ON POLITICS

Obama says he's worried about Trump's knowledge of issues

Eliza Collins
USA TODAY
President Obama is pictured July 22, 2016.

President Obama is worried about Donald Trump becoming president because there are a lot of things “that he doesn’t know and hasn’t seemed to spend a lot of time trying to find out about.”

Obama spoke to NBC in an interview that aired Wednesday morning (the same day he will speak at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia), and he was asked if he found the prospect of Donald Trump having access to the nuclear codes frightening.

“Set aside the nuclear codes. What I think is scary is a president who doesn’t know their stuff and doesn’t seem to have interest in learning what they don't know,” Obama said. “Basic knowledge about the world or what a nuclear triad is or where various countries are or the difference between Sunni and Shia in the Muslim world. And those are things that he doesn’t know and hasn’t seemed to spend a lot of time trying to find out about.”

But does he actually think the Republican nominee could win?

“Anything is possible. It is the nature of democracy. But until those votes are cast and until the American people have their say, we don’t know,” Obama said. He added that his advice to Democrats (though he added Hillary Clinton already knows this) is to “stay worried until all those votes are cast and counted.”

“I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stuff happen, and I think everybody who goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing,” Obama said.

In convention speech, Obama to make case for a third term of his policies