Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama believes that he could have defeated Donald Trump and won a third term in office had the Constitution allowed him to run again.
Speaking on Monday to his former senior adviser, David Axelrod, on his “Axe Files” podcast and quoted by Politico, Obama said he still believes in the message of “hope and change” he campaigned on in 2008.
“I am confident in this vision because I’m confident that if I — if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” he said. “I know that in conversations that I’ve had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would say the vision, the direction that you point towards is the right one.”
Obama further blamed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for Republicans’ obstruction throughout his entire administration, an effort which he argued was meant to obscure the hope and change he campaigned for by rejecting his policies outright and creating stagnation.
McConnell’s view, said the president, was “that if we just say no, then that will puncture the balloon,” and “all this talk about hope and change and no red state and blue state is proven to be a mirage, a fantasy.”
“And if we can — if we can puncture that vision, then we have a chance to win back seats in the House and win back seats in the Senate,” Obama continued, according to Politico.
Republicans retook the House after the 2010 midterms and reclaimed the Senate in 2014, maintaining those majorities following the November 8 election.
While Obama said he understood what happened politically, he insisted his message from 2008 still resonates.
“Obviously in the wake of the election and Trump winning, a lot of people have suggested that, somehow, it really was a fantasy,” he said. “What I would argue is, is that the culture actually did shift, that the majority does buy into the notion of a one America that is tolerant and diverse and open and full of energy and dynamism. And the problem is, it doesn't always manifest itself in politics, right?”
During the election campaign, Obama campaigned heavily for Hillary Clinton, who won nearly 3 million more ballots in the popular vote than Trump, but Trump won the requisite number of Electoral College votes to be elected president – a victory that was confirmed last week.
Trump on Monday rejected Obama’s comments that he could have defeated him had he run against him.
“President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me. He should say that but I say NO WAY! - jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.,” tweeted Trump.
Trump’s opponents have pointed to reports that Russia was behind hacks on the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta to question whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had interfered to help boost Trump.
Trump has rejected the claims that his election win was enabled by Russian hackers, telling Fox News this week that Democrats bitter with the results of the election were inventing excuses for their defeat.
Clinton insists Putin ordered the hacks due to a “personal beef” against her.