President Obama reads "mean tweets" on Jimmy Kimmel
People tweet plenty of mean things about President Obama, and on Monday night, he read some of them aloud on late-night television.
Mr. Obama taped an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and as part of his interview participated in an installment of Kimmel’s “Mean Tweets” feature, where celebrities and public figures are quite literally faced with the mean things people say about them on the internet.
Mr. Obama kicked it off with a tweet from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump from August this year: “President Obama will go down as perhaps the worst president in the history of the United States.”
His reply: “Really? Well, realDonaldTrump, at least I will go down as a president.”
Another tweet asked him: “Bro, do you even lift?”
“Well, I lifted the ban on Cuban cigars, that’s something,” Mr. Obama quipped in response, referring to the lifting of the U.S.-Cuban trade embargo.
Another compared him to the “Sharknado” movies.
“Barack Obama is the ‘Sharknado’ of presidents -- loud, stupid and overhyped,” he read.
Mr. Obama, a big sports fan, was asked if he was happy that the Chicago Cubs were going to the World Series. Mr. Obama appeared to have some trouble getting “yes” out.
“To see just how happy everybody was, I actually felt pretty good. I am rooting for hometown team even though it is not my team,” said Obama, whose favorite team is the cross-town Chicago White Sox.
Comedian Bill Murray is a big Cubs fan, and Mr. Obama told of his recent visit to the White House. He said they had a putting contest in the Oval Office and Murray won $5 from him.
“He won repeatedly,” Mr. Obama said. “The glass was rigged.”
Despite the high pressures of the presidency, Mr. Obama admitted it’s rare for aides to wake him up in the middle of the night. The most serious problems are usually anticipated. He used the question to take another dig at Trump, saying “What I don’t do at 3 a.m., I don’t tweet about people who insulted me.”
Kimmel then asked Obama if he ever laughed during the debates when watching the GOP nominee. “Most of the time,” Mr. Obama said.
Kimmel also asked why people don’t trust Clinton. Mr. Obama chalked it up to being in the trenches for 30 years. He said when people are in the public eye that long, people try to find weak spots and “a whole narrative begins to build.” He described Clinton’s brand of politics as “pragmatic.”
Kimmel said he knew Mr. Obama had to leave, but he asked if the first lady could stay for another four years. Mr. Obama said his wife was never wild about politics. “All the women in my life are looking forward to being able to lead a more normal life.”
CBS News’ Emily Schultheis contributed to this report.