The new edition of Obama: The Call Of History
by New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker lays bare Obama’s fury about the 2016 election.
In a stinging passage Baker writes: 'To Obama and his team, however, the real blame lay squarely with Clinton. 'She was the one who could not translate his strong record and healthy economy into a winning message'
'Never mind that Trump essentially ran the same playbook against Clinton that Obama did eight years earlier, portraying her as a corrupt exemplar of the status quo.
'She brought many of her troubles on herself. No one forced her to underestimate the danger in the Midwest states of Wisconsin and Michigan.
'No one forced her to set up a private email server that would come back to haunt her.
'No one forced her to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from Goldman Sachs and other pillars of Wall Street for speeches.
'No one forced her to run a scripted, soulless campaign that tested eighty-five slogans before coming up with 'Stronger Together'.
Baker's book also gives new insight into why Obama was so hesitant about criticizing Russia for meddling in the 2016 election before vote took place.
Obama was led by his 'cautious don't-do-stupid-s**t instincts' and feared that a forceful response would make Russia 'escalate' its operation.
Then there was the question of how Trump would react and Obama admitted that 'if I speak out more, he'll just say it's rigged'.
Obama wrongly assumed that Clinton would win the election and Obama said in one meeting that Russian President Vladimir Putin 'backed the wrong horse'.
In the end Obama would wait until after the election result before expelling Russian diplomats and it was only weeks before he left office that he released the intelligence assessment confirming that the hacking was done by the Kremlin.
Recent reports have said that Trump's aides will not bring up election security with him because he sees it as de-legitimizing his election victory.
That has not stopped Trump from blaming Obama for the Russian hacking and he Tweeted last week: 'Anything the Russians did concerning the 2016 Election was done while Obama was President'.
Trump added: 'He was told about it and did nothing! Most importantly, the vote was not affected'.
Poll
5 (45.5%)