US Politics, May 2018: How Broke Is He?

i believe that some of these things happened as described, and i believe that some of these things some did not happen as described

“What if we were wrong?” he asked aides riding with him in the armored presidential limousine.

“Maybe we pushed too far,” Mr. Obama said. “Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.”

“Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early,” he said.

“I feel like Michael Corleone. I almost got out.”

When they parted for the final time, Ms. Merkel had a single tear in her eye. “She’s all alone,” Mr. Obama noted.

“What else did you expect from McConnell?” he asked. “He won’t even give us a hearing on Merrick Garland.”

“I talk about it every time I’m asked,” he responded. “What else are we going to do? We’ve warned folks.” [about Russia]

He noted that Mr. Trump was already claiming that the election would be manipulated if Hillary Clinton won. “If I speak out more, he’ll just say it’s rigged,” Mr. Obama said.

The next day, Mr. Obama focused on cheering up his despondent staff. At one point, he sent a message to Mr. Rhodes saying, “There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth.”

“I don’t know,” he told aides. “Maybe this is what people want. I’ve got the economy set up well for him. No facts. No consequences. They can just have a cartoon.”

He added that “we’re about to find out just how resilient our institutions are, at home and around the world.”

Afterward, Mr. Obama called a few aides to the Oval Office to ruminate on the encounter. “I’m trying to place him in American history,” he said.

“He peddles” bull, Mr. Rhodes answered. “That character has always been part of the American story. You can see it right back to some of the characters in Huckleberry Finn.”

“Maybe,” Mr. Obama answered, “that’s the best we can hope for.”

June thread.