Cenk Uygur on Trump Carrier Deal: ‘Obama Would Never Have Done It’ — Democrats ‘Ought to Be Embarrassed’

In a video posted to YouTube on Wednesday, progressive commentator Cenk Uygur offered kudos to President-elect Donald Trump for using his clout as commander-in-chief to keep 1,000 jobs at Carrier manufacturing facility in Indiana in the United States instead of being exported to Mexico.

Uygur acknowledged it wasn’t tariffs on the incoming products as Trump suggested on the campaign trail and instead was tax cuts that kept Carrier in the United States. Nonetheless, keeping those jobs here was the ultimate goal and Trump was successful, he said and he regretted that President Barack Obama had not been willing to do the same.

“He said, ‘Look, your parent company United Technologies has a lot of government contracts. If you want to get United States government contracts, you’re going to have to keep some of your jobs in the United States,'” Uygur said. “Now, this is exactly what I’ve been saying to Democrats and President Obama. That you could do this stuff. If you really want to apply pressure, there are a thousand ways to apply pressure. But they would never do it. I’m sorry, if you’re a Democrat, and you like Obama, I hate to break your heart and you want to hate me for it and that’s OK, but Obama wouldn’t have done that.”

Later, he added, “Strength, it matters. It isn’t unsophisticated to talk about strength. It is smart. Democrats, as usual, you ought to be embarrassed.”

(h/t RCP Video)

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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