"Everything that we've done over the last eight years will be reversed with a Trump presidency," Barack Obama said. | Getty Obama contrasts Clinton, Trump approach to race relations

President Barack Obama cast Donald Trump as lacking "basic standards of decency" and Hillary Clinton as a positive agent on issues of criminal justice and civil rights in an interview Friday amid Democratic concerns over African-American voter turnout heading into Election Day.

During an interview with civil rights activist and "PoliticsNation" host Rev. Al Sharpton airing in part on MSNBC Friday, Obama touted his administration's advances on race relations while stressing the need to continue the fight over the incarceration and sentencing of non-violent drug offenders.


"We have reinvigorated the office of the pardon attorney in the Justice Department so that continuously, we can review people who have gotten overly harsh sentences for non-violent drug offenses. That I think we can sustain," he said. "Ultimately what I would like to see is Congress pass criminal justice reform legislation that would systematically lower the prison time for non-violent drug offenses."

Citing voting rights and community and police relations as keys toward enhancing the lives of African-Americans and other minorities, Obama said that while Clinton would further build on those aims, Trump would seek to undermine them.

"The good news is Hillary Clinton has signed up for all these issues. She is prepared to do it. She has the background to do it," he said. "Mr. Trump has an entirely different approach. His attitude is to drum up fear and suggest somehow that we're in the midst of this crime wave when in fact crime today is as low as it has been since the 1960s."

Obama, who has frequently said his legacy is on the ballot in the form of Clinton's candidacy, again blasted Trump as "unfit" for the presidency and warned of the dangers of electing the Republican nominee.

"If you think that I've done a good job, if you believe that Michelle has done a good job, everything that we've done over the last eight years will be reversed with a Trump presidency," he said. "And everything will be sustained and built on with a Hillary Clinton presidency."

The president's statements come as the Clinton campaign has been making a final blitz to try to boost minority voter turnout, amid concerns that several battleground states, such as Florida and North Carolina, may hinge on turnout.

Asked by Sharpton why he felt support among African-Americans was still wavering despite his pleas, Obama said many might still be surprised by Trump's unprecedented presidential run.

"I think a lot of people still can't believe that Donald Trump would be elected president," he said. "There may be a complacency setting in."

The president also addressed Trump's candidacy being openly backed by white nationalists, neo-Nazis and organizations affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, saying it's not the support that bothered him, but Trump's hesitation to distance himself from it, as well as his comments about minorities on the campaign trail.

"I've been critical not that somebody decides to support him, but the fact that he doesn't immediately disown that support," Obama said. "And sends a signal that he is OK with discrimination against minorities, that he is OK or sympathetic with respect to discrimination toward Muslims. You know, these are things that he says on an ongoing basis, comments that would have once been considered completely disqualifying by a Democratic or a Republican candidate."

Trump earned widespread condemnation in February for not immediately distancing himself from former KKK leader David Duke. He has since openly repudiated Duke's endorsement.

The remainder of Obama's interview with Sharpton will appear Sunday on MSNBC's "PoliticsNation."