Obama speculates on reaction if he had barred media from White House like Trump: ‘It’s unimaginable’

Obama speculates on reaction if he had barred media from White House like Trump: ‘It’s unimaginable’ ‘My imagination could not foresee some of the stuff that's going on right now,’ the former president says - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Former President Barack Obama blasted President Donald Trump's “unimaginable” decision to ban three news outlets from the White House — and mused about the likely reaction if he'd tried the same thing. “My imagination could not foresee some of the stuff that's going on right now,” Obama said during an appearance at Colgate University. “I'm trying to think what would have happened if I had said, ‘You know what, Fox News? You're out of here.’” The Friday comments drew laughter and applause, with Obama saying, “It's unimaginable.” “But the point I'm making here is: If you have a certain cohort — let's call it 30 to 35 percent of the country right now — which thinks that's OK, well, what that means is we have not developed the kind of understanding of what democracy requires. And we've got to shore that back up,” he said. In response to an inquiry from The Independent, the White House declined to comment beyond Trump’s remarks on the subject. Trump announced Friday that he was banning journalists from CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House, calling them “fake news.” “They purposely write negative news. And they do that because they want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration,” the president said. Reporters from all three outlets were denied access to the White House and saw their press passes seized when they tried to enter Saturday morning. Their employers vowed to challenge the president's move, which he has suggested may be extended to other news organizations, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Shortly after his return to the White House last year, Trump sparked an ongoing legal battle when he banned The Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One after it refused to adopt his name change for the Gulf of Mexico, which the president ordered renamed to the Gulf of America. During Trump's first term, the White House revoked the “hard pass” issued to then-CNN reporter Jim Acosta following a contentious exchange with Trump during a news conference. A federal judge later ordered the return of Acosta's hard pass — which allows expedited access to the White House campus — leading to new, stricter eligibility rules. On Sunday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise defended Trump, telling ABC's This Week that “I don't think we've had a president that's been more open to the press...but he wants a free and fair press.” Scalise also claimed that former President Joe Biden “removed the press credentials from over 400 different agencies,” prompting pushback from host Jonathan Karl. “So, first of all, that's actually not true about Biden. They — the 400 individual reporters who had credentials — did not reapply. There was only one that was actually denied a credential, and all of those who didn't reapply were allowed to come in. They were not banned from the White House,” he said. In addition to Obama's comments about Trump's media ban, the former president also attacked Trump's opposition to government regulation of the artificial intelligence industry. Obama said that AI “models are getting powerful enough that if they get in the hands of bad humans, they can do bad things” but that Trump — who's claimed he provides all the necessary guardrails — believes regulation is “for losers.” “So, we’ve got a gap of at least a couple of years where things are moving really fast and we have an administration that is not capable of or willing to — I would argue both — putting together a serious regulatory framework," Obama said, according to The Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York. On Saturday, Trump said on social media that he planned to create an "AI Force" and appoint an AI czar to oversee the development of the cutting-edge technology, which some industry insiders have warned could kill all humans within 10 years. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments