Obama would like people to remember that 'nobody in my administration got indicted'
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Former President Barack Obama got in a dig against President Trump on Tuesday, and he didn't even have to say his name.
Obama was at Rice University, attending a gala honoring the nonpartisan Baker Institute for Public Policy. He sat for a joint interview with the institute's namesake, former Secretary of State James Baker, moderated by presidential historian Jon Meacham. Baker had a long career in politics, working under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, and he remarked that he was most proud of not being indicted, The Houston Chronicle reports.
Obama then reminded the audience that "not only did I not get indicted, nobody in my administration got indicted. By the way, it was the only administration in modern history that that can be said about. In fact, nobody came close to being indicted, probably because the people who joined us were there for the right reasons." Several of Trump's former high-level advisers and associates, including onetime National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, have been indicted or pleaded guilty to charges.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Baker and Obama also discussed how the political climate changed between the Reagan era and when Obama took office. Gerrymandering plays a role, Obama said, as well as the media landscape. During Reagan's time, "there was a common set of facts, a baseline," he said, and by 2009, "what you increasingly have is a media environment in which if you are a Fox News viewer, you have an entirely different reality than if you are a New York Times reader." Baker agreed, saying, "The responsible center in American politics has disappeared."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Corruption: The spy sheikh and the presidentFeature Trump is at the center of another scandal
-
Putin’s shadow warFeature The Kremlin is waging a campaign of sabotage and subversion against Ukraine’s allies in the West
-
Media: Why did Bezos gut ‘The Washington Post’?Feature Possibilities include to curry favor with Trump or to try to end financial losses
-
Judge orders Washington slavery exhibit restoredSpeed Read The Trump administration took down displays about slavery at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia
-
Hyatt chair joins growing list of Epstein files losersSpeed Read Thomas Pritzker stepped down as executive chair of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation over his ties with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
-
Judge blocks Hegseth from punishing Kelly over videoSpeed Read Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed for the senator to be demoted over a video in which he reminds military officials they should refuse illegal orders
-
Trump’s EPA kills legal basis for federal climate policySpeed Read The government’s authority to regulate several planet-warming pollutants has been repealed
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
-
Bondi, Democrats clash over Epstein in hearingSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi ignored survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and demanded that Democrats apologize to Trump
-
El Paso airspace closure tied to FAA-Pentagon standoffSpeed Read The closure in the Texas border city stemmed from disagreements between the Federal Aviation Administration and Pentagon officials over drone-related tests
-
Judge blocks Trump suit for Michigan voter rollsSpeed Read A Trump-appointed federal judge rejected the administration’s demand for voters’ personal data
