Obama also spoke about how, as president, he tried to focus on the “ties that bind us together.” Following the 2015 Charleston church shootings, for example, he steered clear of discussing the racist motive or using the murders to attack his political opponents. Obama also praised Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, for his efforts to bring the country together after Kirk’s killing.

But, he said, Trump is not taking that approach.

“When I hear not just our current president, but his aides, who have a history of calling political opponents ‘vermin,’ enemies who need to be ‘targeted,’ that speaks to a broader problem that we have right now and something that we’re going to have to grapple with, all of us,” Obama said, calling what the U.S. is going through a “political crisis.”