From pool report 2: “Plates of poached salmon, asparagus, Caprese salad, a rice pilaf, red and white wines and dessert awaited guests on tables adorned with black tablecloths.”
From pool report 3: “Through the talk, [Obama] referred to Pelosi as a soon-to-be future speaker.”
From pool report 6: “They’re not even organized to get their own priorities through Congress,” [Obama said]. “It’s Keystone Kops up there.”
Made available to select news outlets, these rough notes and quotes from President Obama’s 18-hour San Diego visit ending Monday were the work of a single “local pool” journalist — Joshua Stewart.
A reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune since April 2015, Stewart witnessed Obama’s arrival and departure from MCAS Miramar and attended two La Jolla fundraisers.
He wore a stylish gray suit from the Fashion Valley Macy’s, telling Times of San Diego he had bought it on sale “using a friend’s store credit card and a coupon to get some extra savings. I paid my friend back, of course.”
Juggling an iPad, political jargon and the pressure of representing the press corps, the 2005 graduate of the University of Scranton (with a journalism master’s from American University) said he didn’t know how the Union-Tribune was picked to provide the local pool report, “but I know that I was given the assignment because I am the politics reporter.”
This wasn’t his first rodeo, however.
“I did this once before when Hillary Clinton spoke at Balboa Park for her foreign policy address before the primary,” Stewart said via email. “There was a pool to cover her visit to a field office afterwards.”
At Sunday night’s visit to Christine Forester’s home in La Jolla, where the starting price of admission was $10,000, he joined reporters from a few national print outlets, including The New York Times.
“No television [crews], and no still photographers either,” Stewart said. “We sat in the back, elbow-to-elbow, and took notes.”
As the pool reporter, he said, he was barred from tweeting, publishing or otherwise disseminating information “until I had sent out my notes so that everyone who couldn’t be there could also take a crack at it.”
He watched Obama offer general remarks, “but then, on his signal, the handlers sent us out just before POTUS did a Q-and-A with the attendees.”
Stewart’s work — first emailed to a trio of White House aides — would appear in countless outlets worldwide.
He quoted Obama as saying he’d heard the phrase “Darrell Issa was Trump before Trump” and recorded the president’s reaction to Issa’s promotional use of his picture in a brochure.
“Now that’s the definition of chutzpah,” Stewart quoted Obama as saying — a line that appeared on more than a thousand websites.
Stewart — who didn’t partake of the poached salmon or any other food — concedes he could have been more precise.
“I didn’t see what type [of wine] it was, other than there was a red and a white and neither were screw-tops,” he said. “And that’s the limit of my wine knowledge.”
At the request of Times of San Diego, Stewart, 33, shared his six pool reports.
These were lightly edited for clarity:
San Diego Local Pool 1 (7:10 p.m. Sunday)
Air Force One landed at Marine Corps Air Station at 6:50 p.m., and the president got off the plane around nine minutes later. Approximately 5 people, including a handful of Marines in desert-pattern camouflage, assembled into a corral near the flight line watched the plane land and the president disembark.
He was greeted by Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, as well as four Marines, including generals.
The motorcade began the trip to the fundraiser at 7:07 p.m.
A C-5 Galaxy cargo jet, approximately a dozen F/A-18 Hornets, and an airborne early warning aircraft were near the flight line when the president’s plane landed.
San Diego Local Pool 2 (8:21 p.m. Sunday)
The presidential motorcade went west on Route 52 before turning onto La Jolla Parkway and onto a hilly side street. Spectators stood on the sidewalk and outside of homes to take pictures and videos as the president and his entourage passed by.
The presidential motorcade stopped at 7:27 p.m. for a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee dinner at the home of Christine Forester, an architect who specializes in hospital design and regular Obama fundraiser. She served as vice chair of Obama’s National Finance Committee.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, was in attendance, as was DCCC Chairman Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-New Mexico, Reps. Scott Peters and Susan Davis, both D-San Diego, and Doug Applegate, the Democrat running against incumbent Darrell Issa, R-Vista. Approximately 65 guests attended.
