Trump Threw Out President Obama’s Pandemic Playbook - VoiceTube: Learn English through videos!

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-It is an honor to introduce my first guest.
He's the 44th President of the United States
and the author of this best-selling
new book called "A Promised Land."
Here is President Barack Obama.
Hi, President -- -Jimmy.
-Thank you so much for coming back to the show.
You look great. And I know we don't really
have a way of really keeping in touch.
But, gosh, I really missed you, bud.
-I missed you.
Although, I kind of like the whole disheveled --
-[ Laughs ] -You know, sweater.
-No. No, no. -Slightly --
-I can't -- -Little bit of stubble look.
-No. -Now, you're back
behind a desk, tie. -[ Laughs ]
-I can't -- for you -- -You know, hair product.
-Yeah. I mean, I'm swearing swim shorts, swim trunks, under here,
but I'm not going to show you that.
But, yeah, I got to dress up for you.
I always think of the time when I came to the White House
for the Fourth of July and I opened up
for the Foo Fighters for a veterans...
-Yeah. -...party that you had,
and I got -- I was so nervous.
I got really dressed up there as well.
And I was wearing -- I think I was wearing a three-piece suit,
and it was probably 98 degrees.
-It was really hot. -It was ridiculous --
And Michelle was like, "Oh, you poor thing.
Loosen your tie or something."
I mean, there was sweat coming through my collar,
and you were like, "Didn't you get the memo?
It's a barbecue." And I go --
-Come on. -I was awful.
I was sweating so much. But, yeah.
Those were so many --
so many fun memories hanging out with you, and --
Congrats on the book. Here it is.
Great cover, by the way.
Great look. -Thank you.
-Just crisp, clean.
It's a -- it's not a quick read.
But, it is a -- you get your money's worth.
Look at this. I mean, that's a big book.
-You know what?
I think you can handle it, Jimmy.
I really do.
-Well, I mean, I got up to the part with the pictures.
And that's where I got really excited.
[ Laughter ]
I -- before we get into everything, how is the family?
How is Michelle? How are the girls?
-You know, Michelle is great.
She sends her love. -Aww.
-The girls have been with us throughout the,
you know, pandemic.
Yeah, they've been doing remote college.
Malia's a senior at Harvard.
And Sasha's a sophomore at Michigan.
-Wow. That's great. -So...
you know, as we've talked about parenting,
now I'm a little bit ahead of you in age.
-How is it? -You go through this cycle.
They love you. They think you're terrific.
You get to around 12. -[ Laughs ]
-They think you're a loser.
-Yeah. I got my first eye roll, yeah.
-But by the time they come back to you and, in this case,
you know, Sasha's now 19, Malia's 22.
You know, they, suddenly, like you again.
-[ Laughs ] -And they're interesting
and they're smart, and they're funnier
than you are. -Yeah.
-So it's been a joy to have them around.
You know, I think they have, obviously,
started getting cabin fever
hanging out with us as much as they are.
But I don't mind it.
-I got my first eye roll the other day,
which was pretty interesting. -Oh, man.
How'd do you handle it?
-I couldn't -- I really -- It really broke my heart.
I go, "You're my number one fan.
You can't -- you laugh at everything.
Every joke I tell, you laugh at.
I -- I -- And she was like... -Oh, man.
-Yeah. -Wait till they're 14. Whoo!
-I cant -- I can't even. I can't even.
Are you -- in this past four years,
I think the last time I talked to you,
we were talking about what you were most excited about doing,
and I think you were like,
just even pressing a button on an elevator,
or, it was like the simplest little things
that you did not do.
Have you done that? Have you taken out the trash?
Have you -- -I -- yeah, look,
I mean, there's a bunch of honey do list items
that I have been carrying out.
Don't seem quite as romantic as they did at the time.
-Yeah.
-And, you know, I've driven a couple of times,
although in very restricted areas.
-Stick shift or automatic? -And much to the --
Uh, automatic. -Me too.
-You know, I didn't want to cause, you know, havoc.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah.
-But, you know, the thing that I haven't been able to do
that I thought I was going to be able to do --
and Michelle knew I was an idiot to think this way,
was, I thought I could, like, go around
and take a walk sometimes.
And it turns out that... -Yeah, you're you.
-...I can't do that. I cannot -- I can't do that.
So -- Although we've been doing some bike rides.
'Cause you're moving fast enough that even if they...
-They go, "Hey, is that --" -...spot you,
it's too late. -Yeah, exactly.
-You're gone by that time.
-Probably it's even bet-- if you --
You can't even do it alone, I'm just saying,
but if it's you and Michelle and the kids,
everyone's like, "Wha-- wha-- what, what?
