Interviewed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Thursday, former president Barack Obama was asked by Kimmel if there was anywhere President Trump could hide in the White House. Obama replied, “Well, I think we can always send the Navy SEALs in there to dig him out.”
Kimmel began the interview by crooning, “We miss you. Why did you leave us with him?”
Obama answered, “I’ve got to follow the Constitution and Michelle’s mandate, which was eight years and then we had to get out of there.”
Kimmel stated, “The Constitution seems a little shaky lately, so I think Michelle’s mandate is a lot stronger.”
Later, Kimmel prompted Obama’s “Navy SEALs” remark by asking, “Do you feel that when you congratulated Biden and Senator Harris that you were premature in doing that?”
“No,” Obama laughed. “I thought I was right on time. There seems to be some lag … the communications system in the White House used to be better; it was real time. There’s a lot of computers there that actually tell you what’s going on around the world.”
Kimmel said, “You know the White House well. You lived there for eight years. Are there places someone could hide? Like, if, say, they were going to be removed? Are there little cubby holes or anything that you know about?”
Obama replied, “Well, I think we can always send the Navy SEALs in there to dig him out.”
After the election, the Trump campaign released a statement saying they were not immediately accepting the results, arguing, “This election is not over.” A spokesperson for Joe Biden reportedly replied: “The United States government is capable of escorting trespassers from the White House.”
In June, Biden said the military would take Trump out of the White House if he refused to leave, saying, “I’m absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch.”
But Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress, “I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military. In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. military. I foresee no role for the U.S armed forces in this process.”
Referring to Gen. Milley, Axios reported on the eve of the November 3 election: “The nation’s top military official set up Saturday’s highly unusual call to make clear that the military’s role is apolitical, one of the sources said — and to dispel any notion of a role for the military in adjudicating a disputed election or making any decision around removing a president from the White House. Milley told the anchors that the U.S. military would have no role whatsoever in a peaceful transfer of power, one source added.”
Video of Kimmel and Obama below: