BARACK Obama has revealed he isn’t shocked that President Donald Trump is trying to overturn Joe Biden’s victory and “didn’t enjoy” congratulating him after the win.
Obama, 59, expressed his dismay at Trump’s refusal to concede defeat in the 2020 presidential election during an exclusive interview with MSNBC on Thursday night.
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The sit-down interview event was titled A Promised Land: A Conversation with Barack Obama.
As Obama discussed Trump’s voter fraud claims to MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart, he said: “These are just bald assertions, they have been repeatedly rejected by the courts, and I think I’m, I’m less surprised by Donald Trump doing this.
“He has shown, you know, only a flimsy relationship with the truth.
“I’m more troubled that you’re seeing a lot of Republican officials go along with it, not because they actually believe it, but because they feel intimidated by it.”
President Trump has made unsubstantiated claims of fraud, demanded recounts in battleground states, and refused to handover the presidency to Biden.
Despite Obama feeling confident that Biden will be the next US president and Kamala Harris will be the next vice president, he admitted he was “troubled” with the election upset.
He stated: “I have been troubled, like I think every American… should be troubled, when you start having attempts to block, negate, overturn the people’s vote.”
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At one point, the former president told Capehart: “I didn’t enjoy having to call Donald Trump and congratulate him for having won the night of his election four years ago, but I did it because that’s part of my job.
“And the same way that George Bush called me … That’s part of the continuity of our democracy.”
Obama was referring to Trump refusing to start a transition for Joe Biden – who has denounced Trump as “one of the most irresponsible presidents in history.”
The presidential race has been repeatedly called for 78-year-old Biden since Saturday, November 7.
Biden has collected 306 electoral votes, the exact number Trump obtained to claim victory against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Obama also took some time to talk about VP-elect Harris – the first woman, and woman of color, in history to be elected to such a position in the White House.
“She is just a really capable, smart, tough and insightful elected official who is going to put the American people first,” Obama explained.
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Harris is an American attorney and politician who was actively serving as the junior US Senator for California since 2017.
In Obama’s new memoir, he has admitted that his own “blind spot” allowed female White House staffers to be sidelined by male colleagues
Earlier this week, Obama compared Trump to a dictator during an interview with 60 Minutes.
As the former-president was interviewed by host Scott Pelley he revealed his thoughts on Trump’s repeated voter fraud claims.
Obama said: “It is one more step in delegitimizing not just the incoming Biden administration, but democracy generally. And that’s a dangerous path.”
He also dubbed Trump as someone who doesn’t “like to lose and will never admit it.
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In a separate interview done this week, Obama compared “complaining” Donald Trump to “Richie Rich” from the Macaulay Culkin movie in another stinging attack.
Obama likened President Trump to the fictional character Richie, the world’s richest boy and the son of a billionaire, as he promoted his new book “A Promised Land” on Monday.
