Mediaboss Marketing

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Former President Barack Obama participated in a generally apolitical NBC "Today" segment Wednesday about his new Netflix show on national parks, but he couldn't resist sneaking in a seeming shot at Donald Trump.

To promote "Our Great National Parks," he and anchor Al Roker led local Washington, D.C., children in a scavenger hunt in Virginia's Great Falls National Park. At one point, Obama reminisced about seeing a group of whales migrating in Hawaii.

After one of the children alluded to it being the state where he was born, Obama said, "I was born in Hawaii, yeah Honolulu. See, you know more than some people know about where I was born."

Obama smiled, clearly referencing the infamous "birther" controversy from earlier in his career. Proponents of the theory said he was born outside the United States and was ineligible for the presidency. Obama eventually produced his longform birth certificate in 2011, but Trump continued to question its authenticity afterward.

OBAMA REACTS TO RUSSIA'S UKRAINE INVASION: PUTIN HAS ALWAYS BEEN RUTHLESS'

Obama, and future NBC late-night host Seth Meyers, memorably skewered Trump over the birther controversy and his rumored run for high office at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner.

"No one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald," Obama said at the time. "Thats because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like: Did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?"

Five years later, Trump successfully ran for president and replaced Obama in the White House, although he said revenge for the dinner roast wasn't on his mind. During the campaign, he said Obama was clearly born in the United States and said Hillary Clinton was the catalyst for the birther theory.

'SNL' CELEBRATES KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, MOCKS BIDEN'S MEETING WITH OBAMA

Back in the studio after the segment aired, fellow "Today" host Craig Melvin chuckled and said of Obama, "He couldn't resist."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Obama narrated and helped produce the five-part national parks series for Netflix, which features parks from around the world.

See original here:
Obama takes shot at Trump over birther controversy in NBC national parks segment - Fox News

Russian forces have overwhelmingly floundered in their efforts to overtake Ukraine since launching their invasion in February, and they retreated from around the capital of Kyiv in recent days amid stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces.

U.S. officials now assess that Russian forces are resupplying and reinforcing their ranks before mounting a new offensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine where Russia first made an incursion 48 days ago into two breakaway areas largely controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.

CIA Director William Burns told Congress last month that Putin is probably angry and frustrated by the state of Russias war effort, and that hes likely to double down and try to grind down the Ukrainian military with no regard for civilian casualties.

Indeed, Russian forces hasty retreat in northern Ukraine exposed scenes of apparent war crimes and other atrocities in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv. Russias targeting of civilian areas also has included a missile strike on a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk that killed more than 50 people last Friday.

In a statement Monday night, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the Defense Department was monitoring reports of potential chemical weapons use in the besieged city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine.

View original post here:
Obama: Ukraine invasion proof that Putin has grown more 'reckless' - POLITICO

Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy pushed back Wednesday at progressives who had criticized his appearing with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Mr. Dungy noted on Twitter that his home-state governor was signing a pro-fatherhood bill about which he had said nothing that former President Barack Obama didnt.

2 days ago I spoke on behalf of a Florida bill that supports dads & families and it offended some people, Mr. Dungy said in his tweet, which included snippets from a 2008 Obama speech on the issue.

14 yrs ago Pres Obama said the same things almost verbatim. Im assuming people were outraged at him too, Mr. Dungy added dryly.

Mr. Obama had said that we know the statistics that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.

The bill, according to an account in The Hill, directs $70 million to educational and mentorship programs to help children, fathers, and families, including organizations like Mr. Dungys nonprofit group All Pro Dad.

I am serving the Lord so Ill keep supporting dads and families, said Mr. Dungy, the first Black head coach to win a Super Bowl.

Liberals and leftists were irked that Mr. Dungy appeared in public with Mr. DeSantis and called for NBC Sports, for which Mr. Dungy is a broadcast pundit, to punish him.

Former MSNBC and ESPN host Keith Olbermann, for example, called Mr. Dungy that fraud standing there, cackling, also a fascist political prop. This you, @NBCSports, @SNFonNBC?

Added Shana V. White: FYI: Tony Dungy has been anti-Black, homophobic and into respectability politics since forever. Would not be surprised if he was a member of the GOP. Thats why hes hanging with DeSantis.

Mr. Dungy, who led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to their first Super Bowl win, also had released a statement Monday supporting the bill that Mr. DeSantis signed.

This is going to be tremendous and such a good help to fathers in Florida, he said. This bill is so important. I want to thank all of the men and women that have been behind this.

See original here:
Tony Dungy defends appearance with Ron DeSantis: 'Obama said the same things' - Washington Times

Valerie Biden Owens revealed that her brother, then-Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, was "hesitant" to accept Sen. Barack Obama's offer to join the Democratic ticket as his vice presidential running mate in 2008, according to her newly released memoir.

In the book, "Growing Up Biden: A Memoir," Owens recounted that after Obama secured enough delegates to capture the party nomination, he reached out to Biden, who had suspended his 2008 presidential campaign at the start of the year.

The Illinois Democrat was gauging whether Biden who at that point had been in the Senate for nearly 36 years and had chaired both the Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees would be interested in becoming his vice president.

Obama made it clear that he didn't need Biden to win the general election, but wanted his help in governing.

"Joe was hesitant," Owens wrote in the memoir. "At that time, he had the best seat in the house, no pun intended, as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Could he do more with his current position than he could as Vice President?"

She continued: "Traditionally, Vice Presidents didn't really do anything. He would have to report directly to a superior for the first time in decades."

However, it was their mother Catherine Finnegan Biden who reminded Biden of the significance of becoming part of what would be a historic ticket, with Obama being the first major party Black presidential nominee in US history.

"What finally did it? Mom," Owens wrote. "She said: 'We have the chance to elect the first African American as President, and you have to even think about it?'"

Biden has said he initially turned down Obama when he first asked Biden to be vetted for vice president. "I said, 'No, thank you. I don't want to be vice president,'' he said in 2015, adding that he thought he could help Obama more as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"He said, 'Go on home and talk over your family and get back to me,'" Biden said then of Obama. "And my family was right and made the right decision best decision in my political career was to join the president."

In August 2008, Biden accepted Obama's offer, but the veteran lawmaker had one condition in order to proceed with the decision; he wanted to be "the last person in the room" with Obama in advance of major decisions.

"They had a handshake deal, but it seemed there was one last piece before it could be finalized," Owens wrote. "The Davids needed to sign off: David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager; and David Axelrod, his strategist."

Owens then detailed how the agreement took place at her home in Delaware in lieu of Biden's home as it was being surveilled by media outlets amid the vice presidential speculation and mentioned the efforts of her husband, Jack; her sister-in-law, Jill; and her late nephew, Beau.

"The Davids flew into New Castle County Airport, and Beau and Jill picked them up baseball caps and sunglasses adding to the intrigue," she wrote. "Joe had already arrived at our home, waiting for them down by the pool, where there was privacy."

"When Beau drove in with our guests, Jack and I met them and escorted them down to the pool. As promised, we left them alone: no pictures, no distractions, no chitchat," Owens added.

After the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the Obama-Biden ticket fueled by high Democratic enthusiasm, fatigue with the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War, and concerns about the economy catapulted the party to a huge electoral victory that November.

Obama and Biden easily defeated the Republican ticket consisting of then-Sen. John McCain of Arizona and then-Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, winning the Electoral College 365-173.

Follow this link:
Biden was 'hesitant' to sign on as Obama's VP nominee in 2008: book - Business Insider

Barack Obamas triumphalist return to the White House this week was a massive Washington media event. The cameras were out en masse as the two-term president was mobbed by Democratic congressmen and presidential staff on his former turf, as though he were a returning hero.

In contrast, his successor, Joe Biden, rapidly sinking in national polls, cut a lonely and forlorn figure. He looked lost, sidelined, even forgotten amidst the adulation of his predecessor, an embarrassing scene for Obamas former vice president. Indeed, this may have been Mr. Bidens saddest moment yet as Americas 46th commander in chief.

The optics looked horrible for Biden, who is rapidly losing the confidence of the American people, his standing hit as well by a series of gaffes on the international stage. The last thing he needed was a reminder that he lacks popular appeal and is increasingly isolated. Obama positively reveled in the moment, basking in the adulation.

>>>Finding the Constitutions Common Good

A casual observer could be forgiven for thinking we were witnessing two different generations of leaders, with the younger, and high-energy Obama contrasting heavily with the septuagenarian Biden, turning 80 this year.

Yet Bidens presidency is in essence a continuation of the Obama era. Many of his key staff are holdovers from the Obama administration. Around 75 percent of his top 100 aides appointed by the midpoint of his first year in office had served Obama, leading critics to dub the current presidency Obamas third term. The Obama-era figures include Anthony Blinken, Bidens Secretary of State, and John Kerry, his Special Presidential Envoy on Climate.

There are striking similarities as well between the two administrations in policy outlook, too. At home, both have been big-government, high-tax, heavy-spending presidencies with distinctly liberal agendas that have significantly eroded economic freedom in the United States.

On foreign policy, Biden and Obama have shared a mindset that eschews the powerful projection of American power in favor of a greater focus on working through international organizations such as the United Nations. While Obama was widely seen as leading from behind", as one of his aides described it, Biden has literally been sleeping from behind as he amply demonstrated at COP26 in Glasgow last November when he took a widely publicized nap.

Both the Obama and Biden eras have been scarred by foreign policy calamities, from Obamas inability to respond to the Assad regimes barbaric use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilianssubsequently rectified by President Trump who acted decisively with US missile strikesto Bidens catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan that handed nearly 40 million Afghans to the Taliban wolves.

>>>Jobs, Family, Loyalty: Identifying the Governing Vision of National Conservatives

Both presidents have been rightly condemned as indecisive and lacking in backbone, with Americas adversaries taking full advantage of what they perceive to be American weakness and decline. It is no coincidence that on the two occasions when Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine, it has been under the noses of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Both have also supported an appalling nuclear deal with Iran which is strongly opposed by every US ally in the Middle East.

The Obama/Biden presidencies are practically inseparable. They have been disasters for the worlds superpower, and textbook examples of leadership failure and the perils of appeasement. They both saw fit to begin their presidencies by casting out the very same bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. Clearly, neither possess the Churchillian grit, spirit or courage to lead the free world with strength or conviction.

More here:
Biden Will Never Be Able To Step Out of Obama's Shadow - Heritage.org