What Powers Should The President Not Have? Former President Obama Weighs In

0:01 [cheering] Give it up for Louisis Hedo and the great big joy machine.

0:06 Everybody.

0:09 [cheering and applause] Hey, welcome back everybody.

0:14 Friends and neighbors, longtime viewers of America might remember

0:18 that we used to have other presidents,

0:20 a bunch of them in fact, including uh this guy Barack Obama.

0:26 And [cheering] recently,

0:28 [applause] recently he invited me to meet

0:31 him in Chicago at the Obama Presidential Center,

0:34 which opens to the public on June 19th.

0:37 We sat down for a conversation that touched on everything

0:40 from alien life forms to the future of the Democratic Party.

0:45 Mr.

0:45 President,

0:46 it is great to see you.

0:47 Nice to see you, too.

0:48 Thanks for doing this.

0:49 Thank you for coming.

0:50 Last time we were together, [applause] sir, was at a fundraiser uh in New York.

0:56 It doesn't matter what it was for or what happened.

0:58 [laughter] It's all water under the bridge.

1:01 It is.

1:02 But uh after the fundraiser was over,

1:04 we were backstage briefly as we were all leaving and you turned to me and said,

1:07 "Okay, now you can call me Barack."

1:09 You can.

1:10 Okay.

1:10 Well, um I haven't done it yet.

1:13 I've never actually tried it out.

1:14 What do you think's going to happen?

1:15 I don't know.

1:16 I'm not sure if I'm going to be comfortable with this, but we'll give it a run.

1:18 Okay.

1:19 Um,

1:23 it's wonderful to see you again, bro.

1:25 [laughter] We'll wait for the camera.

1:31 Let's earn it.

1:31 Okay.

1:32 Maybe by the end.

1:33 Maybe by the end.

1:34 Um, we are here at the beautiful Obama Presidential Center,

1:38 which opens on June 19th on the south side of Chicago.

1:41 What's this neighborhood mean to you?

1:44 Michelle grew up about a mile from here.

1:46 Our wedding reception was about 5 minutes from here.

1:49 Uh my daughters were born in that hospital right there.

1:53 I first arrived in Chicago driving down a road

1:57 that is now uh been replaced by this building.

2:03 Uh the first apartment I stayed in Chicago is literally three blocks away.

2:08 I made my announcement for my first

2:11 political office about five minutes down the road.

2:15 So, [cheering] you know, a lot of stuff has uh has happened here.

2:18 Okay.

2:19 Uh so, obviously Chicago incredibly important to you.

2:21 You lived here over 20 years.

2:23 I understand.

2:24 Can we get a quick uh Chicago bonafiday check?

2:26 Okay.

2:27 Lightning round.

2:28 Uh first question.

2:29 Is a hot dog a sandwich?

2:30 No.

2:30 Hot dog's a hot dog.

2:32 Okay.

2:32 Is it ever okay to put ketchup on hot dogs?

2:34 Never.

2:35 Okay.

2:36 Favorite place in Chicago?

2:38 favorite place in Chicago is actually the point right

2:41 over here which is uh juts out right around

2:45 hide park into the lake and it's uh first

2:48 place that uh I grilled in the summer in Chicago.

2:53 Least favorite place in Chicago.

2:56 Well, there was a time where I used to go to the DMV in Chicago.

2:59 I don't have to anymore.

3:01 [laughter] I have a similar one which is Lower Wacker Drive which has the best

3:04 name of any street in Chicago but that's where they would haul your car away.

3:08 So I more than once I had to I eventually left it there.

3:11 [laughter] Deep dish or tavern style?

3:14 Tavern style.

3:15 Sweet or hot?

3:18 Both.

3:18 Cubs or socks?

3:22 Socks.

3:20 Sears Tower or Willis Tower?

3:25 [laughter] It's Sears Tower, man.

3:26 Not Sears Tower.

3:27 Exactly.

3:28 Do you like your Italian beef dry, wet, or dipped?

3:33 I think wet.

3:34 Not not not soaked.

3:37 Not soaked.

3:37 Okay.

3:38 Bulls uh 91 to 93 or Bulls 96 to 98?

3:43 91 93.

3:44 All right, good.

3:44 You passed.

3:45 I I would expect so.

3:47 That's a solid B+.

3:49 B+.

3:49 Yeah, we'll go over it later.

3:50 I'll have office hours later if you want to stop by.

3:53 Okay.

3:53 The Obama Presidential Center is spread across 19.3

3:57 acres and includes a 5,000 square foot public library,

4:00 a monumental museum building, an athletic facility, an outdoor sledding hill,

4:05 big points for that, gardens, and a park.

4:08 It's obviously a labor of love 50 to 100

4:11 years from now when somebody comes to this center,

4:15 what do you want them to take away from the experience?

4:18 What do they want them to have learned

4:19 about you and the legacy of your administration?

4:22 Well, look, I I I want them to put my presidency in context, right?

4:28 U I assume in my eulogy somewhere it'll

4:32 be mentioned uh he was the first African-American president.

