Former President Barack Obama is speaking directly to the democratic candidates, warning them during a recent dinner with donors to avoid being too “extreme.”
Obama, who has generally refrained from commenting about the upcoming presidential election, sent an apparent warning to democratic hopefuls to not move too far to the left in their rhetoric or policies. He warned that the American voter doesn’t follow extremes on either side of the political spectrum.
“This is still a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement. They like seeing things improved. But the average American doesn’t think that we have to completely tear down the system and remake it,” Obama said at the dinner on Friday night. “And I think it’s important for us not to lose sight of that.”
“There are a lot of persuadable voters and there are a lot of Democrats out there who just want to see things make sense. They just don’t want to see crazy stuff. They want to see things a little more fair, they want to see things a little more just. And how we approach that I think will be important,” he continued.
The president also used the moment to calm donors worried about a competitive primary that would only benefit President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.
“For those who get stressed about robust primaries, I just have to remind you that I had a very robust primary,” Obama said. “Not only did I win ultimately a remarkably tough and lengthy primary process with Hillary Clinton, but people forget that even before that we had a big field of really serious, accomplished people.”