Appearing on Broadway for one night only: US President Barack Obama, in a solo comedy act roasting the US Republican Party.
The US president on Monday night left a crowd of more than 1,300 in stitches at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, home to the hit musical Hamilton about US founding father Alexander Hamilton. The cast staged a special performance for a US Democratic National Committee fundraiser, with Obama as the encore.
Deviating from his typical fundraiser spiel, Obama said next year’s Republican presidential candidates seem to “occupy a different reality” in which the US has taken a perilous turn since he took office nearly seven years ago.
Photo: AP
“According to them, everything was really good in 2008, when we were going through the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes,” Obama said.
“This, apparently, was the golden age that I messed up, and they’re so glum, they’re really so frustrated,” Obama added, barely containing his feelings about the Republican cast of characters seeking his job.
Tweaking Republicans who question climate change, Obama likened it to having 99 out of 100 doctors tell someone they have diabetes and having that person brush it off as a conspiracy.
“All 99 of those doctors got together — with Obama — to try to prevent me from having bacon and doughnuts,” Obama said to laughter in the ornate Times Square theater. “It’d be funny — except this is about climate change. This was an analogy.”
As next year’s race has picked up steam, Obama has largely stayed on the sidelines, only occasionally offering his own commentary. Instead, he has been trying to lay the groundwork for Democrats to make a persuasive economic case in the election.
He seemed to let loose at Monday’s performance, which drew donors who paid between US$500 and US$10,000 per ticket.
Before the curtain fell, Obama took a last jab at the Republican field over foreign policy, mocking claims by Donald Trump and others that relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin would improve if they were elected.
“And then it turns out they can’t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators,” Obama said, poking fun at candidates’ complaints about last week’s Republican presidential debate on the TV channel. “If you can’t handle those guys, I don’t think the Chinese and the Russians are going to be too worried about you.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in