WASHINGTON — (CNN) President Barack Obama berated recent comments from reality TV star Donald Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and a handful of other Republicans that he said are part of an echo-sphere on the right that spurs “outrageous” remarks.
“We just don’t fling out ad hominem attacks like that because it doesn’t help inform the American people,” Obama said Monday, while defending his administration’s rollout of the Iran nuclear deal.
Trump has continued leading most presidential polls — including a CNN/ORC poll released Sunday — despite comments deriding Sen. John McCain’s war record.
“Maybe this is just an effort to push Donald Trump out of the headlines,” said of the comments.
The Iran deal, supporters say, would slow the country’s ability to gain a nuclear bomb while also putting in place strict controls on their nuclear development programs. Opponents say the lifting of economic sanctions that Iran would receive in return amounts to a coup for those supporting terrorists.
Huckabee drew headlines over the weekend after comparing the Iran nuclear deal to the Holocaust.
“The Iran nuclear deal is marching Israelis to the door of the oven,” Huckabee told Breitbart News.
Obama criticized a remark from Sen. Tom Cotton, in which the Arkansas Republican told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Secretary of State John Kerry “acted like Pontius Pilate” by remitting oversight to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“The point is we’re creating a culture that is not conducive to good policy or good politics,” Obama said Monday, during the close of his trip to Africa. “The American people deserve better.”
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