President-elect Barack Obama and Michelle Obama sit down for an exclusive interview with Barbara Walters.
(George Burns for ABC News)
Executives at many of Wall Street's top firms, including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, have, in recent days, laid off scores of workers and announced they would forgo Christmas bonuses, a policy the incoming president indicated he wanted to see more of.
Asked by Walters if bank executives should forgo their bonuses, Obama said, "I think they should."
"That's an example of taking responsibility. I think that if you are already worth tens of millions of dollars, and you are having to lay off workers, the least you can do is say, 'I'm willing to make some sacrifice as well, because I recognize that there are people who are a lot less well off, who are going through some pretty tough times,'" the president-elect added.
In a lengthy interview that touched on a broad range of topics from the economy and troop deployments in Afghanistan, to Thanksgiving plans with his family, Obama talked about many of the personal adjustment he, his wife Michelle, and their two children will make when they move into the White House on Jan. 20.
Obama, who will become the nation's first black president, shrugged off any suggestion that his history making role put him in any added danger.
His historic victory has prompted online streams of racial hatred and several arrests because of threats to his safety.
Obama told Walters that he does not allow a sense of menace to rattle him and that he simply ignores it.
"I don't think about it partly because I've got this pretty terrific crew of Secret Service guys that follow me everywhere I go," he said.
"But also because, you know, I have a deep religious faith, and a faith in people that, you know, carries me through the day. And my job is just to make sure I'm doing my job, and if I do I can't worry about that kind of stuff," he told Walters.
Even before the presidential campaign began, Obama's wife Michelle had openly worried about the added danger that her husband's candidacy might draw because of his race. She fretted on "60 Minutes" earlier this year that "as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station."
Obama won't be going to a gas station for at least the next four years, but all presidents face an inherent danger because of their position and their policies.
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