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.”
