Speaking of reality TV,
I don't know if you saw "Celebrity Apprentice."
It's a great show, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
Has Donald Trump called you for advice
or talked to you at all?
And first of all, you've given him
Yeah.
But has he called and talked to you?
No.
No, he hasn't. No.
No.
Not that I know of. No.
Do you think the Republicans
are happy with their choice?
We are, but I don't know how --
[ Laughter ]
I don't know how they're feeling.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Actually, you know what?
[ Chuckles ]
That was too easy.
But, the truth is, actually,
I am worried about the Republican Party.
And I know that sounds...
Yeah.
You know what it sounds like.
Yeah.
But democracy works, this country works
when you have two parties that are serious
and trying to solve problems.
And they've got philosophical differences
and they have fierce debates
and they argue
and they contest elections.
But at the end of the day, what you want
is a healthy two-party system.
And you want the Republican nominee
to be somebody who could do the job if they win.
And you want folks who understand the issues
and where you can sit across the table from them
and you have a principled argument
and ultimately can still move the country forward.
So I actually am not enjoying,
and I haven't been enjoying over the last seven years,
watching some of the things
that have happened in the Republican Party
'cause there's some good people in the Republican Party.
There are wonderful Republicans out in the country
who want what's best for the country
and may disagree with me on some things
but are good, decent people.
But what's happened in that party,
culminating in this current nomination, I think,
is not actually good for the country as a whole.
It's not something Democrats should wish for.
And my hope is that
maybe once you get through this cycle,
there's some corrective action
and they get back to being a center-right party
and the Democratic Party being a center-left party
and we start figuring out how to work together.
Was it harder for you going in as President
and realizing, well, "People are gonna go,
like, not work with me"?
"The Republicans are not gonna work with me."
It exceeded my expectations
because when I came in, we were in the middle of crisis.
And usually, your hope is that, all right,
we can play political games,
but when stuff is serious,
when we're losing 800,000 jobs a month,
when we've got 180,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq
that we're going to buckle down here for a second,
put the politics aside and just get stuff done.
And that did not happen.
Like, what's the Supreme Court thing?
What's happening with that?
Because I know there's a seat that needs to be filled.
So there's a good case in point.
The Supreme Court makes the law,
interprets the law of the land,
and it's binding all across the country.
And right now,
we're supposed to have nine Supreme Court justices
because...
You know, the passing of Justice Scalia,
we only have eight.
And so it's hard
for the Supreme Court to do its job.
Now, I've nominated somebody who, uniformly,
everybody, including Republicans,
acknowledges is probably one of the most qualified guys
who's ever been nominated for the seat, Merrick Garland.
Merrick Garland.
Very common name.
[ Chuckles ]
He's the chief judge of probably
the second-most important court in the land.
He's been a judge longer
than many of the judges
who are now justices on the Supreme Court.
Republicans in the past have said
he has impeccable credentials,
he's smart, he's got a good temperament,
he knows how to work
with people from all political spectrums.
But some of them won't even meet with them,
and so far, at least,
they haven't given him a hearing.
And that's an example
of where if the process of democracy
starts breaking down to that degree
where you can't even show the courtesy
of meeting with a guy who you know is qualified
and you won't give him a hearing
because you want to wait
and see if maybe your guy wins the election
and nominates somebody,
then you start seeing the court system breaking down.
You start seeing vacancies.
People can't get access to the courts.
And you see the country start dividing
in ways that's really unhealthy.
So that's a good example of my hope
that the Republican Party steps back and reflects
and says, "You know what?
That's not the way we should be doing business
because we don't want Democrats to be doing business
if we have a Republican president."
Like, would you ever think to do that job?
Because you're a lawyer.
Can you appoint yourself?
[ Laughing ] Yeah.
No.
Aren't you happy I'm not in the White House?
I am.
Yeah.
I just have bad ideas.
I mean, I look pretty good in a robe.
But it's not something that I think
is the best way for me to use my time
after I get out of office.