Obama has had enough of selfies
President Obama is sick and tired of selfies.
Speaking to supporters Wednesday in Springfield, Ill., the president said he would keep his remarks short so he could shake hands with audience members.
“No selfies,” he warned the crowd at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. “I just want to tell you ahead of time.”
{mosads}The commander-in-chief joked that times have changed since he first announced his presidential campaign nine years ago in the Illinois state capital.
“This is one thing that changed by the way. If we had had smartphones when I first ran for president, I’m not sure I would have run,” he said.
“Because folks just have their phones, they don’t want to shake my hand anymore,” he added, mimicking people pointing a phone at him.
The White House famously said in 2014 it would consider a ban on all Obama selfies after Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz snapped one as part of a marketing deal with the mobile phone company Samsung.
Obama was also captured on camera shutting down a selfie-seeker after his State of the Union address.
But the president has been known to make exceptions. He snapped one with TV host Bear Grylls during a trip to Alaska last summer to highlight the effects of climate change.
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