Barack Obama calls out GOP’s ‘phony tough talk and bluster’

Biden steered clear of the divisive Democratic nomination struggle between Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen.

Obama promised Democrats that the party will win the White House in November.

He also wrote that the task force will “lay the groundwork for the next administration” – an acknowledgment that there’s only so much progress the task force can make in Obama and Biden’s final year in office.

Republicans, he said, “talk about America in decline….”

President Obama on Thursday urged House Democrats to embrace the accomplishments of his administration, arguing the country is better off than when he took office seven years ago and voters will respond to that message when they head to the polls later this year.

“You don’t have to make anything up”, Biden said as Democrats laughed, adding, “just say what they’ve done”.

Turning political prognosticator, Biden acknowledged that “it’s been a tough last couple cycles” – an apparent reference to Republican romps in the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections – but insisted that Democrats have “a real shot” to retake Congress.

US President Barack Obama signed a presidential memorandum on Thursday establishing a first-of-its-kind federal task force in the country to carry out what was called a “cancer moonshot” to end the awful disease.

“Sometimes I get a little frustrated that we don’t run back the tape to what the Republicans said back then, at each juncture every single one of the steps we took they said the opposite, wanted to go in the other direction”, he said. And despite what has the potential to be a lively and competitive presidential election, few independent analysts give Democrats a chance to reclaim a majority in the House.

In his session, Obama defended his global leadership against a chorus of GOP attacks from Trump and other presidential candidates. Republicans have more seats to defend, 24 to Democrats’ 10, and many of those GOP seats are in states Obama won, including Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio. This year, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings said, there was special meaning in the decision to gather in Baltimore, suggesting that it signaled a commitment to cities.

“As I’ve said from the start, I don’t claim to be a cancer expert”, Biden said in a blog post on Medium. “It shows faith in our cities, the fact that we would be here”.