Juno News - October 18, 2019Barack Obama endorses Justin Trudeau
Episode Stats
Summary
In the waning days of the campaign, former US President Barack Obama tried to throw Trudeau a lifeline by tweeting an endorsement saying I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as president. He s a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues. The world needs his progressive leadership now. And I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.
Transcript
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As the election campaign winds down it increasingly looks like Justin Trudeau
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will lose his majority in the Canadian Parliament. Whether or not he'll lose
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power remains to be seen. In the waning days of the campaign former US President
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Barack Obama tried to throw Trudeau a lifeline by tweeting an endorsement
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saying I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as president. He's a hard-working
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effective leader who takes on big issues. The world needs his progressive
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leadership now and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.
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Trudeau promptly acknowledged the support saying thank you my friend and the
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Liberal Party quickly sent out a fundraising message using the Obama
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support as the reason to donate. It's a bit ironic given what we are seeing in the
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US in the wake of the Mueller report and the first DOJ inspector general report
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which suggests the Obama administration was likely the most corrupt
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administration in our lifetimes with everything that went on behind the
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scenes to spy on folks in the Trump campaign and it continued after his
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inauguration for several months at least. It is expected that the IG will release
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his next report on FISA abuse in the next few days. That is anticipated to be a
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blockbuster. And then there's the investigation of John Durham whose
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investigation into interference in the 2016 election is widening and will now
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encompass the first few months of the Trump administration. It is widely
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expected that indictments will result against senior members of the Obama
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administration as a result. Will they reach into the Obama White House? We don't
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yet know. President Trump said yesterday he believes they will. The Trudeau
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administration has demonstrated its own corruption, the SNC-Lavalin prosecution
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scandal, that resulted in several resignations of officials and then the
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whole debacle with the demotion of Jody Wilson-Raybould and then the
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resignation on principle of Jane Philpott and their subsequent exile from
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caucus. So we have the most corrupt president of the United States endorsing a
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corrupt prime minister so that seems about right. Birds of a feather and all
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that. The question of whether it's appropriate for a former U.S. president to
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inject himself into a Canadian election campaign is a whole other matter. Elections
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Canada has restrictions on foreign contributions in our elections. President
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Obama charges as much as five hundred thousand dollars to speak. Does his
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endorsement then become an election contribution in kind as the thing of
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value? That's a legal question I won't get into but the question of
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appropriateness in and of itself remains. Whether Trudeau should have accepted the
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endorsement so readily is also questionable especially given the cloud
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the Obama administration is under with the separate IG investigations and the
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Durham investigation expected to report in the near future. Trudeau might have
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better been served by passing on accepting that endorsement. For True North, I'm Leo Knight.