Plates of poached salmon, asparagus, Caprese salad, a rice pilaf, red and white wines and dessert awaited guests on tables adorned with black tablecloths. The room was decorated with an eclectic mix of wall art as well as light-up electronic installations made of circuit boards, multicolored light bulbs and knickknacks.
San Diego Local Pool 3 (8:50 p.m. Sunday)
The president was introduced by the hostess, Christine Forester, just before 8 p.m. Speaking to a packed room, Forester indicated that many in attendance were Obama’s early supporters. She also promised to work to increase the number of Democrats in the House.
“We are going to send another person to Congress. That is Doug Applegate. He’s going to replace Darrell Issa,” Forrester said.
Obama, who acknowledged the two local House members at the dinner, said he had been to fundraisers with Forester before, and said he would return after he leaves office.
Dressed in dark blue pants and blazer buttoned at the waist, and a sky blue shirt without a tie in standard San Diego fashion, Obama spoke for a little more than 15 minutes before the press was sent out so he could field questions from the attendees. He spoke briefly of his work on reducing carbon emissions, [increasing] high school graduation rates, the Affordable Care Act, ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the economy.
“Across almost every economic index, we are better off than where we were, by a long shot,” Obama said.
He also emphasized how his accomplishments were in large part possible because of Nancy Pelosi, D-California, leading the House as its speaker.
“A lot of this got done because in the first two years, when really the template for our economy, and our foreign policy was being formed, at that moment where the well-being of this country was teetering, I had a congressional majority that was able to deliver, that was willing to take tough votes,” Obama said.
“After Nancy Pelosi was no longer speaker, Congress essentially shut down,” he later added.
Through the talk, he referred to Pelosi as a soon-to-be future speaker.
Obama took particular aim at Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista. The nearly 16-year incumbent’s Democratic opponent, Doug Applegate, was in attendance.
“As far as I can tell, Doug [sic] Issa’s primary contribution to the United States Congress has been to obstruct and to waste taxpayer dollars on trumped-up investigations that have led nowhere. And this is now a guy, who because poll numbers are bad, has sent out brochures with my picture on it,” Obama said, prompting the crowd to laugh. “Now that’s the definition of chutzpah.”
“This guy has spent all his time simply trying to obstruct, to feed the same sentiments that resulted in Donald Trump [becoming] their nominee. I think somebody said – was it you, Doug? – Darrell Issa was Trump before Trump,” Obama said.
He said Issa is “not serious” about working on problems.
“The Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives are repeatedly promoting crazy conspiracy theories and demonizing opponents,” Obama said.
He also said that the sentiment that Trump has stirred is not new and has been shared on the House floor before.
“Donald Trump didn’t build that — he just slapped his name on it and took credit for it. And the strongest message we can send, the message that is most likely to get us past gridlock, and give people confidence that government can work, and Congress can work, is if we have Nancy Pelosi in the House, because Nancy knows how to get things done, how to deliver,” Obama said.
San Diego Local Pool 4 (9:40 p.m. Sunday)
The motorcade left the fundraiser at 9:03 p.m., destined for the hotel where POTUS and his entourage would spend the evening.
San Diego Local Pool 5 (12:33 p.m. Monday)
The president’s motorcade left his hotel in Torrey Pines at approximately 11:10 a.m. bound for the La Jolla home of Mark and Hanna Gleiberman. The president’s limousine parked outside of their home, which from its hillside perch overlooked the Pacific Ocean.
Approximately 350 people attended the catered event in the back yard. Breakfast pastries, fruit parfait and coffee service were offered.
Introduced by Mark Gleiberman, Obama spoke of Hillary Clinton’s qualifications, and Trump’s weaknesses, and why he believes Congress needs a Democratic majority to overcome Republican obstructionists in his 30-minute speech.
The motorcade departed the Gleiberman home at 12:13 p.m. bound for Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
He spoke of his work on the economy and health care and reducing carbon emissions, and the Iran nuclear agreement.
“By almost every measure, we can say and prove that America is better off than when I got started,” he said.
“A lot of these gains could slip away. And that is why I have been working so hard, and Michelle has been working so hard, to make sure that probably as qualified a person that have ever run for this office is the 45h president of the United States, Hillary Clinton,” he said.
