“The White House Shouldn’t be able to direct the Attorney General to go around prosecuting whoever the President wants to prosecute,” the former commander-in-chief said during an interview with Stephen Colbert at his new Presidential Center.
“Right, because technically it’s under the executive branch, but the norm is that it’s independent,” said Colbert.
“The norm, the idea is that the Attorney General is the people’s lawyer,” said Obama. “It’s not the President’s consigliere.”
While Obama didn’t mention Trump specifically, denying that egomaniac the satisfaction of hearing his name on his lips, it was crystal clear who he was referring to.
Under Trump, the Justice Department has been fully weaponized into an apparatus for pursuing partisan grievances. In addition to the numerous political indictments — ranging from New York Attorney General Letitia James to former FBI Director James Comey — Trump’s Attorneys General have enthusiastically helped cover up his role in Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophiliac predations. The DOJ has lost all semblance of credibility.
“Two of the core principles of a democracy… We can survive a lot. Bad policy. Funky elections. There’s a bunch of stuff that you know we can overcome,” Obama continued. “We can’t overcome the politicization of the criminal justice system, the awesome power of the estate.”
“You can’t have a situation in which whoever’s in charge of the government starts using that to go after their political enemies or reward their friends,” he added.
The former president then turned his attention to Trump’s family and the nakedly corrupt ways in which they’ve been using the Oval Office to line their pockets with crypto scams and sweetheart contractor deals.
“A good policy that I’d like to see followed is that the President of the United States shouldn’t have a bunch of side hustles that those companies and foreign entities can invest in,” said Obama.
“How much of that is just jealous that you didn’t think of selling a sneaker?” joked Colbert. “Because your sneakers would have flown. You know that, right?”
At one point, Colbert humorously asked for Obama’s thoughts on him running for president.
“How dumb do you think it is for people to say that I should run for president?” the comedian asked.
“Well, you know, the bar has changed,” Obama said with a laugh.
“That is true. At times subterranean,” said Colbert. “I don’t have to limbo so low.”
“Put it this way, I think that you could perform significantly better than some folks that we’ve seen,” said Obama, cracking up. “I have great confidence in that.”
“Thank you very much,” said Colbert. “Is that an endorsement?”
“It was not,” said Obama.
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