Will Obama Be Gracious to Trump on Thursday?

OR WILL THE PAST GET IN THE WAY?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Nov. 9, 2016) — On Wednesday morning, in the wake of Tuesday’s election of Donald J. Trump as president-elect, Barack Hussein Obama extended an invitation to Trump to visit the White House on Thursday.

In a press conference today, Obama said that he was “rooting” for Trump to be successful as the 45th president of the United States once he leaves office at noon on January 20, 2017.

The 22nd Amendment limits the chief executive’s service to two four-year terms.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Obama supported and campaigned for Democrat Hillary Clinton.  In August, Obama labeled Trump “unfit for the presidency or any government office.”

Obama based his assessment on Trump’s replies to the speech given by Atty. Khizr Khan at the Democrat National Convention in late July.  Khan and his wife are “Gold Star” parents as a result of the 2004 death of their son in Iraq while serving in the U.S. Army.

Obama additionally said that Trump’s lack of knowledge of foreign affairs rendered him “woefully unprepared to do this job,” which he termed “the most powerful position in the world.”

CNN called Clinton’s loss to Trump “shocking” as political pollsters and pundits pondered on Wednesday how their predictions of the Electoral College would favor Clinton.

At 3:30 a.m., after Pennsylvania was called for Trump, bringing him over the 270 electoral votes to win, Obama called Trump to personally extend the invitation to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Later on Wednesday, White House CBS reporter Mark Knoller tweeted Obama’s invitation with a newly-issued qualifier from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest:

 

Shortly thereafter, Knoller quoted Earnest as having said that the meeting between Obama and Trump would likely not “be easy.”

In early 2011, when Trump was then considering challenging Obama in 2012, Trump challenged Obama to release his detailed, or “long-form,” birth certificate to ostensibly prove that he was born in the U.S. and therefore presumably eligible to serve as president in keeping with Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the Constitution, which requires the president to be a “natural born Citizen.”

On April 27, 2011, the White House released what it said was a scan of a certified copy of Obama’s original birth certificate from the Hawaii Department of Health.  Over a six-month period commencing in September 2011, a team of criminal investigators associated with the Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) found that the image is a “computer-generated forgery.”

Trump did not make an issue of the findings during the 17-month presidential campaign, although Clinton and the news media often reminded the public of Trump’s open questioning of Obama’s eligibility.

The Maricopa County Cold Case Posse also found that Obama’s Selective Service registration form is fraudulent.  Because Obama has provided no documentation which is certifiably authentic, it remains to be seen, even as he believes Trump to be “unfit,” if Obama is, in fact, constitutionally eligible for the presidency.

The White House has made no comment in response to the two press conferences held by the MCSO in 2012 divulging the posse’s conclusions.  Since that time, the investigation has continued and taken at least one unexpected turn.

Also on Tuesday, six-term Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio was unsuccessful in his bid for a seventh term, having been defeated by Democrat Paul Penzone.