That's like --" People would just freak out.
-Well, the thing about Michelle when we go
bike riding together,
she's this -- she thinks she's in a race, right?
I mean, it -- on the Alps or something.
And she's just powering through,
and she's about a mile ahead of me, and...
-Oh, no. -I'm sort of meandering,
trying to figure out how to shift gears, and so --
-Yeah, I'm cruising, yeah. Me too.
-Yeah, it's not that romantic. -It's more of a workout.
-It's more of a workout.
-For this, you took a deep dive
into your journey to the White House,
and your first few years as president.
You also released an audiobook version,
which you narrate, which I think is great.
But I was going to ask you, when it came time to record it,
was there any part of you that was kicking yourself
for writing such a long book?
[ Laughter ] -Absolutely.
You know, you don't --
You don't realize how exhausting it is
to just sit there and read.
And it gives you a newfound respect for,
you know, professional actors and narrators and so forth,
because after about three hours I was whooped.
-Yeah, exactly. -And, you know, you look,
"Really? We only got through ten pages?
What do you mean?"
-You're like, "Hey, can we get Tom Cruise
to do this or something?"
-Exactly. But, you know,
the goal of my --
my book was to
tell a story about, yes, policy,
and you know, the Affordable Care Act
and how we got Bin Laden and all that stuff.
But also to try to pull the curtain back
and give people a sense of what it's like for a family
to go on this weird journey.
And -- and, you know,
how Michelle and the girls and I
had to try to hang on to
our sense of who we were and normalcy,
and with highs and lows
and tensions and stresses. -Yeah.
-And kind of come out of the other end intact.
And so part of my goal here
was not just to give some dry report,
but, you know, to describe for people
what it's like, you know, the first night
you sleep in the White House and you kind of realize,
"What the heck? How'd I end up here?" Or...
-Yeah. Do you remember the first thing you saw
when you actually walked into the White House?
-Were you like -- Did you look at like a phone
or an old painting or something and you're like,
"Wait, I'm actually -- I'm the White House"?
-All of the above. -Yeah.
-And, you know, the interesting thing is,
is that you don't --
you literally are moved in while you're being sworn in.
So you haven't --
The Bushes were very gracious.
They had given us a tour, but, you know,
you're not really paying attention.
It kind of feels like you're in a museum.
Uh...
You get inaugurated. There are a bunch of balls.
You're shaking hands and schmoozing
and watching parades.
And then you go home, quote/unquote,
and suddenly you're in this place where
the Gettysburg Address is next to --
in the next room, and...
you know, you realize that your life
is not going to be the same,
and trying to make sure that you're maintaining perspective.
You know, I discuss a lot in the book...
you know, one of the greatest accomplishments, I think,
of my presidency for both Michelle and me
was raising two girls in this very strange environment
and them turning out to be these wonderful,
not at all entitled, you know,
kind, thoughtful people. -Yeah.
-Partly because of my mother-in-law,
who, you know, she --
we were very lucky to have her come stay with us.
And, you know, she'd look at the girls
if they were acting up and she'd say,
"What are you guys doing?" -Yeah.
-"You know you didn't do anything."
-Good.
-"You're just here for the ride."
-You need that, yeah. -"Settle down."
-Yeah, and just grounding them.
So...
And part of the reason I wanted to personalize it was
so that young people who read it,
who are interested in public service,
who are interested in government or just changing the world,
they can kind of see, "Okay,
here's somebody who is kind of normal
and was able to do some important stuff.
And maybe, I can, too." -Yeah.
-And hopefully inspires them to get involved.
-Yeah. You wrote that,
yeah, you want this -- this book is for, like,
young people, in their 20s,
and who want to change the world.
I was going to ask you, are you inspired by your own daughters?
-I am.
You know, they and their friends, you know,
during this summer after the tragedy of George Floyd
and the protests and activism,
you know, they found ways to get involved
that were very smart and thoughtful and practical.
And they got their friends involved.
This whole generation of young people coming up
are smart, thoughtful, sophisticated.
And they really believe all the platitudes
about everybody's equal
and we should treat everybody fairly.
And, you know, we don't like racism
and we don't like discriminating against people
because of their sexual orientation.
It's second nature to them.
And there is a courage and conviction that they bring to it
that really is inspiring and makes me optimistic.
You know, it's a matter of us old heads getting out of the way
and making sure we don't break things so badly
that by the time they're in charge,
you know, it's not too late.
-Yeah.
There's also some good stories in here about you choosing
Joe Biden as your vice president,
and you do a great job in there describing his character.
I've met him a couple times.
He's just very memorable, very charming.
