Ben Rhodes: President Obama ‘Deeply Loves His Country’

“I, like many Americans, first came to know Barack Obama in 2004. When he gave a speech at the Democratic Convention, that was entirely about how much he loved America and about how the fact that his story was not possible anywhere else in the world. I, like many people, went to work for him in 2007, because he filled us with a belief in the possibility of America. And he spoke to his love of country, and he inspired many young people who shared that belief.

I think that this is a president who is continually articulating the vision of this country that all of us love. And frankly, it’s just very disappointing that we’re still seeing this kind of attack eight years later. You know, we heard some of this type of nonsense back in 2007, back in 2008. You would hope, and you would have expected, frankly, that all these years later, with how much this president has stood up for this country, how much he’s spoken up for American values here and around the world, you would think that this kind of rhetoric would be put aside. But unfortunately, it hasn’t been.

I think that rightly, we’ve seen very strong condemnation of these remarks because they don’t reflect the president that we’ve all come to know all these years. You may not agree with all of his policies, but you have to recognize that this is someone who deeply loves this country.”