President Obama said, "What is happening in this primary is just a distillation of what's been happening inside [the Republican] party for more than a decade. I mean, the reason that many of their voters are responding is because this is what's been fed through the messages they've been sending for a long time --- that you just make flat assertions that don't comport with the facts. That you just deny the evidence of science. That compromise is a betrayal. That the other side isn't wrong, or we just disagree, we want to take a different approach, but the other side is destroying the country , or treasonous. I mean, that's---look it up. That's what they have been saying.
"So they can't be surprised when somebody suddenly looks and says, you know what, I can do even better. I can make up stuff better than that. I can be more outrageous than that. I can insult people even better than that. I can be even more uncivil.
"I mean, conservative outlets have been feeding their base constantly the notion that everything's a disaster, that everybody else is to blame, that Obamacare is destroying the country. And it doesn't matter whether it's true or not. It's not , we disagree with this program, we think we can do it better---it's, oh, this is a crisis!
"So if you don't care about the facts, or the evidence, or the civility, in general making your arguments, you will end up with candidates who will say just about anything and do just about anything. And when your answer to every proposal that I make, or Democrats make, is no, it means that you've got to be more and more unreasonable because that's the only way you can say no to some pretty reasonable stuff. And then you shouldn't be surprised when your party ultimately has no ideas to offer at all."
"So they can't be surprised when somebody suddenly looks and says, you know what, I can do even better. I can make up stuff better than that. I can be more outrageous than that. I can insult people even better than that. I can be even more uncivil.
"I mean, conservative outlets have been feeding their base constantly the notion that everything's a disaster, that everybody else is to blame, that Obamacare is destroying the country. And it doesn't matter whether it's true or not. It's not , we disagree with this program, we think we can do it better---it's, oh, this is a crisis!
"So if you don't care about the facts, or the evidence, or the civility, in general making your arguments, you will end up with candidates who will say just about anything and do just about anything. And when your answer to every proposal that I make, or Democrats make, is no, it means that you've got to be more and more unreasonable because that's the only way you can say no to some pretty reasonable stuff. And then you shouldn't be surprised when your party ultimately has no ideas to offer at all."