Barack Obama says he 'could not have been prouder' of daughters Sasha and Malia joining protests

Sasha and Malia Obama were among the thousands of people who took to the streets this summer to protest police brutality, according to their father.

Former President Barack Obama said his daughters felt "the need to participate" in the Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd this summer, in an interview with People published Tuesday about his presidential memoir, "A Promised Land."

Obama said Sasha, 19, and Malia, 22, didn't join in the protests for the attention, but rather "they were very much in organizer mode" and did it of their own volition.

"I didn't have to give them a lot of advice because they had a very clear sense of what was right and what was wrong and (of) their own agency and the power of their voice and the need to participate," Obama said. "Malia and Sasha found their own ways to get involved with the demonstrations and activism that you saw with young people this summer, without any prompting from Michelle and myself, on their own initiative."

He added: "I could not have been prouder of them."

Obama said his daughters came to him for suggestions on what the most effective way to mobilize was and noted their dedication to the cause.

"Their attitude was — we've seen something wrong and we want to fix it, and we think we can fix it. And we understand that it's not gonna take just a day or a week or one march to fix it. But we're in it for the long haul," he said.

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The former president also reflected on the younger generation's drive to dedicate their careers to something that would have a positive impact on the country and said though he doesn't think his daughters will get into politics he does anticipate them to be "active citizens."

"It's interesting when you talk to them in groups, the degree to which, compared to young people when I was coming out of college or you know even 20 years ago, I think people were much more focused on their finances and the perks of a job. And these kids are really focused on — how can I do something that I find meaningful, that resonates with my values and my ideals? And that I think is an encouraging sign for the country."

The first volume of Obama's presidential memoirs, "A Promised Land," which hit shelves Nov. 17, sold more than 887,000 copies (including preorders) across all formats in the U.S. and Canada on its first day of release, publisher Penguin Random House announced Wednesday. It's on track to be the best-selling presidential memoir in modern history.

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Contributing: Barbara VanDenburgh

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Barack Obama says daughters Sasha and Malia joined protests