President Barack Obama sat down for a 23-minute interview with "The Daily Show's" Trevor Noah on Monday, for a wide-ranging conversation covering everything from racism to president-elect Donald Trump.
Here are TooFab's biggest takeaways from the 1:1 below:
1.) Obama Thinks the Public Is Focused on the Wrong Thing When It Comes to Russia
"I don't think there was any doubt as to who was being advantaged or disadvantaged by the political gossip that was being put out in drip drip drip fashion," he said of the CIA assessment that Russia interfered with the U.S. elections.
"What they did here is not a particularly fancy brand of espionage or propaganda," he continued. "What everyone needs to reflect on, is what is it about the state of our democracy where the leaks of what were frankly not very interesting emails, that didn't have any explosive information in them, ended up being an obsession? And the fact that the Russians were doing this was not an obsession?"
"The real question that we all have to reflect on is what's happened to our political system where some emails that were hacked and released ended up being the overwhelming story and the constant source of coverage," he added, "when the truth of the matter was it was fairly routine stuff.
2.) Obama Thinks Trump's "Flying Blind" Without Regular Security Briefings
"Well, I think the president-elect may say one thing and do another once he's here, because the truth of the matter is that it's a big, complicated world," he said of Donald avoiding daily security briefings. "It doesn't matter how smart you are, you have to have the best information possible to make the best decisions possible. If you're not getting their detail perspective, you are flying blind."
3.) Obama Won't Totally Vanish After His Presidency
"I think it is important for me to recharge. I think it's important for me to reflect. It's important for me to get back in my wife's good graces and take a decent vacation and spend some time with her," he said of his post-administration life. "I'll do some writing and speaking. I'll be paying attention, I'll be a citizen of this country I love deeply. I don't anticipate that I suddenly just vanish, but I think it's important to give the incoming administration the space and to give the public clarity about what it is they're trying to do."
That being said, Obama added he may speak up if he sees the new administration trying to pass anything that violates the constitution, like a proposed Muslim registry. "I might have to say something about that," he explained.
4.) Barack's Guide to Calling Out Subtle Racism
"There has not been a time in my public life or my presidency where I feel as if I have had to bite my tongue," he said of skirting the line between speaking what he feels about race and worrying about alienating others. "There have been times in my public life where I've said, 'How do I say this diplomatically? How do I say this, as you indicated, in a way that it's received?"
"The challenge we face today, when it comes to race, is rarely the overt Klansman-style racism and typically has more to do with the fact that people got other stuff they want to talk about and it's sort of uncomfortable," he added.
"There are not times where I've said, 'That was racist, you are racist,'" he continued. "There are times I've said, 'you might not have taken into account the ongoing legacy of racism in why we have so many black men incarcerated."
He added he tries to reach people "in ways they can hear" and holds himself "in a way that my mother would approve of."
5.) Obama Knows He's Getting Old
The 55-year-old acknowledged how much he's aged over his presidency with his closing remarks to Noah.
"I resent how young and good looking you are," he said, "because I used to think of myself in those terms and it's been downhill for quite some time."
Check out the full interview above.
