else you throw up here; you end up looking silly. The boy who cried wolf? How about the boy who cried Breitbart. 

[Andaman Al]

1 hour ago, Pimay1 said:

According to this New York election official who is a democrat there is massive voter fraud. Video included.

 

http://patrioticviralnews.com/articles/election-official-admits-democrats-commit-voter-fraud/

 

Great, from "Patriotic Viral News"! Just great.

 

An in-depth bit of research has just been carried out by a NYT Journo who has found that in previous elections out of a total of 850 Million votes cast in the last 20 years or so, there have been 38 individual cases of voter fraud THIRTY EIGHT, in 850 Million!

 

Some dead people have remained on voter registration but it totals around 10-20 people and it was in Republican states. None of the 'dead' ever had votes placed for them.

[Andaman Al]

Trump is a Republican conspiracy to make all of us believe that George W Bush was in fact great. It is working.

[StevieH]

23 minutes ago, Andaman Al said:

Great, from "Patriotic Viral News"! Just great.

 

An in-depth bit of research has just been carried out by a NYT Journo who has found that in previous elections out of a total of 850 Million votes cast in the last 20 years or so, there have been 38 individual cases of voter fraud THIRTY EIGHT, in 850 Million!

 

Some dead people have remained on voter registration but it totals around 10-20 people and it was in Republican states. None of the 'dead' ever had votes placed for them.

 

38 out of 850 million? that's probably them liberals and MSM colluding and covering it all up though. including under the reagan, bush senior and bush junior presidencies. 

 

 

[elgordo38]

2 hours ago, Briggsy said:

I agree this childish "sore loser" behaviour from Trump clearly shows he lacks what it takes to be president.

 

Trump needs to stop whining.

Bill Maher has a good name for his whining. 

[Thakkar]

Well I guess Voter fraud probably explains why 7 of the last 12 presidential terms have been Republican. And why Republicans have controlled Congress and/or Senate for the last 6 of Obama's 8 year term and why, Until Scalia's recent demise, the majority of Supreme Court justices were Republican-appointed and why currently 31 states have Republican governors as opposed to 18 states with Democratic governors.

 

This travesty has to stop.

 

T

[Traveler19491]

3 hours ago, Pimay1 said:

According to this New York election official who is a democrat there is massive voter fraud. Video included.

 

http://patrioticviralnews.com/articles/election-official-admits-democrats-commit-voter-fraud/

 

 

 

Again with the James O'Keefe BS. Jeez...you righties are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. NO ONE...NOT A SINGLE REPUTABLE MEDIA SOURCE gives the slightest credibility to anything O'Keefe does. Well, no one except the wing nut fringe who will believe anything negative about Democrats. O'Keefe is the same buffoon who tried to pull a "sting" on a Soros funded foundation only to sting himself by failing to hang up the phone after leaving a voice message, then going on to tape himself divulging the entire "operation" (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/james-okeefe-accidentally-stings-himself). I mean, seriously, what "brain trust" can't even figure out how to work a telephone? Not even Glen Beck's "The Blaze" will give O'Keefe the time of day. Your attempt at "proving" voter fraud fails...massively (http://www.snopes.com/2016/10/18/project-veritas-election-videos/). Given O'Keefe's penchant for violating the law and engaging in hugely deceptive editing, taking quotes totally out of context, and deliberately portraying quotes as being something they weren't, there is little here that provides any kind of "proof".

 

Additionally, an exhaustive study done by Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School and an expert in Constitutional law and the laws of democracy, of 1 billion ballots cast in all elections since 2000 discovered a total of 31 credible cases of in-person voter fraud. 31. And not all of those cases turned out to be actual fraud (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/). That's 00000031% of votes cast that MAY have resulted in voter fraud. Nice try, but no donut.

[Pimay1]

35 minutes ago, Traveler19491 said:

 

Again with the James O'Keefe BS. Jeez...you righties are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. NO ONE...NOT A SINGLE REPUTABLE MEDIA SOURCE gives the slightest credibility to anything O'Keefe does. Well, no one except the wing nut fringe who will believe anything negative about Democrats. O'Keefe is the same buffoon who tried to pull a "sting" on a Soros funded foundation only to sting himself by failing to hang up the phone after leaving a voice message, then going on to tape himself divulging the entire "operation" (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/james-okeefe-accidentally-stings-himself). I mean, seriously, what "brain trust" can't even figure out how to work a telephone? Not even Glen Beck's "The Blaze" will give O'Keefe the time of day. Your attempt at "proving" voter fraud fails...massively (http://www.snopes.com/2016/10/18/project-veritas-election-videos/). Given O'Keefe's penchant for violating the law and engaging in hugely deceptive editing, taking quotes totally out of context, and deliberately portraying quotes as being something they weren't, there is little here that provides any kind of "proof".

