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(CNN) – Former US President Barack Obama said the election results, in which each candidate received more than 70 million votes, show the nation remains bitterly divided.
“What it says is that we are still deeply divided. The power of that alternative worldview being presented by the media and consumed by those voters carries a lot of weight, “Obama told CBS News’ Gayle King in an interview aired on” CBS Sunday Morning. “
When asked if this worries him, the former president replied, “Yes. It is very difficult for our democracy to function if we operate on completely different sets of facts.
Obama conducted a series of interviews scheduled for the launch of the first volume of his memoir, “A Promised Land,” which will be available on November 17. The book chronicles the childhood and political rise of the 44th president, before diving into his historic 2008 campaign and first four years in the White House.
Obama, the country’s first black president, is also critical of President Donald Trump’s racist policies, suggesting that his 2008 election sparked a wave of bitter and divisive turmoil that fueled Republican filibustering and ultimately changed the party.
Obama on Sunday defended his active campaign for President-elect Joe Biden, his former vice president, saying the circumstances justified his public criticism of his successor, which former presidents rarely do.
“It’s not my preference to be there,” she told King. “I think that in these elections we found ourselves in a circumstance in which certain norms, certain institutional values that are so extraordinarily important had been violated. That it was important to me, as the person who had held that position, to let people know that this is not normal. “
Trump has refused to admit defeat, repeatedly stating with no evidence that the election was rigged and continues to push for legal challenges of the unsubstantiated results. The formal transition between the Trump administration and the upcoming Biden-Harris administration is likely to be pending until the election is certified by a Trump appointee within the general services administration in a process known as verification.
WATCH: Obama refers to Trump’s conspiracy over his citizenship in his new memoir
In a separate interview with CBS’s Scott Pelley aired Sunday night on “60 Minutes,” Obama criticized Republican officials for backing the president’s false claims of election fraud and said the allegations endanger democracy.
“We would never accept our children to behave that way if they lose, right? I mean, if my daughters, in any kind of competition, pout and then accuse the other side of cheating when they lose, when there was no proof, we would scold them, “Obama said.
Presidents, he said, “are by definition temporary office occupants.”
“And when the time is up, it’s your job to put the country first and think beyond your ego, your interests and your disappointments,” Obama said.
“My advice to President Trump is that if he wants to be remembered at this last stage of the game as someone who put the country first, it’s time he did.”
And speaking of the importance of a peaceful transition with King, Obama similarly said that “it’s a temporary job. We are not above the rules. We are not above the law. This is the essence of our democracy.
When asked what advice he would give Biden, Obama said he believes the president-elect does not need his advice, but has vowed to help him “in any way possible”.
“I’m not going to suddenly work on White House staff or anything … Michelle would leave me,” he joked, referring to the former first lady. “He was asking me like: what? What are you doing?
Although Trump has often attacked Obama, the former president said he doesn’t take them seriously.
“There are a lot of things that he says that I don’t take personally or seriously, although I think they can often be destructive and harmful,” Obama told King.
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