Former President Barack Obama, speaking this week at a lecture series in Arkansas, criticized the current politicization of the Justice Department and the U.S. military while applauding those who are resisting.
He added that he doesn’t think the politicization under President Donald Trump has become complete, though.
“I think there’s been resistance, particularly in the military, to that,” Obama said. “The degree to which [politicization] has been encouraged, that used to be something that I would lecture other countries not to do.”
The former president compared the current political atmosphere with his time in the White House, saying he had a much different working environment with those federal institutions. He added that he earned the respect of his military leaders by leaving politics out of his decision-making.
“You don’t have your military involved in partisan politics,” he said at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. “Its loyalty is to the Constitution. Its loyalty is not to any party, and it is not to any president.”
While positive on the prospect of future leaders shepherding the country in a new direction, Obama did say that he feels the country is more polarized than he has ever seen.
“I think it is true that we are more divided and that our democracy is more unstable than any time in my lifetime — not in American history,” he said. “We did have like a civil war and stuff.”
