Former President Barack Obama believes President Joe Biden is “essentially finishing the job” of his presidency.
During an interview with The New York Times released on Tuesday, Obama told the outlet, “I think that what we’re seeing now is Joe Biden and the administration are essentially finishing the job, and I think it’ll be an interesting test. Ninety percent of the folks who are there were there in my administration.”
Obama noted the policies the Biden administration is building on from his administration.
“Whether it’s the Affordable Care Act, or our climate change agenda, and the Paris Peace Accords, and figuring out how do we improve the ladders to mobility through things like community colleges,” the former president said.
He predicted if the Biden administration is successful, “it will have an impact.”
Obama asked, “Does it override the identity politics that has come to dominate Twitter and the media, and that has seeped into how people think about politics?”
He explained, “Probably not completely, but at the margins, look, if you’re changing in five percent of the electorate, that makes a difference.”
NBC News’ Lester Holt asked Biden after he announced cabinet nominees, including several from the Obama administration, “What do you say to those who wonder if you’re trying to create a third Obama term?”
He responded, “This is not a third Obama term. We face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration. President Trump has changed the landscape.”
The president explained his administration wanted to represent the “spectrum of the American people as well as the spectrum of the Democratic party.”
He continued, “I want this country to be united.”