I don't know if you saw "Celebrity Apprentice."

I did.

It's a great show, yeah.

[ Laughter ]

Has Donald Trump called you for advice

or talked to you at all?

And first of all, you've given him

some pretty good advice so far if you have.

Yeah.

But has he called and talked to you?

I would call you if I was running.

No.

No, he hasn't. No.

No.

No.

Not that I know of. No.

Do you think the Republicans

are happy with their choice?

We are, but I don't know how --

[ Laughter ]

I don't know how they're feeling.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Actually, you know what?

[ Chuckles ]

That was too easy.

But, the truth is, actually,

I am worried about the Republican Party.

And I know that sounds...

You know.

Yeah.

You know what it sounds like.

Yeah.

But democracy works, this country works

when you have two parties that are serious

and trying to solve problems.

And they've got philosophical differences

and they have fierce debates

and they argue

and they contest elections.

But at the end of the day, what you want

is a healthy two-party system.

And you want the Republican nominee

to be somebody who could do the job if they win.

And you want folks who understand the issues

and where you can sit across the table from them

and you have a principled argument

and ultimately can still move the country forward.

So I actually am not enjoying,

and I haven't been enjoying over the last seven years,

watching some of the things

that have happened in the Republican Party

'cause there's some good people in the Republican Party.

There are wonderful Republicans out in the country

who want what's best for the country

and may disagree with me on some things

but are good, decent people.

But what's happened in that party,

culminating in this current nomination, I think,

is not actually good for the country as a whole.

It's not something Democrats should wish for.

And my hope is that

maybe once you get through this cycle,

there's some corrective action

and they get back to being a center-right party

and the Democratic Party being a center-left party

and we start figuring out how to work together.

Was it harder for you going in as President

and realizing, well, "People are gonna go,

like, not work with me"?

"The Republicans are not gonna work with me."

It exceeded my expectations

because when I came in, we were in the middle of crisis.

And usually, your hope is that, all right,

we can play political games,

but when stuff is serious,

when we're losing 800,000 jobs a month,

when we've got 180,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq

that we're going to buckle down here for a second,

put the politics aside and just get stuff done.

And that did not happen.

Like, what's the Supreme Court thing?

What's happening with that?

Because I know there's a seat that needs to be filled.

So there's a good case in point.

The Supreme Court makes the law,

interprets the law of the land,

and it's binding all across the country.

And right now,

we're supposed to have nine Supreme Court justices

because...

You know, the passing of Justice Scalia,

we only have eight.

And so it's hard

for the Supreme Court to do its job.

Now, I've nominated somebody who, uniformly,

everybody, including Republicans,

acknowledges is probably one of the most qualified guys

who's ever been nominated for the seat, Merrick Garland.

Merrick Garland.

Merrick Garland.

Very common name.

[ Chuckles ]

He's the chief judge of probably

the second-most important court in the land.

He's been a judge longer

than many of the judges

who are now justices on the Supreme Court.

Republicans in the past have said

he has impeccable credentials,

he's smart, he's got a good temperament,

he knows how to work

with people from all political spectrums.

But some of them won't even meet with them,

and so far, at least,

they haven't given him a hearing.

And that's an example

of where if the process of democracy

starts breaking down to that degree

where you can't even show the courtesy

of meeting with a guy who you know is qualified

and you won't give him a hearing

because you want to wait

and see if maybe your guy wins the election

and nominates somebody,

then you start seeing the court system breaking down.

You start seeing vacancies.

People can't get access to the courts.

And you see the country start dividing

in ways that's really unhealthy.

So that's a good example of my hope

that the Republican Party steps back and reflects

and says, "You know what?

That's not the way we should be doing business

because we don't want Democrats to be doing business

if we have a Republican president."

Like, would you ever think to do that job?

Because you're a lawyer.

Can you appoint yourself?

Appoint myself?

[ Laughing ] Yeah.

[ Laughter ]

No.

You know --

Aren't you happy I'm not in the White House?

I am.

Bad ideas.

Yeah.

[ Laughs ]

I just have bad ideas.

I mean, I look pretty good in a robe.

But it's not something that I think

is the best way for me to use my time

after I get out of office.