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Former President Barack Obama said the midterm election results suggest that America may actually prefer "normal" over "crazy."
On Thursday night's episode of The Daily Show, Obama sat down with Trevor Noah to discuss the fallout of the midterms, which resulted in the Democrats maintaining control of the Senate, per RollingStone.
“I like to think that part of what happened in this election is people said, ‘OK, you know what, some of this stuff is getting a little too crazy,” Obama said. “It turns out that there is, you know, a majority of the country that does prefer normal, not crazy. And that’s a basis for hope.”
While Noah seemingly hinted at Obama being a major contributing factor to Democratic victories in the election, the former president said he believes the wins stem from the quality of candidates who ran for office.
“The reason we did better than expected can be attributed to not me or anything I did…we recruited some excellent candidates,” he told Noah, mentioning Wes Moore, Josh Shapiro, John Fetterman, and Mark Kelly. “They are committed, passionate, down to earth, they connect with people,” he continued. “And so I come in mainly to shine a spotlight on them.”
Obama also shouted out young voters for participating in the 2022 midterms in a way they hadn't previously.
“Trump comes in, and suddenly 2018, 2020, and now this one, you see young people come in, and they’re typically voting at a rate of 70-to-30, 60-to-40 Democrat to Republican — and that makes a huge difference,” Obama said. “So their enthusiasm is what really drove this election.”
He also addressed how the fundamentals of democracy are being questioned, especially when it comes to elections.
"Democracy requires, by definition, getting along with people who don’t agree with you,” the former president said.
Obama concluded his sit down with Noah, who is set to leave The Daily Show in December, with a quip about the host's approval rating.
“You’re already following one piece of advice that I’ve had — you’re leaving while your poll numbers are high,” Obama said.
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