Former president Barack Obama mocked the White House's response to his Cheesecake Factory joke. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Barack Obama wants to set the record straight: he loves The Cheesecake Factory as much as the next dad.

The former president defended his record on the California-based restaurant chain while campaigning for Democrats in Atlanta on Wednesday. At a campaign rally in Cleveland on Saturday, Obama said President Donald Trump's White House renovations had it "looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory."

The joke sparked dayslong backlash from Republicans and the White House, who framed Obama as an elitist out of touch with average Americans. Obama countered by saying he's spent plenty of time at the restaurant chain .

"I am the father of two daughters. Do you think I could have survived their childhood without going to The Cheesecake Factory?" Obama asked the crowd on Wednesday. "I lived at Chuck E. Cheese and California Pizza Kitchen and The Cheesecake Factory.…