(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)Barack Obama was a hot mess watching the 2016 presidential election returns, according to new reports coming from an insider. As the night wore on and Barack knew Hillary Clinton had lost, he had a massive breakdown. But that’s not all. The former president was allegedly so distraught, he had to calm himself down with a favorite activity. You don’t want to miss this.
Barack Obama spent Election Night 2016 at the White House with Michelle Obama and their closet advisor and confidante, Valerie Jarrett, says New York Times political reporter Pete Baker. Baker had unfettered access to Obama staffers who gave him the intimate details of what really went on as the 44th president realized the unimaginable: Donald Trump would be his successor.
Baker writes that Obama woke up on the morning of November 8, 2016, convinced he would “not be handing the nuclear football over to Donald Trump – the reality television star, he thought, was a joke.”
Obama arrogantly thought there was “no way Americans would turn on him” even though Clinton was far from perfect. “She was a serious and seasoned professional who had served at the highest levels of government and provided mature leadership,” writes Baker. “Just as important, she would continue his policies and cement his biggest achievements.”
“His legacy, he felt, was in safe hands,” says Baker of Barack. However, Michelle and Valerie were nervous and as the early returns rolled in, and Barack couldn’t just sit around. To alleviate his growing anxiety, the threesome decided to watch a movie to calm down.
“[Barack] went to the White House movie theater with his wife Michelle and adviser Valerie Jarrett where they watched Dr. Strange, the superhero movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch,” Baker reports. And it was inside the White House theater that the former president got some strange news.
Baker writes that Obama’s phone buzzed with an update and he said: “Huh. Results in Florida are looking kind of strange.” Michelle and Valerie claimed there was no way Trump could win, so they decided it was too late and retired for the evening.
Baker writes: “By the end of the evening, the unthinkable had happened.” Obama struggled with what the American people had done and thought to himself that they “simply could not have decided to replace him with a buffoonish showman.”
Obama watched TV and he looked on in horror as Trump won Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan which had been Democratic for years. At 1:00 am, Obama sent a message to Clinton saying she should concede quickly which she did.
In a phone call to Obama, Clinton said, “I’m sorry for letting you down.” Baker writes: “While Clinton had lost, so had he. The country that had twice elected Barack Hussein Obama as its president had now chosen as his successor a man who had questioned the very circumstances of his birth.”
“Obama may not have been on the ballot, but it was hard not to see the vote as a ‘personal insult,’ as he had called it on the campaign trail. ‘This stings,’ he said. ‘This hurts’.”
Soon, Barack was unable to contain his rage which escalated after he met Trump in the Oval Office. Baker writes that despite being cordial in public, he afterward summoned his adviser Ben Rhodes who told him that Trump “peddles in bullsh*t.”
Rhodes said: “That character has always been part of the American story. You can see it right back to some of the characters in Huckleberry Finn.” Yet, Obama was so delusional he thought he had “set up the economy well for [Trump].”
That delusion spread to the Obama team who thought his presidency had been a roaring success, and they put all the blame on the loss on Hillary Clinton.
In a stinging passage Baker writes: “To Obama and his team, however, the real blame lay squarely with Clinton. She was the one who could not translate his strong record and healthy economy into a winning message.”
Obama has never gotten over Trump’s victory. He remains in the denial stage with private bursts of rage toward Hillary and the American people to this day. His ego was bruised so badly that Barack had to lay all the blame on Hillary, not on his failed presidency. It will be another huge blow when Americans once again elect President Trump to his second term.
