PHILADELPHIA _ As Hillary Clinton looks to President Barack Obama to take a leading role in helping her win the White House, he offered a preview Sunday of his themes in the campaign.
Obama warned on CBS's "Face the Nation" that Donald Trump's approach to fighting Islamic State would only strengthen the extremist organization and divide Americans. He said the Republican presidential nominee's warnings that America may not continue to be a reliable partner in NATO are dangerous. And he framed Clinton's email troubles as a mistake, but one that should be forgivable.
The president's comments were on point with the theme Democrats are promoting at their convention in Philadelphia this week: that they are looking to unite the country, while Trump's plans would divide it.
"The kinds of rhetoric that we've heard too often, from Mr. Trump and others, is ultimately helping do ISIL's work for us," Obama said, using an acronym for Islamic State. In addition to the GOP nominee's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country, Obama said Trump's posturing on NATO was further "indication of the lack of preparedness that he has been displaying when it comes to foreign policy."
Obama said the U.S. has a "solemn commitment to protect those same allies who stood with us after 9/11."
On the issue of race relations in the country, Obama rejected the premise that they are deteriorating.
"Ironically, I think precisely because things have gotten better, what I've heard from younger African Americans is more shock about the images and the videos from Minnesota or Baton Rouge," he said. "And what I've had to say to them is that, you know, these issues are not new. They've been there and come up periodically for quite some time. What's new is smartphones and videos. And this actually gives us a greater opportunity to try to tackle these problems."
And Obama offered Clinton advice on navigating the fallout from the FBI investigating into her email.
"She would acknowledge she made a mistake," he said. "But what I also think is true is that if you've been in the public eye for decades at the highest levels of scrutiny, folks are going to find some mistakes you make. I've made mistakes. I don't know any president or public official at her level who aren't going to look back and say, 'I should have done something like that differently.'"
