“I should’ve anticipated the optics,” Obama said in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” set to air Sunday.

“Part of this job is also the theater of it,” Obama said, adding that “it’s not something that always comes naturally to me. But it matters.”…

“The possibility of a jarring contrast, given the world’s news, is always — there’s always going to be some tough news somewhere — is going to be there,” Obama said. “I think everybody who knows me, including, I suspect, the press, understands that that, you know, you take this stuff in. And it’s serious business. And you care about it deeply.”