White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that he is "not surprised" that President Obama and Hillary Clinton have a similar approach to foreign policy.
Fox News correspondent Kevin Corke asked Earnest whether it was accurate that Clinton and Obama often overlap on foreign policy and referenced the criticism that a Clinton presidency would be a repeat of Obama’s.
"There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of difference [on foreign policy]," Corke said. "There’s been some criticism, people say it’s Obama 2.0 if she becomes president. Is that an accurate reflection from your vantage point, and is that a good thing?"
Earnest would not say whether the similarity was "a good thing," but he did admit to the overlap between Obama and Clinton.
"I’m not particularly surprised to hear that, even after your careful review, that you’ve determined that their approach to a large number of foreign policy issues is at least similar," he said.
"At the same time," Earnest said, Clinton has "a well-earned reputation as an independent thinker."
He was certain that there were areas where Clinton diverged from Obama.
"I’m confident that there are probably some areas where she would disagree with the president," he said, but reiterated that he was "not surprised" to hear that "their approach is generally similar."
Despite attempts to differentiate herself from Obama on issues like trade and the Keystone XL pipeline, Clinton has struggled to break from his approach to foreign policy, which is rapidly falling out of favor with the American public.
Obama’s approval rating recently fell to 43 percent, its lowest level in over a year, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.