During an interview that aired Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week,” President Obama said that he takes “some responsibility” for the Democratic losses in elections over the past few years.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Obama if he should take some blame for the Democratic party becoming “hollowed out.”
“I take some responsibility for that,” Obama replied.
The President said that Democrats’ losses were partially circumstantial and that the party took a hit for the state of the economy when Obama took office.
“I think we did a really good job in saving this economy and putting us back on the track of growth. But what that meant is in 2010 there were a lot of folks who were still out of work. There were a lot of folks who had lost their homes or saw their home values plummet, their 401(k)s plummet. And we were just at the beginnings of a recovery,” he told ABC. “Whoever is president at that point is going to get hit, and his party’s going to get hit.”
But Obama also said that he was not able to lead the Democratic party while fulfilling his duties as president.
“I think that what is also true is that partly because my docket was really full here, so I couldn’t be both chief organizer of the Democratic Party and function as commander-in-chief and president of the United States. We did not begin what I think needs to happen over the long haul, and that is rebuild the Democratic Party at the ground level,” he said.
