“What it says is that we are still deeply divided. The power of that alternative worldview that’s presented in the media that those voters consume — it carries a lot of weight,” Obama told CBS News’ Gayle King in an interview that aired on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
Asked by King if that worries him, the former President responded, “Yes. It’s very hard for our democracy to function if we are operating on just completely different sets of facts.”
Obama on Sunday defended his active campaigning for President-elect Joe Biden, his former vice president, saying circumstances warranted his public criticism of his successor — something that former presidents usually don’t do.
“It is not my preference to be out there,” he told King. “I think we were in a circumstance in this election in which certain norms, certain institutional values that are so extraordinarily important, had been breached. That it was important for me, as somebody who had served in that office, to simply let people know, ‘This is not normal.'”
Asked what advice he would give Biden, Obama said he believes the President-elect doesn’t need his advice but pledged to help him in “any ways that I can.”
“I’m not planning to suddenly work on the White House staff or something … Michelle would leave me,” he joked of the former first lady. “She’d be like what? You’re doing what?”
Although, Trump has frequently attacked Obama, the former President said he does not take them seriously.
“There are many things he says that I do not take personally or seriously, although I think they can often be destructive and harmful,” Obama told King.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the title of former President Barack Obama’s memoir.
Source : Nbcnewyork