President Obama says he believes he would have won the 2016 presidential election had he been a candidate.
“I am confident in this vision because I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama told former adviser David Axelrod in an interview for the “The Axe Files” podcast that aired Monday.
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Despite what would seem a slight to the actual 2016 Democratic standard-bearer, Obama said Clinton “performed wonderfully under really tough circumstances,” and was also mistreated by the media.
The president, whose second term ends next month and is, of course, forbidden to seek a third term, told his former senior adviser that based on the conversations he’s had — even with “some people who disagreed with me” — people nationwide have said “the direction that you point towards is the right one.”
“In the wake of the election and Trump winning, a lot of people have suggested that somehow, it really was a fantasy,” Obama said in the interview of his “hope-and-change” vision from when he ran in 2008. “What I would argue is, is that the culture actually did shift, that the majority does buy into the notion of a one America that is tolerant and diverse and open and full of energy and dynamism.”
As he has noted previously, Obama said Democrats ignored entire voting blocs during the election, helping President-elect Trump to beat Hillary Clinton. “If you think you’re winning, then you have a tendency, just like in sports, maybe to play it safer,” he said.
Neither Trump or Clinton won a majority of the vote in this year’s election, though Clinton beat Trump by nearly 2.9 million ballots in the popular vote. Trump won more electoral votes and was thus elected president.
Obama said he will keep a low profile after he leaves office. He will remain in Washington, D.C., while Sasha Obama, his youngest daughter, finishes school. He does plan to write a book and self-analyze his time in office.
Listen to the full interview here.
