by nolan d. mccaskill 11/14/16 04:22 pm est president barack obama on monday dodged a question about president-elect donald trump<u+2019>s appointment of steve bannon as his chief strategist and senior counselor, but scolded americans who failed to vote. <u+201c>without copping out, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on every appointment that the president-elect starts making if i wanna be consistent with the notion that we<u+2019>re gonna try to facilitate a smooth transition,<u+201d> obama said monday at a news conference at the white house ahead of a foreign trip to greece, germany and peru. <u+201c>look, the people have spoken. donald trump will be the next president, the 45th president of the united states. and it will be up to him to set up a team that he thinks will serve him well and reflect his policies.<u+201d> story continued below indeed, despite trailing in the popular vote to democratic nominee hillary clinton by nearly 1 million votes, trump clinched the white house on election night by surpassing 270 electoral votes. on sunday, the president-elect tapped bannon to serve in the west wing with republican national committee chairman reince priebus, who will serve as trump<u+2019>s chief of staff. while republicans lauded the selection of priebus, democrats and some conservatives blasted bannon's appointment as a sop to white nationalists. by yousef saba while top republicans largely kept silent on bannon, democrats and others slammed the trump campaign ceo and former executive chairman of the alt-right outlet breitbart news, casting him as a racist, misogynist white supremacist. but it's in trump's power to name whoever he wants to fill his administration, obama said. <u+201c>those who didn<u+2019>t vote for him have to recognize that that<u+2019>s how democracy works. that<u+2019>s how this system operates,<u+201d> obama said. <u+201c>when i won, there were a number of people who didn<u+2019>t like me and what i stood for. and, you know, i think that whenever you<u+2019>ve got an incoming president of the other side, particularly in a bitter election like this, it takes a while for people to reconcile themselves with that new reality.<u+201d> but it<u+2019>s a reminder of the importance of voting, obama continued, rebuking the millions of voters who stayed home. <u+201c>hopefully it<u+2019>s a reminder that elections matter and voting counts,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>and so <u+2014> i don<u+2019>t know how many times we have to re-learn this lesson because we ended up having 43 percent of the country not voting who are eligible to vote, but it makes a difference.<u+201d> by michael grunwald by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz
obama ducks a question about steve bannon - politico
nolan d. mccaskill michael grunwald