January 12, 2016

Matt Lauer Asked if Obama Could Imagine Trump Giving a State of the Union. Here’s His Response.

Matt Lauer asked President Barack Obama if he could imagine Donald Trump giving a State of the Union address. His response:

“Well, I can imagine it in a Saturday Night [Live] skit.”

Snap.

Obama also dismissed Trump’s chances of winning the presidency.

“I’m pretty confident that the overwhelming majority of Americans are looking for the kind of politics that does feed our hopes and not our fears, that does work together and doesn’t try to divide, that isn’t looking for simplistic solutions and scapegoating but looks for us buckling down and figuring out, ‘How do we make things work for the next generation?'”

The president went on to offer a preview of what will be his final State of the Union tonight: “Part of what I want to do in this last address is to remind people: You know what, we’ve got a lot of good things going for us, and if we can get our politics right, it turns out that we’re not as divided on the ideological spectrum as people make us out to be.”

He’s right: America is in pretty good shape.

Watch:

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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