The White House downplayed Donald Trump’s big Indiana victory on Wednesday, by saying President Obama didn’t watch the election returns, and had no reaction to Trump becoming the presumptive Republican front-runner.
Indiana, a state Trump won by more than 16 points, also gave Sen. Bernie Sanders a victory over Hillary Clinton.
Still, White House spokesman Josh Earnest called a contest Democratic convention “unlikely” and quickly pivoted to start forecasting the White House message for the general election against Trump. The economy, he said, has rebounded under Obama’s leadership and voters should choose a Democrat to continue the steady recovery instead of radically shifting to the unpredictable Trump.
“There are six months until Election Day, and I’m confident the president will spend many of those days making a strong case about the progress the country has made in the past seven years,” Earnest told reporters traveling to Flint, Mich., with the president.
“It is undeniable our country is stronger, our economy is stronger than it was eight years ago,” he said. “The question voters will have to ask themselves is do we want to scrap the strategy that has worked so effectively or do we want to build on the progress that we made?”
