White House Press Secretary Jay Carney faced several questions about the high number of official, taxpayer funded events by President Obama in battleground states considered crucial to his reelection hopes, and defended Obama by arguing that presidential travel should not be restricted by the possibility that the state could plausibly support or oppose the incumbent’s reelection.
Asked about reports that Obama is effectively campaigning on “the taxpayer’s dime,” Carney said he “reject[ed] the premise” of the question. “If you took off the map and said ‘the president of the United States cannot travel to states that are perceived to be battleground states,’ you would severely limit the capacity of this president or any of his successors to travel anywhere,” he argued. He also noted that the apparent problem is created because “what happened in 2008 is Barack Obama, then-Senator Obama, expanded the political map dramatically.”
“It’s a guessing-game to suggest that we know what states are battleground states necessarily,” Carney added. “To say that he can’t travel to [certain] states because he won them [and] made them competitive, I think would severely restrict this president’s ability to travel.”
When pressed on Obama’s travel to Pennsylvania, Carney pointed to logistical reasons for traveling to the nearby state before revealing confidence in Obama’s strength there. “I’m very confident — I’ll offer my opinion — that President Obama is going to win Pennsylvania and he’s also going to win the election. I think he won Pennsylvania by double-digits but that’s now I guess by your estimation or whoever put togther this list a battleground state,” he said. “Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t — we don’t take anything for granted,” he quickly added.
When a reporter challenged the idea that political benefit played no role in where Obama decided to travel, Carney maintained that “the decisions for official events are made for official reasons.”
You can see Carney field these questions in the video below.
