--- title: Barack Obama: Swamp of Crazy Speech Transcript description: President Obama tied Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the Republican Party, arguing that they have a "swamp of crazy." canonical: https://time.com/4531245/barack-obama-swamp-crazy-speech-transcript/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-14T14:13:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:28.649Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read President Obama's 'Swamp of Crazy' Speech About GOP og:description: "This is in the swamp of crazy that has been fed over and over." og:url: https://time.com/4531245/barack-obama-swamp-crazy-speech-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51b18a9fe6b6fb14/6988aa09e20a8710f0a92c95/gettyimages-614385926-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: US President Barack Obama delivers remarks at an event for the Ohio Democratic Party and Governor Ted Strickland in Columbus, Ohio, October 13, 2016. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read President Obama's 'Swamp of Crazy' Speech About GOP twitter:description: "This is in the swamp of crazy that has been fed over and over." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51b18a9fe6b6fb14/6988aa09e20a8710f0a92c95/gettyimages-614385926-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama's 'Swamp of Crazy' Speech About Republicans > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 14, 2016 2:13 PM UTC  US President Barack Obama delivers remarks at an event for the Ohio Democratic Party and Governor Ted Strickland in Columbus, Ohio, October 13, 2016. US President Barack Obama delivers remarks at an event for the Ohio Democratic Party and Governor Ted Strickland in Columbus, Ohio, October 13, 2016. JIM WATSON—AFP/Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 14, 2016 2:13 PM UTC President Obama tied Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the Republican Party, arguing that they have long fed voters a “swamp of crazy” at a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio. “This is in the swamp of crazy that has been fed over and over and over and over again,” he said. “Look, I—and there’s sort of a spectrum, right—it’s a whole kind of ecosystem. And look, if I watched Fox News I wouldn’t vote for me.” Read a complete transcript below. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4531245/barack-obama-swamp-crazy-speech-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4531245/barack-obama-swamp-crazy-speech-transcript/"},"headline":"Read President Obama's 'Swamp of Crazy' Speech About Republicans","datePublished":"2016-10-14T14:13:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:28.649Z","description":"'This is in the swamp of crazy that has been fed over and over'","url":"https://time.com/4531245/barack-obama-swamp-crazy-speech-transcript/","keywords":["transcripts","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Barack Obama","Ohio"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51b18a9fe6b6fb14/6988aa09e20a8710f0a92c95/gettyimages-614385926-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51b18a9fe6b6fb14/6988aa09e20a8710f0a92c95/gettyimages-614385926-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US President Barack Obama delivers remarks at an event for the Ohio Democratic Party and Governor Ted Strickland in Columbus, Ohio, October 13, 2016.","caption":"US President Barack Obama delivers remarks at an event for the Ohio Democratic Party and Governor Ted Strickland in Columbus, Ohio, October 13, 2016.","creditText":"JIM WATSON—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/transcripts/","name":"transcripts"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4531245/barack-obama-swamp-crazy-speech-transcript/","name":"Read President Obama's 'Swamp of Crazy' Speech About Republicans"}}]}] ```