Obama jokes that Navy SEALs could drag Trump out of the White House

Former President Barack Obama was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, promoting his new memoir A Promised Land. And of course, Kimmel quizzed Obama on his opinion of President Trump's refusal to concede the election to President-Elect Joe Biden.

President Donald Trump is doing all he can to dispute the results of the election. The Trump administration has claimed, without evidence, that widespread voter fraud took place. Trump claimed that “major fraud in our nation” was taking place and promised to challenge the election in the Supreme Court. Yesterday, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani hosted a press conference to propagate these false claims, though people were more interested in his hair dye leaking down his face.

“Why did you leave us with him?” Kimmel asked Obama, who was appearing on the show remotely.

“I had to follow the Constitution and Michelle’s mandate,” Obama explained. “The Constitution seems a little shaky lately. So I think Michelle's mandate is a lot stronger.” 

Kimmel went on to ask: “Do you feel that when you congratulated Biden and Senator Harris that you were premature in doing that?”

“No, I thought I was right on time,” Obama replied. “There seems to be some lag. The communication system in the White House used to be better. It was real time. There were a lot of computers there that actually tell you what is going on around the world.”

Kimmel went on to ask Obama if there were any spots where "someone could hide” in the White House if they were about to be removed.

Obama joked: “Well, I think we can always send the Navy SEALS in there to dig him out.”

“I wish the transition was going better, because we lose time during these crises,” Obama added. “When I came in, we were in the middle of a big crisis, the financial crisis. George W. Bush, he and I had obviously big policy differences, but he’s a good man, he’s a patriot. And he ordered everybody on his team to work seamlessly with us on the transition. Could not have been more gracious, could not have been more helpful. And that actually helped us be able to get a head start on trying to stem what could have been a great depression instead of a great recession.” 

Kimmel went on to ask Obama why his book ends with the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

“Part of the reason I ended the book on the bin Laden raid was, it was also at the time when the whole birther conspiracy was being floated by Donald Trump,” Obama explained. “So, you get the split-screen that I was experiencing during my presidency, where we are planning this huge, risky, difficult operation that involves all the power and technology and skill and courage of the U.S. military and intelligence. And at the same time I’m dealing with a guy who’s saying that I wasn’t born where I was born.”

“It gives you an example of the weirdness of modern politics, where you want the president to be focused on the job, not on a circus,” he added. “But the circus is what a lot of times is dominating the press. And ends up distracting a lot of the White House. And one of the things I always had to do was to try to screen that stuff out to make sure that I’m keeping my eye on the ball.”

“Look, I mean, it would be preposterous except for the fact that it’s the president of the United States retweeting it,” Obama added when asked about the debunked theory. “That’s just not what you want out of a commander-in-chief.” 

Kimmel concluded by asking Obama whether he and First Lady Michelle Obama “made love” on the night that bin Laden was killed.

“When I read the book and you were talking about hearing people outside the White House chanting ‘USA, USA, USA,’ I had an image in my head, I did,” Kimmel joked. 

“I suspect that she was asleep,” Obama replied. “Because the truth of the matter is, most of the time, by the time I was done working, she’d be snoozing.” When Kimmel said he didn’t need to make excuses, his guest replied, “It’s not an excuse, it’s a lament.”

You can watch the full video below.