White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday that President Obama not only acknowledged that the presidential race is very close but also is not taking a Hillary Clinton victory for granted.
A reporter asked Earnest at the White House daily press briefing about the close state of the race, noting that Obama said at a fundraiser earlier this week the contest should not be so tight.
"He said that this race should not be close, but it is, and that weird stuff happens because Donald Trump won the primary," the reporter said. "He said many times that he doesn’t think Donald Trump will win the presidency. Given the fact that the polls are tightening, then he said that at this fundraiser, is he now more concerned that he will not be succeeded by a Democrat?"
"I think that the point of the president’s remarks is that he doesn’t want people to be complacent," Earnest said."I think that there’s plenty of evidence that we can point to even today that give the president confidence that his earlier prediction will be correct, but we sure can’t take it for granted."
"And the president himself is not taking it for granted, given how high the stakes are," Earnest added.
He said that given the stakes of the election and how close the race is right now, the public will be able to see Obama working hard on the trail for Clinton.
The president wants to "pass the baton" off to someone who shares his values, Earnest said, which is why Obama will be working hard to help Clinton.
A recent CNN/ORC poll shows that Trump is pulling ahead in key swing states Florida and Ohio. Trump leads Clinton in Ohio with 46 percent support to her 41 percent, according to the poll, while he is beating the Democratic nominee 47 percent to 44 percent in Florida.
The poll also shows that, even though the race is tightening up, Trump’s campaign seems to have more momentum than Clinton’s. Several recent polls, including the CNN/ORC survey, show the election is nationally within the margin of sampling error.