"I have said before that as a former smoker I constantly struggle with it. Have I fallen off the wagon sometimes? Yes," Obama said when he was asked about his smoking habits on Tuesday at a White House press conference, a day after he signed a legislation giving the government unprecedented power to regulate tobacco sales.
"Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No," he said. "I don't do it in front of my kids. I don't do it in front of my family," Obama said.
"You know, I would say that I am 95 per cent cured. But there are times where I mess up," the 48-year-old US president said, admitting that he still smokes occasionally.
Obama refused to say how many cigarettes he smokes or how often he lights up at the White House. But he said that just like with alcoholics, it is something you "continually struggle with."
Obama said that is why the anti-smoking legislation that he inked was so critical: because he does not want "kids to go down that path to begin with."
On Monday, Obama signed a sweeping legislation to impose stricter curbs on cigarettes in a bid to stamp out youth smoking.
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