Former President Barack Obama is insisting he wasn’t to blame for tensions between the White House and Congress during his administration.
“We tried everything. We had Super Bowl parties, we’d invite them to dinner, I’d go to their caucus meetings,” he told CBS in an interview that aired Sunday.
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Obama earned a sharp rebuke from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s spokesman this week after the release of excerpts from his forthcoming book, The Promised Land.
In the 768-page memoir, Obama writes that he sent President-elect Joe Biden, then his vice president, to Capitol Hill because Biden wouldn’t “inflame the Republican base in quite the same way that any appearance of cooperation” with him as a black man, incorrectly called a Muslim and socialist by his critics.
In another excerpt published over the weekend, Obama claims McConnell told Biden that he was “under the mistaken impression” that McConnell cared while Biden was trying to sell the merits of a bill.
McConnell spokesman Doug Andres dinged Obama this week for blaming others for his poor relationship with Congress.
“It’s nice to learn why that’s everyone else’s fault,” Andres tweeted.
One thing journalists, pundits, and politicians from both parties can agree on is that President Obama’s greatest weakness might have been his ability to work with Congress.
So it’s nice to learn why that’s everyone else’s fault. https://t.co/cOuaQ8eS7W
— Doug Andres (@DougAndres) November 12, 2020
In the Sunday interview, Obama said former first lady Michelle Obama had “sort of” forgiven him for running for president. Despite her popularity, the former first lady is well known for not liking politics.
The former president told CBS he “probably suffered more” than his then-young children, Malia and Sasha, “from not being able to do some of the ordinary dad things” he did before he was elected to the White House.
“It takes you out of yourself in your head and reminds you of what’s good in the world,” he said of his conversations with his daughters.
A Promised Land is Obama’s third book, but his first post-administration memoir, and will be released Nov. 17. Penguin Random House reportedly paid the former first couple a $65 million advance for their tomes.
