Politics

Barack Obama: Presidents Should Avoid Watching TV, Reading Social Media

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“Those are two things I would advise if you’re president not to do, because it creates a lot of noise and clouds your judgment,” the former president said on Wednesday.

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Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

Speaking at a private tech conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, former President Barack Obama took what may or may not have been a swipe at his successor when asked a question about how presidents should go about making important decisions. “What you have to do is to create a process where you have confidence that whatever data is out there has been sifted, sorted and the core issues that are going to be important to your decision, you're able to see it around,” Obama said during the onstage interview. “And that requires not just a good process but making sure you have a team that's got a diversity of opinion.”

“The other thing that's helpful is not watching TV. Or, you know, reading, you know, social media,” Obama added. “So those are two things I would advise if you're president not to do, because it creates a lot of noise and clouds your judgment.”

Read it at CNN