Obama Reportedly “Exasperated” Over Recent Attacks

La Corte News has an overview of Obama's reported comments:

CNN reporters Rebecca Buck and Jim Schiutto said Friday that former President Barack Obama was displeased about being criticized by some 2020 Democratic presidential candidates during this week's primary debates, with Buck saying the former POTUS "is expressing exasperation" over his party becoming too liberal, the Washington Free Beacon reported. 

The story: "As you know, Obama has been trying to stay out of this primary as much as possible, keeping quiet, and not making any endorsements even with his former vice president Joe Biden in the race," Buck said. "But privately Obama, our CNN colleagues are reporting, is expressing exasperation at how far left the party is moving on some policy issues and of course breaking with some of the things he did when he was president."

She added, "Primaries are all about the legacy of the last president where the party is moving, and it's no secret that the Democratic Party right now has been moving far to the left policy-wise relative to the Obama administration. And it is for many of these candidates a balancing act because Joe Biden of course is essentially a third term of President Obama."

On Thursday, CNN reported that Obama supporters were vexed at some 2020 Democrats, like Sen. Cory Booker and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, for questioning the Obama administration's approach to issues like healthcare and immigration.

CNN also said:

He's the most popular figure in the Democratic Party by far, revered by liberals, moderates and even some Republicans.

But former President Barack Obama -- who has remained largely silent amid a rancorous Democratic primary -- came under a harsh spotlight as candidates vying for his onetime job picked apart aspects of his legacy during Wednesday night's debate.

The skeptical examination of the party's de facto leader left several veterans of the Obama administration outraged that more attacks were trained on the former President than the current one. And Obama has privately expressed some disapproval of what he views as unrealistic proposals from some Democratic candidates, according to a source familiar with those conversations.

From health care to immigration to trade, key accomplishments of the Obama administration came under fire and faced a sometimes-unflattering re-examination by candidates eager to keep their campaigns alive by trying to prove their progressive credentials. 

Their direct target wasn't Obama himself, but rather his former Vice President Joe Biden, who leads a large pack of Democrats looking to distinguish themselves in the party's crowded presidential primary fight. Biden has tied himself closely to Obama, casually referring to his former boss as "Barack" in a bid to illustrate their closeness and benefit from his popularity.

The flipside of that strategy, it turns out, is tarnishing the very record Biden hopes to ride into the White House. 

Liberal candidates advocating for a government-run health care system have deemed Obama's signature law, the Affordable Care Act, as inadequate. Some of Biden's Democratic rivals attempted to hold him accountable or the high level of deportations during Obama's tenure. Even the massive trade pact his administration negotiated with Pacific Rim nations was criticized as lacking environmental and labor protections - by Biden himself.
Trump, who watched the debates and is following the Democratic primary closely, gleefully took note.

"The Democrats spent more time attacking Barack Obama than they did attacking me, practically," Trump told a rally crowd Thursday night in Cincinnati. 

A spokesman for Obama on Thursday declined to comment on the attacks, keeping with the former President's practice of not directly weighing in on the 2020 campaign and political discussions.

But the blistering criticism underscores a dramatic shift underway inside the Democratic Party, which is no longer the party of Obama, despite him being out of office less than three years. 

"I must tell you, I was a little surprised how much the incoming was about Barack," Biden said Thursday as he emerged from the Detroit One Coney Island diner, a post-debate stop to mingle with Michigan voters. 

"This is three years later," Biden said. "The world has changed."

People close to Obama, who have discussed the party's changing dynamic with him, say he isn't at all bothered by the progressive shift among Democrats. He embraces new ideas and approaches, just as he advocated for 12 years ago in his first campaign against then-Sen. Hillary Clinton when he was seen as a fresh and more liberal voice.

In his early conversations with many of the Democratic candidates - including Biden - Obama did not offer specific advice or instructions on how to manage inevitable attacks on his own legacy, according to a person familiar with the conversations. And he has not been surprised that aspects of his tenure are now being criticized.

Still, he also has privately expressed exasperation at some policy proposals and promises that he believes are unrealistic. And he and people around him question the wisdom in assailing the record of a popular ex-president rather than the unpopular-by-comparison current one.

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as the first White House chief to Obama, said Democratic presidential candidates were being extraordinarily short-sighted and wrong-headed by assailing the Obama administration's record, rather than trying to build upon it.

"We have seen this movie before. Democrats need to wake up," Emanuel told CNN. "I would not treat the Obama years as something to be airbrushed out of history. Every one of these things needs to be built upon."

In an interview on Thursday morning, less than 12 hours after the debate ended, the displeasure was clear in Emanuel's voice. Several of the party's presidential candidates were misreading the electorate, he said, and should be taking cues from last year's successful midterm elections when Democrats reminded voters that Trump and Republicans are trying to wipe out the Affordable Care Act. 

"Everybody has got to be kidding me here," Emanuel said. "You have a perfect set up. President Trump is suing to undue it. We won an election on it. I don't get this."