Obama recently gave a speech in Boston which attendees were warned not to talk about. Even members of the media were sworn to secrecy. But not everyone complied and we now know what Obama said.
Reason has a round-up of the five areas of the speech. Here’s number 4:
4) Diversity isn’t about “charity or political correctness, it’s just common sense.” And it’s why his White House was scandal-free, according to the president.
Obama didn’t comment on the #MeToo movement specifically, but he did stress that it should be a top priority for companies to make women feel safe and respected at work, give them equal pay for equal work, and make an effort to actually listen to what they are saying. If women are afraid to speak up, or are talked over by men, a good boss should call on them and ask their opinions.
“In today’s culture, if you are not deliberately doing that, you are going to fall behind, and someone is going to beat you,” he said.
Obama said that this was the approach he took while in office, and it helped get him through eight years without a major scandal.
“We didn’t have a scandal that embarrassed us,” he said. The former president admitted that his team made mistakes, but no massive screw-ups. He then said, “I know that seems like a low bar,” at which point the audience burst into laughter. “Generally speaking, you didn’t hear about a lot of drama inside our White House,” he said. This was the closest Obama came to critiquing the new administration.
No scandals? Really? What about Fast and Furious, the IRS and Benghazi? That’s just a few, but there were plenty more.
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