President Obama Says He Could Have Beat Donald Trump For A Third Term

President Obama stopped in to the Axe Files, the podcast hosted by his former campaign advisor David Axelrod, for a wide-ranging interview reflecting on his years in office and his journey in American politics in general.

During the interview, the conversation turned toward the election, at which point President Obama expressed that he believed that, hypothetically, he could have defeated Donald Trump in this year's presidential election, were he able to campaign for a third term:

“I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” said Obama, contrasting his vision for the future of America's with Trump's.

"I know that in conversations that I've had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would say the vision, the direction that you point towards is the right one," continued Obama.

Obama and Axelrod also discussed some of the difficulties Hillary Clinton faced throughout her presidential campaign. "I think there was a double standard with her," said Obama. “For whatever reason, there’s been a longstanding difficulty in her relationship with the press that meant her flaws were wildly amplified," he said.

Naturally, president-elect Trump has already hopped on Twitter to send some shots back. “President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me,” tweeted Trump earlier today. “He should say that but I say NO WAY! — jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.”

Read the full transcript of the interview here via CNN, and read a brief summary here from The New York Times.