Obama criticizes tone of 2016 US presidential debate
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — US President Barack Obama delivered a withering critique of the vitriolic 2016 US presidential campaign Monday, branding it unworthy of American voters.
It is rare for a president to address domestic controversy while on a foreign trip, but Obama was asked about the increasingly hysterical tone of the campaign trail discourse while on a visit to Ethiopia.
With at least 16 Republicans vying for their party’s candidacy to succeed Obama in 18 months time, his opponents have dramatically upped their rhetoric in a bid to get noticed.
Billionaire real estate mogul and White House hopeful Don- ald Trump has captured the news agenda with hardline anti-immigration language and insulting attacks on his Republican rivals.
Now former Arkansas governor-turned-talk-show-host Mike Huckabee launched an assault on Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, branding it a betrayal of Israel in terms recalling the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews.
Addressing reporters in Addis Ababa, Obama hit out at the “outrageous” attacks, which he said “have become all too commonplace” in America’s highly polarized politics.
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner, weighed in as well, saying she was “offended personally” by Huckabee’s remarks.
“I find this kind of inflammatory rhetoric totally unacceptable,” she said while campaigning in Iowa.