Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel reacted to 2016 audio of 2020 Democratic presidential candidate former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg calling his endorsement of former President Barack Obama, who Emanuel served as chief of staff for, a “backhanded” endorsement.

With Bloomberg’s remarks about Obama and other 2020 Democratic candidates taking shots at the former president’s policy in previous debates, Emanuel said attacking Obama is “not exactly the way to the nomination.”

“[Bloomberg] is going to have to defend it,” Emanuel told host Ed Henry. “Bernie may get asked about the idea that he wanted to primary Barack Obama. If you go back about seven debates, as you remember, one of the big uproars was the fact that almost every candidate was throwing Barack Obama under the bus. So, a lot of them have to explain, given that the former president — not just with Democrats at 95%, he was well-received among the country as a whole.”

“[T]he idea of attacking the former president who was really popular … not exactly the way to the nomination,” he added.

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent