Former President Barack Obama was adamant that he wouldn’t have returned to the 2020 campaign trail if he didn’t have to.
“It is not my preference to be out there,” Obama told CBS in an interview that aired Sunday.
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“We were in a circumstance in this election in which certain norms, certain institutional boundaries that are so extraordinarily important, had been breached,” he added. “It was important for me as somebody who has served in that office to simply let people know this is not normal.”
Obama created problems for President-elect Joe Biden this cycle by not endorsing his two-term vice president early during the primary. Instead, Obama insisted through spokespeople that he wanted to remain neutral throughout the process.
But once Biden clinched the nomination, Obama appeared frequently on his former vice president’s behalf, first virtually and then in-person.
Obama spoke with CBS as he promotes his forthcoming memoir, A Promised Land. The 768-page book, to be released Nov. 17, is the first installment of Obama’s two-part series, his first written works since leaving the White House.
In the Sunday interview, Obama said former first lady Michelle Obama had “sort of” forgiven him for running for president after she never kept her disdain for politics a secret. Obama also said 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.
Penguin Random House reportedly paid the former first couple a $65 million advance for their memoirs.
