Barack Obama recently opened up about how he handled “somewhat inappropriate” sexual advances from women during his presidency and how he maneuvered on a “straight and narrow path” at the time.
Per HuffPost, Obama, 63, touched on that topic while speaking on The Pivot Podcast. The former president jokingly said that though he knew he was famous, he “was not tripping” from that kind of temptation.
One of the podcast’s co-hosts, Channing Crowder – a former NFL player – initiated the topic by stating how he “got a little cuter” after being drafted into the league. “Do women be hollering at you and stuff, like on the fact that, because you’re a good-looking dude, but now you’re ‘President Good Looking Dude,’” he asked Obama on a lighter note.
“First of all, I don’t know if Michelle’s going to be watching this,” Obama jokingly said. The 63-year-old, however, noted that his case was different because the women started hitting on him in his later years.
“The truth is, you guys as NFL players and athletes generally … y’all get famous young, at a time when the attention that you’re talking about may be flattering, fun, what have you,” Obama explained. “By the time people really knew who I was, I was 43 years old. I was married, had two kids, had gone grocery shopping, had washed my car. I was a regular guy in that sense.”
Obama and his wife Michelle tied the knot in 1992, and they share two daughters, Malia and Sasha. The 63-year-old was an Illinois state governor before making history in 2008 when he became the first Black U.S. president. He also achieved that feat at the age of 47.
“That kind of attention, by the time I got it, I was not tripping on it. There are times where women have acted in somewhat inappropriate ways. There are pictures on the internet of women grabbing my butt, and I was president at the time,” Obama stated.
He also said the Secret Service supposedly did not step in during those encounters because those women were “like old ladies and stuff, so they’re not going to wrestle them down on the ground.”
Obama noted that he managed to remain focused because of his family. “My wife is such an extraordinary woman, such an amazing partner, that you just try to stay focused, stay on the straight and narrow,” he said. “And also, look, kids change your life. The idea of disappointing your kids is something that, I ain’t going there.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Obama also touched on the presidential election and why Vice President Kamala Harris should be picked over Donald Trump. “Things can get worse or they can get better. I think right now we’ve got a really stark choice, and I think Kamala Harris will be an excellent president, and I think Donald Trump has already proved he was not a very good president. And that should be enough,” he said.
Obama additionally highlighted how Trump dealt with the coronavirus pandemic and his “well-documented” comments and reception toward minorities, HuffPost reported.
“This is somebody who has a history of looking down and disparaging people who don’t look like him,” he said about Trump. “How is he going to represent me if he does not think that I am worthy of the same kind of representation as his kids? And from there you look at specific issues.”
