On Thursday, former President Barack Obama complained the frivolous indictment against 45th President and leading 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump doesn’t disqualify him from running for President in 2024.
During an interview on CNN’s “News Central,” host Amanpour said, “The spectacle of a former president being federally indicted. How is the rest of the world, the democratic world, maybe even the non-democratic world meant to interpret that indictment and indeed the fact that a federal indictee is running, is able to run for the highest office in the land, maybe even the world?”
“It’s less than ideal. But the fact that we have a former president who is having to answer to charges brought by prosecutors does uphold the basic notion that nobody is above the law. And the allegations will now be sorted out through a court process,” Obama said.
“And I think I’m more concerned when it comes to the United States with the fact that not just one particular individual is being accused of undermining existing laws, but that more broadly we’ve seen, whether it’s through the gerrymandering of districts, whether it’s trying to silence critics through changes in legislative process, whether it’s attempts to intimidate the press, a strand of anti-democratic sentiment that we’ve seen in the United States,” Obama added.
“It’s something that is right now most prominent in the Republican Party, but I don’t think it’s something that is unique to one party. I think there is less tolerance for ideas that don’t suit us. And it’s sort of the habits of a free and open exchange of ideas and the idea that we all agree to the rules of the game, and even if the outcomes aren’t always the ones we like, we still abide by those rules,” he continued.
“I think that’s weakened since I left office, and we’re gonna need to strengthen them again,” he said.
“What happens if Donald Trump wins again? It’s said that the institutional guard rails of American democracy were strong enough to survive a one term presidency. Are they strong enough to survive if that kind of person - personality - wins again?” Amanpour asked.
“I won’t speculate on the outcome of a future election. Obviously, I’m a Democrat. I’ve got a deep interest in the outcome,” Obama said.
“But I’ll make a general statement which is, having been President of the United States; you need a President who takes the oath of office seriously. You need a President who believes not just in the letter but the spirit of Democracy,” he added.
“The essential spirit of Democracy is that as President of the United States, you are just one representative of the people in the series of co-equal branches. There are checks and balances to the system. You are subject to those checks and balances. You cannot ignore them. You cannot make your own rules,” he continued.
“You cannot view the Justice Department as your personal law firm. You cannot ignore norms and guard rails that have been put in place to assure that your self interest isn’t what drives institutions but rather, the American people. If you have anybody that is occupying that office that disregards that higher purpose, then you’re going to have problems,” he said.
Earlier this month, Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 fraudulent counts relating to him supposedly “mishandling” classified documents from Special Counsel Jack Smith.
President Trump has turned Jack Smith’s frivolous federal indictment of him on its head -- citing the Presidential Records Act as a defense.
The Presidential Records Act is a 1978 law that allows presidents to decide what records to keep and take, regardless of what the National Archives and Records Administration thinks.
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