Obama claims Democrats face greater governing challenges than Republicans in current political climate

He added, "Tearing stuff down doesn't require all that."

The former president said Republicans were unraveling a set of rules and norms that were already in place, and that it's easy to do.

Obama explained that the filibuster in the Senate frustrated him as president, and said Democrats had been trying to preserve something that in some ways blocks the government from being effective.

Obama said he didn't think Democrats should "duplicate" the behavior of Republicans but argued they shouldn't cling to traditions either.

"I don't want us to simply duplicate the behavior of the other side. I don't want us to have a slash-and-burn strategy where we don't care about rule of law. We don't care about some of the guardrails around our democracy. We start lying and having no regard for the truth the way the other side seems to be comfortable with right now, because if that's how we fight, then we lose what we're fighting for. But that doesn't mean we have to get punked or be saps. And I do, or to cling to traditions just for the sake of tradition," he said.

"They're real, but I haven't seen them," Obama said.