In an interview with CBS, President Barack Obama admitted that he was surprised by the rise of presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. But that surprise only goes so far, he said, because at this point in the electoral process, voters are behaving more passionately than practically. The pre-recorded interview aired on Tuesday.

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"Well, look, there’s no doubt I would have been surprised," Obama said. "I always have to remind people that this is really early in the process. Early on, often times, voters want to just vent and vote their passions."

While Obama has not made an official endorsement of a presidential candidate, he has implied in recent interviews that he supports former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In his conversation with CBS reporter Gayle King on Sunday, the president appeared to reinforce his doubts about Sanders and surprise at Trump's appeal among Republican voters.

"As the process goes on and people see how they react, I think they recognize that this is a pretty serious job and you’ve got to make sure that the person who’s in the job is somebody who has the judgment to lead and not just to mouth slogans," Obama said.

By contrast, Obama has described Clinton in past interviews as a "tough" politician who recognizes that "translating values into governance and delivering the goods is ultimately the job of politics, making a real-life difference to people in their day-to-day lives." The president seemed to cast doubt on the idea that Sanders would be able to achieve what Clinton could, given her ability to translate ideology into policy.

Watch the full interview from CBS This Morning here.

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