4:35 I will say something about that.

4:37 But but what I want people to understand is that there

4:44 was this extraordinary journey this country took to get to that point.

4:50 and and I was an episode in that and and it's

4:55 it's this struggle uh between the idea

4:59 that we the people includes everybody that it's

5:02 not just some it's not just some select few.

5:06 So what I want people to do when they come to this museum

5:09 is to say [applause] what this is part of that American story,

5:14 that better story, the one that has

5:18 inspired not just generations but also the world.

5:21 Um and the Obama presidency was a part of that story.

5:25 It it was one one small chapter in it.

5:28 And if and if I do that then 50 years from now

5:31 when people come presumably they'll still be inspired by that story.

5:35 Not mine alone, but ours.

5:39 Yes.

5:39 The good future is the one where they say,

5:41 "Oh, we totally know what he means." Yes.

5:43 The bad future is, [applause]

5:45 "What's he talking about?" [laughter]

5:48 Um, there's often a conversation about the restriction

5:51 or a need to restrict certain executive powers.

5:55 Yes.

5:54 Okay.

5:54 Um, I might have asked you this when

5:56 you were running for president back in the day,

5:58 like, is there any power that President Bush has taken that you would say,

6:01 "No, I don't want that power because it

6:03 keeps accumulating." Now that you're no longer in office,

6:07 what powers do you believe the president should not have?

6:10 Well, there are a couple that I followed even

6:14 though they weren't law and I want us we're going

6:19 to have to do some work to return to this basic

6:22 norm and we probably now have to cottify it.

6:25 The White House shouldn't be able to direct the attorney general

6:29 to go around prosecuting whoever uh

6:32 the president [cheering] wants prosecute, right?

6:33 Because technically it's under the executive branch.

6:36 The norm is that it's independent.

6:37 The nor the the idea is that the attorney general is the people's lawyer.

6:42 It's not the president's concigary, right?

6:45 Even when it's Bobby Kennedy,

6:47 it's Bobby Kennedy.

6:48 [applause] And so, uh, the two of the core principles of a democracy,

6:57 we we can survive a lot.

6:59 bad policy, funky elections.

7:02 There there's a bunch of stuff that, you know, we we can overcome.

7:07 We can't overcome the politization of the criminal justice system.

7:12 The the the awesome power of the state.

7:14 You you can't have a situation in which [applause] uh whoever's in charge

7:18 of the government starts using that to go

7:22 after their political enemies or reward their friends.

7:25 Right?

7:26 So another power maybe I'd say would be you

7:29 although this is in the constitution it's a little

7:30 hard to change but uh maybe don't pardon people

7:34 who've given you a bunch of campaign contributions um uh

7:38 or investing [applause] in the businesses um so restoring

7:44 some sense of the justice department being independent in making

7:49 judgments about specific cases and prosecutions I I would consult

7:54 with Eric Holder my attorney general all the time around

7:57 broad policy issues but that's different than who do

8:00 you charge what case do you bring second thing

8:03 is the military don't politicize our military as president

8:07 you are commander-in-chief you are responsible for directing our military

8:13 but there had been a whole series of norms

8:16 that were in place to ensure that you weren't trying

8:20 to make that military loyal to you as opposed

8:24 to the constitution ution and the people of the United States.

8:27 We're going to have to find mechanisms to restore that.

8:31 And then, you know, a good policy that I'd like

8:34 to see followed is uh that the president of the United States

8:38 uh shouldn't uh have a bunch of side hustles that um

8:45 [applause] those [cheering] companies and foreign entities can uh invest in.

8:52 How much of that is just jealous

8:54 that you didn't think of selling a sneaker [laughter]

8:56 because your sneakers would have flown.

8:57 You know that, right?

8:59 You know, you would have bankked coin.

9:01 [laughter] I I just I I mean I I I thought this was a pretty obvious principle.

9:09 All right.

9:10 I'm looking for a new gig soon.

9:14 Uhhuh.

9:13 And a lot of people tell me I should run for president.

9:16 Well, you certainly have the look.

9:18 Thank you very much.

9:18 You have the hair.

9:19 Well, for the record, I think it's a stupid idea.

9:22 How dumb do how dumb do you think it is

9:24 for people to say that I should run for president?

9:27 Well, you know, the bar has changed.

9:31 That [laughter] is true.

9:32 That is true.

9:33 At times, subterranean.

9:35 So So I [laughter] don't have to limbo so low.

9:37 Let me put it this way.

9:38 I I I think that you could perform

9:42 [laughter] significantly better than some folks that we've seen.

9:46 All right.

9:47 Yeah.

9:47 I I I have I have great confidence in [cheering] that.

9:50 Thank you very much.

9:51 Yeah.

9:51 Is that an [applause] endorsement?

9:53 It was not.

9:55 When we come back, I'll ask President Obama about

9:58 alien life and if the truth is out there.

10:00 Stick around.

10:04 [music] [music] [cheering] [applause]