“The good news is that at the moment, the polls show that Hillary is enjoying a lead, but I want to make sure that everybody understand that this has been an extraordinary race and a volatile time. So we can’t take anything for granted.”
Clinton puts in the work and studies the issues and develops the policies, he said.
“You don’t want a president who’s spending time tweeting all the time,” he said to laughter.
He said that Trump lacked the moral judgement to do the right thing, unlike his past opponents, McCain and Romney.
“If push came to shove, they would do the right thing… I wasn’t concerned about the republic if they had won,” Obama said.
He said the choice between Clinton and Trump is one where people of different religions, immigrants, women are not treated as full citizens, and fact versus fiction.
“Do we think it’s an infomercial or a reality TV show where you can say anything and do anything without any fidelity to the truth?” Obama said.
“We want to win big; we can’t just eke it out, particularly when the other guy is already starting to gripe about how the game is rigged,” Obama said.
He said that Congress, with Republican majorities, hasn’t chosen to make policies and satisfy an agenda as much as it has aimed for gridlock.
“We made extraordinary gains because we had a majority despite a stated strategy by Mitch McConnell, the head of the Senate, that their most important goal was to defeat me in the next election. And then … even though we maintained our majority in the Senate, the House went Republican. And from that point forward, what we saw consistently was gridlock, obstruction. No. Threats to shut down the government in order to defund Planned Parenthood, a willingness to risk the full faith and credit of the United States government unless they would get their way on slashing Medicare and Medicaid.”
San Diego Local Pool 6 (1:50 p.m. Monday)
Prior to the fundraiser Obama played golf at Torrey Pines Golf Course with Josh Earnest and Darrell Harrington.
Obama took the dais at just before 11:30 and spoke for 30 minutes after an introduction from Mark Gleiberman.
REMARKS FROM FUNDRAISER, CONT…
“Michelle does not really love politics — this is not her first choice for me. She would have preferred a quieter life, a little more out of the limelight. She thought I would do OK so she said alright. But the passion she has brought to campaigning this time speaks to the degree that this election is different, the choice is different,” Obama said.
“America is great. America can survive just about everything, but what America cannot have for any prolonged period of time is to have the person who is the only elected official elected by all the people of the United States, and speaks on behalf of this nation on world affairs, is a fundamentally unserious person. … We can’t have that. That’s why we have to work as hard as we can, not just to make sure Hillary wins, but to make sure she wins big. … We want to win big. We can’t just eke it out. Particularly when the other guy is already starting to gripe about how the game is rigged,” Obama said.
Obama compared Trump to a child on a playground who is a bad sport. “If they weren’t winning, they’d be like starting to have a tantrum, and whining and complaining that things aren’t fair,” Obama said.
Obama said he anticipated that he would have made several vetoes when Republicans controlled Congress, but he hasn’t had much use for his “veto pen.”
“They’re not even organized to get their own priorities through Congress. It’s Keystone Kops up there,” he said.
He said that Republicans are now running not to win the White House, but as a “check” on Clinton. A check, however, means that the minimum wage will not be increased, that Garland will not become a SCOTUS justice, climate change, that Republicans might threaten another government shutdown “unless we get some crazy riders that are attached to the budget that have nothing to do with the budget but the particular social agenda of the Freedom Caucus, so-called.”
“They’re counting on people thinking that gridlock is the best we can do because that plays to their basic philosophy that government has no role in helping the kid aspire to something higher,” he said.
“They’re OK with gridlock. But you know what? We can do so much better than that. The frustration, the anger that we are seeing in our politics are a direct result of not doing too much, but because we just don’t get to see basic stuff done. Congress just shuts down stuff that used to be self-apparent,” he said.
The motorcade departed the fundraiser at Mark and Hanna Gleiberman’s La Jolla home at 12:13 and arrived at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar to an awaiting presidential airplane at 12:34. He disembarked the presidential limo, got into the aircraft, and was airborne 10 minutes later bound for LAX. No spectators besides the assembled media were present.
