President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he doesn’t feel any responsibility for Donald Trump’s election and questioned the logic of reading too much into election results.
At a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens, NBC’s Chris Jansing referenced a question Matt Lauer asked Obama months ago as to whether he personally felt “any responsibility for the election of Donald Trump.”
“And in the broader context, when you see his election, when you look at politicians, like Theresa May, Marie Le Pen, do you believe it is a movement away from or a rejection of your worldwide view?” she continued.
“Well, first of all, I think it’s fair to say I was surprised by the election results,” Obama began. “And I’ve said so. I still don’t feel responsibility for what the President-elect says or does. But I do feel responsibility as President of the United States to make sure I facilitate a good transition.”
Obama was quick to separate the Le Pen, a French ultra-nationalist, and Theresa May, the current British Prime Minister, who he called “a fairly transitional conservative politician.”
He then rebuffed Jansing’s premise and defended his legacy.
“Last I checked, a pretty healthy majority of the American people agree with my world view on a whole bunch of things,” Obama said.
“I know that begs the question: ‘Well, how is it that somebody who appears to have a very different worldview just got elected?'” he continued. “As I said, sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something to see if we can shake things up and that I suspect was a significant phenomena.”
