Can Trump win? President Obama: ‘Anything is possible’
Following Donald Trump’s victory in the New Hampshire primary, President Obama said he had faith that the American people would not vote for the brash real estate mogul come November. Now he’s not so sure.
“Anything is possible,” Obama said in an interview that aired on NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday. “It is the nature of democracy that until those votes are cast and the American people have their say, we don’t know.”
“As somebody who has now been in elected office, at various levels, for about 20 years,” the president continued, “I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stuff happen.”
At a news conference in February, Obama rejected the idea that voters would elect Trump to succeed him in the Oval Office.
“I continue to believe Mr. Trump will not be president,” Obama said. “And the reason is because I have a lot of faith in the American people, and I think they recognize that being president is a serious job. It’s not hosting a talk show or a reality show, it’s not promotion, it’s not marketing, it’s hard. And a lot of people count on us getting it right, and it’s not a matter of pandering and doing whatever will get you in the news on a given day.”
But in the interview that aired Wednesday, Obama said Democrats should be fearful of such an outcome.
“You stay worried until all those votes are cast and counted because you know, one of the dangers in an election like this is that people don’t take the challenge seriously,” he said. “They stay home. And we end up getting the unexpected.”
Fear, though, can be a good thing, Obama explained.
“I think anybody who goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing,” he said.
According to the latest average polling data from RealClearPolitics, Trump has a slight lead over Hillary Clinton (45.7 percent to 44.6 percent) nationally.
Is Obama personally scared of a President Trump?
“What I think is scary is a president who doesn’t know their stuff and doesn’t seem to have an interest in learning what they don’t know,” Obama said. “I think if you listen to any press conference he’s given, or listen to any of those debates, basic knowledge — about the world or what a nuclear triad is or where various countries are or, you know, the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world — those are things that he doesn’t know and hasn’t seemed to spend a lot of time trying to find out about.”
The interview comes hours ahead of Obama’s primetime address to the Democratic National Convention. Vice President Joe Biden and Tim Kaine, Clinton’s vice presidential running mate, are also scheduled to speak.
Obama also said that Trump is not your typical presidential candidate.
“Well for one thing, he doesn’t seem to have any plans or policies or proposals or specific solutions,” the president said. “The good news is we’ve got a candidate in Hillary Clinton who has put out very specific plans and programs and is telling you exactly what she’s going to do.”
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