[Harlow:] Welcome back to NEW DAY. Don Lemon with me. Good morning.
[Lemon:] Hi, Poppy Harlow.
[Harlow:] You awake?
[Lemon:] How you doing? Almost I'll be awake around 10:00 and the show will be over then.
[Harlow:] There you go. I'll be sleeping. President Barack Obama sitting down for a fascinating interview with his former senior adviser and CNN senior political director and CNN commentator David Axelrod. They talked about, of course, the 2016 election and what the president plans to do after January 20th.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] I have to be quiet for a while. And I don't mean politically, I mean internally. I have to still myself. Now, that doesn't mean that if a year from now or a year and one-half from now or two years from now there is an issue of such moment, such import, that isn't just a debate about a particular tax bill or a particular policy, but goes to some foundational issues about our democracy that I might not weigh in.
[Harlow:] For more on this interview let's bring in CNN historian Douglas Brinkley. Good morning to you, merry, merry. I hope you had a good holiday. I'd love your
[Douglas Brinkley, Cnn Presidential Historian:] I did.
[Harlow:] I'd love good I'd love your take on that because he actually said he's going to take Michelle, the first lady, for a long, nice vacation. They all deserve it.
[Lemon:] Yes.
[Harlow:] But he's absolutely leaving the door open. This is clearly not going to be like George W. Bush. He is saying, basically, that if there are things that I fundamentally disagree with you're going to hear from me.
[Brinkley:] Well, that's right, Poppy, and he gave it about two-year or year and one-half framework when he might intervene. In the meantime, he has to fundraise, build his Obama library in Chicago. That's a huge enterprise. And he's also going to write a memoir. He'll probably get about $20 million for writing a book. I once spoke to the president about his memoir and we were talking about Ulysses S. Grant, who has done a great book that was about Grant and the Civil War. But he found no president had ever done the kind of memoir that he wanted wants to write. A book like Dean Acheson's "Present at the Creation" or George Kennan's memoir, kind of a Pulitzer prize-winning book. So I think he's going to do that and then spend some time golfing at Rancho Mirage, reconnect with Hawaii and as he said, find himself. It's hard to detox, to come down really after eight years of having to live in a kind of hour-by-hour crisis mode.
[Lemon:] Yes, and he spoke about, you know, he's going to golf in his retirement, I think in Hawaii. He said that to our troops. Listen, as the first African-American president, of course, tolerance is really important for this president. He's confident of his vision of America, one of tolerance and diversity. Of course, diversity important as well. But he suggested, though, which I thought was interesting, David, that if he ran again that he could win. Listen to this.
[B. Obama:] In the wake of the election and Trump winning, a lot of people have suggested that somehow it really was a fantasy. What I would argue is, is that the culture actually did shift. That the majority does buy into the notion of a one America that is tolerant and diverse. I am confident in this vision because I'm confident that if I if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could've mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it.
[Lemon:] If you if you watch that interview if you'd been watching politics play out over the last almost two years or so you would say that we are divided. He doesn't think so. He says mostly he believes America speaks with one voice and that is one of tolerance and diversity, and that the culture did shift. Do you agree?
[Brinkley:] To a degree I do but look, basically what he just said is saying Hillary Clinton ran a bad campaign.
[Harlow:] Yes.
[Brinkley:] If I was in there I could've won. And look, he was amazing at the close of the campaign. It was we were using that big word unprecedented yet again. That Barack Obama coming in there and giving speeches in North Carolina and Michigan and getting behind Hillary Clinton. So, very likely, he could've beaten Donald Trump in the Midwest he'd won two previous times. So I think he just feels that very strongly and recognizes that a lot of white Americans voted for an African-American two times and they would have voted a third if they could have third time if they could have.
[Harlow:] You know, one thing that we're certainly seeing now is, you know, questions about where this one president at a time practice has gone. You know, all the way back in 2001, George W. Bush, then president-elect, said this. "We have one president and we'll have one president, and the current president is President Clinton, and our nation must speak with one voice." Then you had President Obama abiding by that as well in 2008 before he took over when asked about things like the Gaza War. He said basically I defer to the sitting president. That has been turned on its head with President-elect Trump from the call with the Taiwanese president to what he tweeted about Israel and the United Nations' decision at the end of last week and Netanyahu. You know not to mention the China drone. What does this mean for sort of this practice moving forward and does it confuse our allies and our adversaries?
[Brinkley:] I think it's very confusing and I think it's very wrong- minded of Donald Trump to be doing this. Look, there are different strategies of transition but one you don't want to do is be a big- mouthing, big-footing a sitting president, basically saying ignore anything America does or says for the next month because I'm coming in new management in town and just don't listen to President Obama. I don't think Donald Trump, four years from now if he didn't get reelected or even eight years, would appreciate somebody coming in and acting that. But we've seen this is Donald Trump's style. He does things differently. I find it troubling but it's nothing I'm not going to be able to stop him from doing it.
[Harlow:] Yes. Sean Spicer, his incoming White House press secretary, said look, this is a man who does not hold back and he's getting things done. That was his take. Douglas Brinkley, nice to have you on. Thank you.
[Brinkley:] Thank you.
[Harlow:] It has been quite a year, right?
[Lemon:] To say the least.
[Harlow:] It's been a year like no other. We are taking a look back at all of it all week. Up next, we will bring you the top 10 stories in the political world over 2016.
[Lemon:] To say the least.