speaking at a joint press conference thursday morning at the white house with canadian prime minister justin trudeau, president obama makes extended comments regarding the 2016 election, and its unprecedented political polarization. 









 









 "i have been blamed by the republicans for a lot of things," the president said. "but to be blamed for their primaries and who they are selecting is... novel."









 









 "i<u+2019>m not going to validate some notion that the republican crackup that<u+2019>s been taking place is a consequence of actions that i<u+2019>ve taken," he said. 









 









 "i don<u+2019>t think i was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate, for example," he said. "i don<u+2019>t recall saying, 'hey, why don<u+2019>t you ask me about that.'"









 









 "it's not as if there's a massive difference between mr. trump's position on immigration and mr. cruz's. mr. trump may be more provocative in terms of how he sighs, but says them, but they're not that different."









 










obama: for all the things republicans blame me for, getting blamed for rise of donald trump is "novel"
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