Josh Earnest gives Democrats his advice on The Takeout podcast

President Barack Obama's former press secretary Josh Earnest has some advice for Democrats: find new voices.

"If Democrats are in a situation in 2018 where the leading voice of our party is the former president of the United States, we are going to have some trouble," Earnest said. "We are going to need other Democrats to step forward whether that's congressional leaders, whether that is elected officials. It's going to be multiple people – multiple somebodies – who need to assume that responsibility."

Earnest's comments were made on a special edition of "The Takeout" podcast, recorded just before the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday.  The full episode is available Monday morning on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play.

Earnest told hosts Major Garrett and Steve Chaggaris of CBS News and Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic he does not regularly watch current White House press secretary Sean Spicer's daily briefings.

 "Well, it's just a different thing now," Earnest said.  "It's sort of like there are times when it's hard to look at pictures from high school. Like you have good memories. They seem better in your memory than they do in real life. So you'd rather just keep the memory than have the whole thing eradicated by turning on television."

President Trump is a regular viewer of Spicer's briefings. But when Earnest was offered the job as White House spokesman, President Obama assured him he would not watch.

"I think he wanted it to be a relief to me," Earnest said. 

For more from Earnest's conversation with CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett, The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg and CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris, listen to "The Takeout" podcast, available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and CBSNews.com. And follow "The Takeout" on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @TakeoutPodcast.