In a tense interview with “60 Minutes” on Sunday, President Obama called the email controversy swirling around his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “ginned up” as a result of presidential politics.
“I think she’d be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly,” the president said.
He added that he wasn’t aware of Clinton’s email use while she was in office and thinks the controversy has been elevated thanks to Republicans. Obama disputed suggestions that Clinton imperiled national security or tried to “hide something or to squirrel away information.”
The president also chimed in on the 2016 presidential campaign, calling GOP frontrunner Donald Trump a “classic reality TV character.”
“He has tapped into something that exists in the Republican Party that’s real; I think there is genuine anti-immigrant sentiment in the large portion of at least Republican primary voters,” Obama said. “I don’t think it’s uniform.”
The president said he doesn’t think Trump will be elected president. The Donald was apparently watching, tweeting how badly he felt Obama performed in the interview.
President Obama was terrible on @60Minutes tonight. He said CLIMATE CHANGE is the most important thing, not all of the current disasters!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2015
Great, everyone is saying I did much better on @60Minutes last week than President Obama did tonight. I agree! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2015