Inside Barack Obama's Retreat From Life In The Public Eye

Political observers have been asking, "Where is Barack Obama?" as President Trump works hard to dismantle the former president's legacy, from climate change to health care.

But, as New York Magazine national correspondent Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson, Obama "realizes how polarizing his presence on the stage can be these days, especially given that Trump is driving the news so much."

"He's very wary of getting out there and speaking up against Trump, and essentially turning everything into an Obama vs. Trump fight that does little more than — sure it might energize the left. But what he's worried that it'll do is really consolidate Republicans around Donald Trump and increase Trump's support, and turn everything into a pretty nasty left vs. right fight."

On what Obama is up to

"The short answer is he lives in Washington still with his wife and his younger daughter. He has a new home and a new office. He's writing a book, working on his foundation and being very, very intentional about not weighing in every single day on the daily Trump mess, much to the chagrin of a number of Democrats who want to see more of it."

On why he's being quiet

"I want to be very clear that this is very intentional. He was always going to do this, but this is something that he thinks about constantly. Basically the first thing that he says to folks is, No. 1, he wants to respect the office of the presidency and the peaceful transfer of power. He wants to do what George W. Bush did for him, and, essentially, not weigh in when the following president, who was democratically elected, does something that you don't agree with. The second part of it is that he wants to make sure that there's space in the national conversation for up-and-coming Democratic or left-leaning leaders to take that space. And he figures that if he's constantly out there talking about Donald Trump, it leaves very little oxygen for other leaders, including some who might run for president in 2020, to step up and to really develop their own message."

"He's very wary of getting out there and speaking up against Trump, and essentially turning everything into an Obama vs. Trump fight."

Gabriel Debenedetti

On times when President Trump has attacked Obama personally

"Interestingly enough, when he does that, those are the times that Obama stays most quiet. He essentially says to folks who try to talk to him about it, 'Listen I don't want to talk about this. I can't influence him. What's the point of talking about this? It's just going to waste my time. I have to be very intentional with my time.' When Trump tweets about him, Obama is known to sort of laugh and change the subject. But when he does weigh in, it's really when real people are being affected. So, he does weigh in on occasion. He has played a slightly behind-the-scenes role in trying to save the Affordable Care Act, for example. But for the most part, his public statements have come when he is really upset by a large policy decision that he thinks is going to affect Americans' day-to-day lives, whether it's pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, he finally made a statement late last week on the family separations at the border. He essentially is trying to weigh in, but only very carefully, and only, sometimes, without ever using the name Donald Trump."

On moments that have troubled Obama

"I don't think it's all that controversial to say that there have been a number of moments that have really troubled him, but one that was very interesting that I learned about was when President Trump gave his speech to the Boy Scouts of America last July, in July of 2017, that is. President Obama was quite troubled by that and told folks that he spoke with at the time, 'Listen, this is not necessarily a massive scandal, but what Trump did is he stood up and gave a very divisive speech in front of the young leaders, rising leaders of America.' He spoke about politics and little else, spoke about how terrible Obamacare was. And what Obama said is, 'These people are sponges at this at this age. They take in whatever is told to them, particularly from a supposed role model and supposed leader, and we should be teaching them lessons of leadership and civility and citizenship.'

"A big part of what Obama is dedicating his time to these days is trying to train and support up-and-coming leaders. That's essentially what his foundation is designed to do, for example, and that's something that he's long talked about. So for him, that was a particularly painful moment, but it was also a moment when he felt that he simply could not weigh in because that would be yet another partisan moment if he did weigh in. And the last thing that he wanted is to turn the Boy Scouts into a partisan battlefield."

"When Trump tweets about him, Obama is known to sort of laugh and change the subject. But when he does weigh in, it's really when real people are being affected."

Gabriel Debenedetti

On politicians Obama has publicly backed

"He's spoken publicly about quite a few people who he thinks could be people who could represent the future of the left, whether it's someone like Sens. Tim Kaine, Michael Bennet, Kamala Harris. He's identified Jason Kander, the former Missouri secretary of state, people like that who he's publicly said he thinks of as future leaders. But one thing that he's been doing that's very interesting is meeting with a number of folks who might run for president in 2020. A lot of them have sort of called his office and said, 'Can we sit down with him and ask him for some advice?' And he's certainly not saying, 'Here's where you need to go in Iowa, here's where you need to go in New Hampshire.' But he's talking with a lot of them about the future of the left, in broad terms, what it takes personally to run for president, what kind of a toll it takes on you. And he's talked to quite a big variety of people, whether it's Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. It's a long list. And one of the interesting things here is that while it doesn't seem that he's going to weigh in in any strong way in the early part of the Democratic primary in 2020, he has spoken with some people who've been quite critical of him, like Elizabeth Warren, of course, of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont. And then he has three fairly close friends who may consider running: Joe Biden, Eric Holder and Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts."