Obama Gives The Game Away In 2016 NPR Interview

Posted • August 6, 2025: Like many, I've long perceived former President Barack Obama as a strong communicator — among other things. Like many, I was struck by his 2004 DNC speech, recognizing that he was likely a political force to be reckoned with. (Full disclosure: At that time, I was still a Democrat, and had voted in the Democratic primary — probably for my fellow Missourian Dick Gephardt. My vote in the general election, however, went to George W. Bush — that's the clear line of demarcation (chronologically) between Democrat me and Republican me.) I did not enjoy the Obama presidency. I alternately gritted my teeth or rolled my eyes through much of it. By his second term, I had gotten more involved in the conservative movement and had ventured into the podcasting world — first as a regular guest, then co-host, then host of my own show for several years. I don't even recall what it was in relation to, but I do recall at one point referring to the then-president as "a mendacious twit."

But even as my distaste for Obama grew, I still thought of him as a skilled communicator, though, in retrospect, that was likely in the context of delivering prepared remarks/speeches versus off-the-cuff comments. I mean, even extemporaneously, he was still leaps and bounds ahead of his vice president and future President Joe Biden, but being roughly 30 years younger when you assume the presidency — and being sentient — will do that for you. In any event, they say hindsight is 20/20, and never has that been more evident to me than when I watched this segment of an interview that Obama did with NPR's Steve Inskeep in December 2016. —— December 16, 2016. Obama does an hour long interview with NPR. The entire interview is stunning for a few reasons. 1. Almost everything Obama says is in direct contradiction to the intelligence report on the election that he had just recently received. The majority of this interview was spent discussing Russia's election interference to help Trump. We now know that Obama had just received a report informing him that did not happen.

2. It was extremely obvious throughout the entire interview that Obama was lying and that he knew the significance of what he was doing. 3. Obama finished the interview, left and returned to talk about a new "Intelligence Assessment" that would be dropping before Trump's inauguration. He was priming the media to be on the look out for the bogus report he had just asked for. It's impossible to overstate the magnitude of what Obama was doing during this interview. And of course he turned to NPR to help him do his dirty work. —— First, I was struck by how slowly and carefully Obama seemed to be choosing his words. His demeanor was off — I wouldn't call it nervous, but...like he was working very hard at convincing us. Second, he does make the point to distinguish between the Trump campaign coordinating and simply benefiting from the Russian meddling. (That portion is in the transcript but not the edited video, and is not critical to the overall point.

I just think it interesting that, at this point, he was seemingly trying not to directly accuse Trump or his campaign of colluding with the Russians. Maybe just laying the groundwork for later.) Most importantly, though, check out that last paragraph (in red) above. He completely gives away that the CIA was now assessing that Russian interference "was done purposefully to tilt the election in the direction of a particular candidate." Except...the ICA had only been requested by him a week prior, the authors of it were scrambling to get it pulled together in record time, and it wasn't released until January 6, 2017. So...how was it that on December 16, he already knew the assessment was/would be that the Russians were meddling with an aim toward helping Trump win? Unless he was simply running with/confirming the Washington Post "leak" as the assessment — before the assessment was completed. Little cart before the horse there, eh? (…)

• More at: RedState - Obama Gives the Game Away in 2016 NPR Interview
https://redstate.com/smoosieq/2025/08/06/watch-obama-gives-the-game-away-in-2016-npr-interview-n2192500
Twitchy: 'Clean Up, Aisle Obama'! 2016 NPR Interview Shows Just How SHADY Obama Really WAS About Trump/Russia
https://twitchy.com/samj/2025/08/07/obama-npr-interview-2016-n2416885