President Obama revealed in a new interview that he sees the origins of the rise of Donald Trump dating back to John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008.
In an extensive interview with New York Magazine released Sunday, Obama recalled Palin’s selection as the nexus for many changes that have taken hold within the GOP over the years, including Trump’s rise and the emergence of the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus.
“Absolutely. I see a straight line from the announcement of Sarah Palin as the vice-presidential nominee to what we see today in Donald Trump, the emergence of the Freedom Caucus, the Tea Party, and the shift in the center of gravity for the Republican Party,” Obama said.
“Whether that changes, I think, will depend in part on the outcome of this election, but it’s also going to depend on the degree of self-reflection inside the Republican Party,” Obama said. “There have been at least a couple of other times that I’ve said confidently that the fever is going to have to break, but it just seems to get worse.”
Obama made the remark after he laid out the issues he’s had with Republicans throughout his two terms in office, particularly with congressional leadership as he worked to shape the stimulus package and Obamacare.
“The moods that I think Sarah Palin had captured during the election increasingly were representative of the Republican activist base, its core,” Obama said. “It might not have been representative of Republicans across the country, but it meant that John Boehner or Mitch McConnell had to worry about that mood inside their party that felt that.”
