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Earnest: If Trump Crosses ‘Red Lines,’ Obama Will Return to Political Debate

‘One example is if we saw the federal government begin to use the information that was submitted by DREAMers to round them up and send them out of the country, that would represent a broken promise to those DREAMers’
By Grabien Staff

EXCERPT:

JANSING: “But there still is presumably an important role for government to play. And I think that there are obviously going to be people that are going to be disappointed that he didn’t go after Donald Trump, even though all of you who have been close to him have been signaling that that was not going to happen. I just wonder, you know, I was there, you were there, as well. I think it was the last press conference in December that he gave. And he said, you know, he’ll speak up when things really are egregious essentially. What do you think would motivate him to get back involved in the public debate in a way he’s not willing to do right now?”
EARNEST: “After the last eight years, the President doesn’t relish the prospect of getting back into the day-to-day fights that characterize governing the United States of America in the 21st century. The President doesn’t have much interest in weighing in on the tax reform proposal that the Trump folks are promising to release next week. He doesn’t have much of an interest on weighing in on what steps Republicans in Congress can take to keep the government open. He spent the last eight years doing it, it’s somebody else’s turn to do that now.

"I think what would motivate President Obama to reengage in the political debate, is if we saw the federal government start to cross some clear red lines in terms of long observed norms and values that we have started to take for granted. One example that President Obama has himself cited in the past is if we saw the federal government begin to use the information that was submitted by DREAMers to round them up and send them out of the country. That would represent a broken promise to those DREAMers. We made a promise to them that that information we collected would not be used for enforcement purposes.

"It also would be a pretty stark departure from the values of this country that signal that people who want an opportunity to succeed here and are feeling to follow the law and make a substantial positive contribution to their community should be given a chance. That’s the essence of the DREAMers executive action that the Obama Administration took and I think if we saw the Trump Administration try to roll that back in a systematic way, that’s the kind of thing that the President would view as a pretty egregious violation of some of the basic norms and principles of governing.

"I do think we would see President Obama come out and say something about that. But his desire is to try to remain above the fray. While he was President of the United States, he was fond of saying we only have one president at the time and he even believes that now that he’s left the White House.”

(H/T: RealClearPolitics)

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