“I’d be doing really well” if “I was writing their stories,” Pres. Obama said while asking his audience to imagine how popular he’d be if the media worked for him.
Speaking at a fundraiser in New York, Obama tried to tie Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin who is popular because he controls “all media in his country”:
“You have a nominee of a major party that shows no awareness of just basic, rudimentary domestic or foreign policy. Advertises his ignorance every day. Who proclaims his role model for leadership is Vladimir Putin. Think about that.
“This is the party that extolls freedom and America and the flag and Ronald Reagan, and whose main criticism of me lately has been my tyrannical abuse of power -- that I'm trying to take away their guns, and I'm filing executive actions, and I'm circumventing the Constitution. And we're going to nominate the guy who actively promotes and admires a guy who jails dissidents and controls all state media -- all media in his country, and hence has an 82 percent approval rating.”
Obama then invited his audience to just “imagine” how high his approval rating would be if U.S. media worked for him and he got to write their talking points:
“Can you imagine what my approval rating would be if all those folks lined up in the back worked for me -- (laughter) -- and I was writing their stories? Wow. (Laughter.) I'd be doing really well. I’m doing okay, as it is.”
Obama did not mention how he has praised the media for "working side-by-side" with him to advance his agenda.
And, while he criticized Trump’s comments regarding Russia’s president, Obama did not mention the praise he himself, as president, has heaped on dictators in communist countries like Cuba and China.