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May 13, 2017, 7:29 p.m.

Gov. Jerry Brown said in a national TV interview on Saturday that President Trump was able to tap populist anger on the way to victory last fall, but dismissed his ability to do anything with it after taking office.

"He didn't have the answer, and he's demonstrated he doesn't have the answer," Brown said in a CNNinterview with political analyst David Axelrod.

The governor said Hillary Clinton faceddaunting odds, as voters too easily saw her candidacy as a third term of former President Obama's policies. Andin the wide-ranging conversation, he urged the Democratic Party to embrace the needs of working-class Americans.

Brown said he would have soundeda theme much closer to the one voiced by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, even though Brown endorsed Clinton during the bitter primary contest.

"You've got tosay, look,Wall Street is ripping us off. The fact is, the growth at the top is getting more and more. The middle and the lower realms of our society are suffering more insecurity," he said. "Hard to get their kids in college, hard to buy a house, hard to keep a job."

Brown admitted that the approachis reminiscent of his failed 1992 presidential campaign, whenhe ultimately lost the Democratic nomination to former President Clinton. In thatcampaign, Brown railed against the influence of money in politics. In the CNN interview, he said theproblem is back.

"Ithinkpeople are damn tired of it," he told Axelrod in the interview taped inside the governor's mansion in Sacramento. "And whatever a politician can do, I think they have to stay away from this whole association of being under the influence of the powerful."

Brown side-stepped direct commentabout the current controversy over Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey, except to say that Comey'sactions during the campaign in regard to theClintonemail investigation were"unprofessional" and that the timing of Trump's firing "smells" of something other than what's been publicly stated.

The governor has approached Trump's presidency in a more cautious manner than many California Democrats, though he has taken the president to task on the issue of climate change. Brown suggested Trump would do well to pick his battles.

"How many fights can you have? How many enemies can you make?" Brown said when talking about the president. "And the fact is, there's a limited quotient before you run out the score."

The governor admitted he's always been both "repelled and attracted" by politics. He did say, though, that he particularly enjoys campaigns. And while Brown said that he wouldn't have wanted to challenge Clinton in the primaries, the three-time presidential candidate said a general election against Trump would have been different.

"That would have been a pleasure," he said.

The governor, fresh off theunveiling ofa revised state budget on Thursday, took time to praise his efforts in helping stabilize the state's finances. And though he's termed out of office in less than two years, he said he's not yet ready to think about his long political legacy.

"Im not in memory yet.Im in action," Brown said. "AndI like being in action."

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Jerry Brown on Donald Trump: 'He doesn't have the answer' - Los Angeles Times