Transcription
But it is fitting that we are here at the opening of Barack Obama's Presidential Center tonight of all nights. Because in the decades since Donald Trump entered the political stage, there has never been a better contrast in leadership between Trump and Obama. And there's never been a more stark comparison of the way that two very different presidents approach the same very difficult issue, as there is right now with Trump's disastrous handling of Iran.
I mean, remember, it was eight years ago last month when Donald Trump tore up the deal Barack Obama negotiated with Iran to end their nuclear program, a deal that took years to negotiate, that required dozens if not hundreds of experts from across the government, a deal that was hundreds of pages long because it was so detailed. And the Obama legacy was very much on Donald Trump's mind today as he signed, in quite a contrast, a flimsy two-page document, if you can call it that, to end a war he himself started, an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz that was closed because of that war he started, an agreement that might even result in a $300 billion fund to Iran. And oh yeah, they could make some money from charging fees at the Strait of Hormuz. Basically, today Donald Trump effectively capitulated to the very same country that Obama negotiated a tough, hard-fought deal with just over 10 years ago. Trump even signed that document today at the Palace of Versailles in France, because nothing says we're definitely not going to have another war like a signing ceremony at Versailles. We don't mention that awkward symbolism to Trump, but don't Don't mention it, please don't, because he's already clearly just a little bit self-conscious about the comparisons between his failure and Obama's success.
And you know what the Iranians did? They laughed at Obama and they said he's a stupid son of a bitch. OK, thank you very much. So Trump says the Iranians were laughing at Barack Obama when he got them to agree to wind down their nuclear program, which is obviously not true and definitely not. But the thing is, Iran may be laughing today because the whole world has now seen the text of the two-page memorandum. Trump is trying to spin as a deal to end this war, and that That agreement accomplishes absolutely none of Trump's stated goals in this war. The deal is such an indisputable fiasco for Trump, that voices from across the political spectrum, including Republican senators, and conservative pundits are calling it a full surrender. That probably has something to do with why Trump sounded so incredibly defensive when he tried to defend his deal during a press conference at the G-Summit earlier today. "It's a memorandum of understanding. If it doesn't get done in 60 days, that's all right. We go back to bombing. You can't cover everything in a document. Sir, you shouldn't let them have any." I said, "Well, what am I going to do? Like, what are you going to do? Say you can never, ever invest in a country. I mean, it's pretty tough. What are you going to do? Let's spend another two weeks. What else am I going to do? Am I going to I'm going to take you to court. Let me take you to court. Let me just let me sue you." Nothing says this is a great deal, like the guy in charge repeatedly asking, "What else was I supposed to do?" It's not really a great defense of the deal that he's been touting out there.
So Trump must be feeling pretty insecure right now, clearly he is. I mean, he spent years arguing he could negotiate a better deal with Iran than Barack Obama and instead he failed in the most spectacular, costly and unpopular way possible. And that must have felt like things were really coming full circle for Donald Trump, not in a good way, given that his envy of Barack Obama is what propelled him into politics in the first place. As a Trump confidant once told PBS News, the night that Trump first resolved that he was going to run for president was the night of the 2011 White House Correspondence Center, where, after months of during Trump's racist birther conspiracies, Barack Obama mercilessly mocked Trump to devastating effect. Remember this? "Say what you will about Mr. Trump. He certainly would bring some change to the White House. Let's see what we've got up there." At that photo, that joke massively undersold just how drastic and absurd Trump's White House renovations actually would be. But that image also perfectly symbolizes the difference between the Trump and Obama White Houses and their legacies. I mean, Trump's White House is all about him building monuments to himself, holding cage matches for his birthday surrounding himself only with rich and powerful billionaires. They're the only ones allowed in who would finance and enable his own warped illusions of grandeur. Well, the Obama White House was about bringing other people into the process, opening doors instead of tearing them down, bringing people together. That's why he ran for president. That's what he did as president.
Now, at the exit to the new Obama Presidential Center, you will see a quote from his farewell address, and I hope you all get to visit, in which the former president said, "I'm asking you to believe not in my ability to bring about change but in yours," which is such a relevant quote to today. The Obama presidency was about doing the hard work of democracy. It was about empowering people in communities across the country to accomplish the kind of things that no one person can achieve on their own. One of the key people who helped President Obama, and I saw this very much firsthand to do just that, was then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. During the Obama presidency, she whipped the tough votes to pass things like Obamacare, the Economic Recovery Act, equal pay for equal work, ending don't ask, don't tell. Nancy Pelosi was central to creating the broad coalitions for change that defined Barack Obama's legacy. And earlier today, I sat down with the former speaker in Chicago to talk about how we should think about that legacy in this new chaotic era.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, thank you for taking the time and your busy day to sit down with me today. Well, it's my pleasure because we're here to Part of the center is about his legacy and many of the Affordable Care Act, certainly also the Iran nuclear deal, which is something that he spent years working on. Hundreds of people in the administration did as well. So many partners and allies in Congress as well. It's one of those accomplishments that Trump, of course, ripped up. He slashed, he reversed it. He literally ripped the paper up. And even just today at a press conference, he name dropped President Obama in a press conference where, which was a completely crazy press conference where he barely understood what was in the Iran nuclear deal to begin with. Why do you think, I've been thinking about this, why do you think President Trump is so obsessed with Barack Obama? Well, I think it relates to his own failures. You have to understand, well, you do understand, but the public should understand that the Obama nuclear agreement with Iran was a masterpiece of diplomacy. To remember that we brought in all the countries, the EU, all at G20, you know, countries all of the world, including Russia and China. Russia and China. So to have this virtuoso performance of having an agreement on nuclear, to do so in a way that withstood the scrutiny, the review of it all by so many people. And to have and then it was a success. We were very proud. I'm very proud of my members in the House because they had the ability to reject it. It wasn't as if you accept or reject, it's just that you could reject it. And our members were very courageous. I have a book. I hope it's in the library, but I'll make sure it is a book of all of their statements as to why and how they reached that conclusion. And for this president to have torn it up and now coming back with even what the Republicans said is a failure. It's a failure if we're giving $300 billion for reconstruction, to lift the sanctions on their sale of oil, to so many things that, again, unfreezing money in banks that they have wanted to have unfrozen. Just a ridiculous giveaway, and not addressing the one complaint that people had about the Obama nuclear agreement with Iran was that it didn't address the ballistic missiles, and neither does this. So we had a war. We tore up a good agreement. We went to war. We lost American lives, sadly. But we have something that is costing taxpayers enormous amounts of money to give to Iran and and paying individually at the pump, at the pump. And this is really something that has hit home hard for people because it costs nearly $75, $80 to fill their THERE ARE CARS IN A WEEK'S TIME. SO THEY'RE FEELING IT PERSONALLY. WE'VE SUFFERED FROM IT. THE PEOPLE OF IRAN HAVE SUFFERED FROM IT AND HE JUST CAN'T FACE THE FACT THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA HAD A FAR SUPERIOR SUCCESS WITH ALL of that. I think he made us so proud that he could get all the countries, China and Russia, to agree. Masterful.