Obama in London

Obama in London: 'I’m not coming here to fix any votes'

By Nick Gass

President Barack Obama on Friday pushed back against criticism that he is unjustly interfering in the domestic politics of the United Kingdom by forcefully opposing its exit from the European Union.

“Well first of all, let me repeat: This is a decision for the people of the United Kingdom to make. I’m not coming here to fix any votes. I’m not casting a vote myself," Obama said during a news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London.

Obama remarked of British critics, "I’m offering my opinion, and in democracies, everybody should want more information not less.

"And you shouldn’t be afraid to hear an argument being made," he said. "That’s not a threat. That should enhance the debate.”

The remarks follow an op-ed in The Telegraph published Thursday in which Obama urged the British people to snub Brexit when the referendum comes to a vote in June. More than 100 members of the country's Parliament had written Obama entreating him not to interfere.

London Mayor Boris Johnson ripped into Obama on Friday, suggesting in another op-ed that his hostility toward the United Kingdom's independence from the EU stems from his "half-Kenyan heritage" and disdain for Great Britain's history as a colonizer.