According to transcripts released by the Justice Department, former President Barack Obama felt that should Donald Trump serve more than one term as president, it would be a "problem" for the country's democracy.
The transcripts, obtained by Bloomberg, are reportedly from an off-the-record interview with Obama and reporters on several topics, including Trump's victory over his 2016 opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"I think four years is OK," Obama said in the final days of Trump's presidency. "Take on some water, but we can kind of bail fast enough to be OK. Eight years would be a problem. I would be concerned about a sustained period in which some of these norms have broken down and started to corrode."
Obama said that his biggest fear was whether or not the democratic process would survive Trump's presidency beyond one term. However, he added that he wanted people who were not happy with an elected official to be able to express their dissatisfaction.
During the sitdown with reporters, Obama also said that the media was not credible to the public anymore, saying they needed to "focus" when reporting on Trump instead of writing everything possible, according to Vanity Fair.
"I think if you're jumping after every insult or terrible thing or bit of rudeness that he's doing and just chasing that, I think there's a little bit of a three-card Monte there that you have to be careful about," Obama said. "I think you have to focus on a couple of things that are really important and just stay on them and drive them home."
When it came to how the former president viewed the Republican party as a whole, he said that it was showing "no shame," something that Democrats have not done, according to the Washington Examiner.
"I mean, if any of the things that came up here had happened in my administration, the number of Democrats who would have gone south on me and saying, 'Well, we think this is a problem,' it would have happened pretty quick," Obama said.
The former president also noted that he was worried about the U.S. being less active on issues like women's rights, human rights, LGBTQ rights, and climate change on the world stage. He compared the U.S. not being active on these issues to how China and Russia are not involved.
"If we're not there initiating ourselves, then everybody goes into their own sort of nationalist, mercantilist corners, and it will be a meaner, tougher world, and the prospects that arise will be greater," Obama said.
The politicization of the FBI and several other offices also worried Obama, as he said they could use real power as a weapon to investigate someone even if there isn't anything they are hiding.
"If there is even a hint of politically motivated investigations, prosecutions, et cetera, I think you guys have to be really on top of that," Obama said.
Note that Obama was talking officially with reporters in these transcripts, but in more unguarded moments author reported Obama went even further, calling Trump a 'madman' after 2017 when he took office.
“I didn’t think we’d have a racist, sexist pig,” Obama told one group. He also referred to Trump as “that f—ing lunatic” and a “corrupt motherf—er,” according to Atlantic staff writer Edward Isaac-Dovere in his book.
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