“I have no doubt there are people who voted against me because of race … or didn’t approve of my agenda because of race,” Obama said in an interview published Thursday by the Chicago Tribune. | AP Photo Obama opens up about role of race in his 2008 election win

President Barack Obama believes some Americans voted against him because of his race. But he also thinks a number of people backed him in 2008 because his would be a historic presidency.

“I have no doubt there are people who voted against me because of race … or didn’t approve of my agenda because of race,” Obama said in an interview published Thursday by the Chicago Tribune. “I also suspect there are a bunch of people who are excited or voted for me because of the notion of the first African-American president … Those things cut both ways.”


Obama, facing his final year in the White House, hopes to have set “a tone for the next president” that’s not as harsh as the rhetoric heard on the campaign trail. Donald Trump, for example, has called for a temporary ban on Muslims traveling to the U.S. and a wall on the southern border to keep out Mexican immigrants. The president has alluded to the billionaire businessman’s controversial proposals in a number of speeches, urging Americans not to play into those fears.

“There’s no doubt there are pockets of the country where some dog whistles blow and there’s underlying racial fears that may be exploited,” Obama said.

He compared his battle to push through health care reform with former President Bill Clinton’s, suggesting that Republicans didn’t oppose his Affordable Care Act simply because he was black. The Clintons “got beat up just as good,” Obama recalled, “and they didn’t even get the thing done.”

But he has also admitted that he feels some responsibility for the hyperpartisan politics, calling that his biggest regret during his State of the Union address last month.

“There is no doubt that every step of the way, every day that I’m in that office, maybe I could have done that a little better,” he acknowledged in the interview published Thursday.

Obama didn’t just harp on the negatives. He also embraced the positivity of his presidency and the role it will play going forward.

“You’ve got a whole generation of kids growing up where the first president they’ve known is an African-American. Even if they’re hearing their parents say he’s terrible, it kind of seeps in that it’s not a crazy thing,” Obama said. “So that sometime later, if there’s a Hispanic, or a woman or another African-American, that won’t seem as exceptional. These things change over time.”

When his presidency is all said and done, Obama hopes people will look back on his eight years and realize he wasn’t a bad guy. “Some of our most revered presidents were hugely polarizing,” he said. “People cussed ‘em, called them everything but a child of God. I suspect that when I’m done being president, suddenly people will start saying, ‘Oh, you know that guy, he wasn’t a bad guy.’”