Trump record needs to be examined -- Obama

WASHINGTON, May 6 (KUNA) -- New York billionaire Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has a long record that needs to be examined, and it is important to take seriously the statements he has made in the past, President Barack Obama said on Friday.
"We are in serious times, and this is a really serious job," Obama said during a White House briefing.
"This is not entertainment, this is not a reality show. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States." Every candidate needs to be subject to "exacting standards and genuine scrutiny," Obama said. "It means that you have got to make sure that their budgets add up. It means that if they say they have got an answer to a problem that it is actually plausible, and that they have details for how it would work, and if it is completely implausible and would not work, that needs to be reported on, and the American people need to know that." If a presidential candidate takes a position on international issues "that could threaten war or has the potential of upending our critical relationships with other countries or would potentially break the financial system, that needs to be reported on," the President said.
"The one thing that I am going to really be looking for over the next six months is that the American people are effectively informed about where candidates stand on the issues, what they believe, making sure that their numbers add up, making sure that their policies have been vetted, and that candidates are held to what they have said in the past," he said, and "if that happens, then I am confident our democracy will work." "But what I am concerned about is the degree to which reporting and information starts emphasizing the spectacle and the circus," Obama said. "Because that is not something we can afford. And the American people, they have got good judgment, they have got good instincts, as long as they get good information." Turning to the ongoing race between former secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama said that "if you look at 95 percent of the issues, there is strong agreement there. You do not see the same kinds of divisions between the two Democratic candidates that remain that you have been seeing in some of the Republican debates." "I want Democrats to feel confident about the policy prescriptions we are putting forward, and the contrast, I think, will be pretty clear," he said. "I will leave it up to the Republicans to figure out how they square their circle." (end) rm.ibi