 

Additionally, an exhaustive study done by Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School and an expert in Constitutional law and the laws of democracy, of 1 billion ballots cast in all elections since 2000 discovered a total of 31 credible cases of in-person voter fraud. 31. And not all of those cases turned out to be actual fraud (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/). That's 00000031% of votes cast that MAY have resulted in voter fraud. Nice try, but no donut.

None are so blind as those who will not see.

[ilostmypassword]

6 minutes ago, Pimay1 said:

None are so blind as those who will not see.

And if O'Keefe performs true to form, we will not see the unedited recordings.

[Srikcir]

27 minutes ago, Pimay1 said:

None are so blind as those who will not see.

"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision." - Helen Keller

[Pimay1]

25 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision." - Helen Keller

Thanks for verifying my statement.

[Boon Mee]

50 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

And if O'Keefe performs true to form, we will not see the unedited recordings.

Au Contraire there - the MSM are doing a Blackout on his revelations.

If the information wasn't correct, why have two top DNC Officials been fired within the day O'Keefe's material surfaced? 

[dunroaming]

One has to wonder if Trump was ahead, would he be singing the same song?  I wonder if Clinton would be singing that song too although I am pretty sure she wouldn't.

 

I am surprised that the Trumpsters here can still defend their boy but I do admire their blind faith.

[Traveler19491]

1 hour ago, Pimay1 said:

None are so blind as those who will not see.

 

Except for those who only see what they want to see, what they are told to see, or what they fantasize that they see, as you have adequately demonstrated.

 

This coming from a guy who refuses to rebut a single well-documented issue that I raised.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Traveler19491

[ilostmypassword]

5 minutes ago, Traveler19491 said:

 

Except for those who only see what they want to see, what they are told to see, or what they fantasize that they see, as you have adequately demonstrated.

 

This coming from a guy who refuses to rebut a single well-documented issue that I raised.

Citing James O'Keefe as a source means that your claim is well documented?

[TPI]

In order to be fair the Donald should show on Television all of the comments made by Barry during the first election 8 years ago! Nothing fairer than that??

[tonray]

24 minutes ago, TPI said:

In order to be fair the Donald should show on Television all of the comments made by Barry during the first election 8 years ago! Nothing fairer than that??

Yeah maybe he can widen the gap he already faces.  Perhaps he can try talking about policy instead of wasting America's election cycle on blaming everyone but himself for his campaign's problems. 

[Thakkar]

3 hours ago, Traveler19491 said:

 

Again with the James O'Keefe BS. Jeez...you righties are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. NO ONE...NOT A SINGLE REPUTABLE MEDIA SOURCE gives the slightest credibility to anything O'Keefe does.

 

I believe it's the other way around.

 

A media source is only reputable if it reinforces my existing beliefs, no matter how kooky. Why waste brain cells parsing facts when I can go to media that's already saying what I believe?

 

T

[Thakkar]

3 hours ago, Pimay1 said:

None are so blind as those who will not see.

 

None are so aggrieved as those who insist on agrieving themselves.

 

T

[thaihome]

6 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Au Contraire there - the MSM are doing a Blackout on his revelations.

If the information wasn't correct, why have two top DNC Officials been fired within the day O'Keefe's material surfaced? 

You mean a black out like this:

"Washington (CNN)A Democratic operative whose organization was helping Hillary Clinton's campaign announced Tuesday that he would be "stepping back" from the campaign after an edited video suggested that he and other staffers hired people to attend Donald Trump's campaign rallies and incite violence."

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/project-veritas-action-robert-creamer-donald-trump-rallies/

TH 

[MaxYakov]

Obama is such a kidder and with a straight face, no doubt.  

Edited October 19, 2016 by MaxYakov

[dunroaming]

I decided to go through most of the British newspapers today to see just what view they had of Trump against Clinton.  I am beginning to think that the conspiracy theory has some weight because every one of them was condemning Trump, although none were praising Clinton either. I guess with most of the worlds press condemning you and all the cartoonists making fun of you then it must be one hell of conspiracy!

[smotherb]

4 hours ago, Pimay1 said:

None are so blind as those who will not see.

Exactly