President Obama Makes Fun of GOP Candidates' Debate Complaints
The president said GOP candidates are being too sensitive about debates
— -- President Obama poked fun at the Republican presidential candidates tonight for their complaints about the moderators at the CNBC debate last week.
“They can’t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators," the president said at a DNC fundraiser held after a showing of Hamilton on Broadway. "I mean, let me tell ya, if you can’t handle, if you can’t handle those guys, you know then I don’t think the Chinese and the Russians are going to be too worried about you.”
The Republican presidential campaigns met Sunday to devise a new plan for their party's debates. They meeting arose in the wake of last week's CNBC Republican presidential debate, which was widely panned by the candidates and Republican officials.
On Monday, Ben Ginsburg, a top Republican lawyer working with the presidential campaigns, released a draft letter the campaigns would send to TV networks detailing their criteria and processes they want for each of the debates. But several presidential campaigns, include Donald Trump's, have said they will not sign the letter.
In New York Monday, President Obama also called Republicans "glum" and said "they occupy a different reality."
The president directly called out Sen. Jim Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who brought a snowball to the Senate floor in an attempt to debunk climate change.
"That’s crazy. I was gonna quote Kanye but I can’t. There’s a family audience. But it’s cray,” he said.
But there’s at least one Republican the president said he does agree with –- Dick Cheney. They may be on opposite ends of the political spectrum, but they both appreciate the Broadway show "Hamilton," which the president saw during a father-daughter trip to New York in July.
“Michelle and I love this show. It also happens to be the only thing that I think Dick Cheney and I agree on is that this is a great show,” the president said. “You know when you’ve brought Barack Obama and Dick Cheney together that you’ve accomplished something. That’s a cultural landmark.”