What is your favorite memory of working
or spending time with Joe Biden?
-You know, the thing about Joe is he genuinely loves people.
Everybody. -Yeah.
-It's not a put-on. You know, there's some folks,
and I'm sure you've seen them in the entertainment industry,
do not name names, where they're all fun and laughs,
you know, in public and then... -Cameras off.
-[ Laughs ] Cameras off and they're curmudgeons.
-Oh, yeah. -Right?
-Joe is exactly who he appears to be.
And, you know, probably my strongest memories of Joe
are when we were campaigning together.
You know, I'd work the rope lines after I'd made a speech,
you know, and I'd hug babies.
-Yeah. -You know, kiss grandmas.
And we'd go around and shake hands and all this stuff.
And I felt like I'd shaken every hand
and I'm finished with the rope line.
And I look back and, like, Joe's just starting.
I mean, I think he's gotten
the life story of the first four people.
-Yeah. -And so, campaigning with Joe
meant you were going to be late.
But because he really cares about, you know, hearing people
and letting them know that they're important.
And I think that fundamental character of his
is exactly what we need right now
after so much division and anger and frustration.
Just having somebody who likes people,
cares about 'em, knows their struggles.
I think that's going to make a big difference,
and I think Kamala will bring some of those same values
to bear when they get sworn in.
-Even seeing him with, unfortunately, with his boot,
the -- he fractured his foot or whatever,
it just makes you --
I'm actually going like, man, this is exactly --
Already, I'm more interested in that --
If that's a scandal, I will take that.
I just think, that's normal, that's human,
that's, you know...
-That's what happens with normal people.
-Yeah. Yeah.
-Playing with their dog, so...
-Was it tough for the past four years,
was it difficult to sit back and not say anything?
And go like, "I have to respect the presidency, I understand."
But -- 'cause I know, I'm speaking
for a lot of people, where I'm just like, let's --
let's call Obama right now and get him to go, "Hey, enough.
Hey, yo.
Stop it. You stop it."
And just yell at him.
-I -- Look, yeah.
It was difficult as a citizen.
I mean, people have asked me, they asked me,
even before I left office,
"Are you going to miss the presidency?"
I like the fact that, you know,
you have eight years if you're lucky.
And then it's somebody else's turn and you pass the baton.
And you become a citizen again.
And because I think
that constantly refreshes our democracy.
So, I wasn't one of these people who had to be dragged off
the stage, in that sense.
-Yep. -But there's no doubt that,
let's talk about the pandemic, for example, right now.
We had written up a pandemic playbook.
We had -- I had experienced a pandemic,
as I write about in the book, with H1N1,
six months into my presidency we were dealing with a pandemic.
Then, we had Ebola.
We had set up a whole structure.
We had had a task force in the White House.
We had, you know, deployed scientists
as an early-warning system in countries around the world
to ensure their cooperation
so that we get ahead of the game if something like this happened.
And so, when you see all that discarded and ignored,
just at the time when you need it most,
and knowing the consequences for, you know,
families across the country, yes, that was frustrating.
And you know, people I think were surprised
by my bluntness maybe, during the campaign season.
And they said, "Oh, he must've had all this stuff bottled up."
It wasn't so much that there was a bunch of personal outrage
bottled up, as it was a genuine sense
that, you know, good government matters.
And some of the norms and, you know,
practices we use to just make sure
that our democracy is civil and functions,
the kind of transition that I write about
that George Bush and Laura Bush extended to us,
and that we extended to the Trumps,
those kinds of things are important.
You know, sometimes, we think of politics as so different
from daily life, but it's not.
You know, we don't have rules about
just being courteous or being thoughtful
or trying to hear another person's point of view.
We can't police that all the time.
It matters how we express our values
and interact with each other every day.
That's what we teach our kids.
-Yeah. -And that matters
in the White House and in Congress as well.
It's obviously been a tough time for our country,
but you are an optimist, as am I.
And you're the "Yes, we can" guy,
you're the "Audacity of Hope" guy.
What keeps you feeling optimistic?
-I talked about it. The young people that I meet.
And, you know, Michelle and I are focusing on
building up our foundation,
and our entire mission is actually
to train the next generation of leaders.
And, you know, the Presidential Center
we're building in Chicago will be focused on
creating training centers and classrooms
and convenings of these amazing young people
that you meet all around the country
who are working on climate change
and criminal justice reform
and, you know, educating kids.
And when you talk to these young people,
not just in America but around the world.
It makes you optimistic.
It gives you a sense that they're as idealistic
but maybe a little more sophisticated
and practical than any previous generation.
-There's so much more I want to talk to you about.
More with President Barack Obama when we return, everybody.