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Former President Obama on Thursday took a veiled swipe at President Trump while celebrating the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
Obama harkened to the nation’s founding by echoing the words of the Declaration of Independence, adding that it established there “will be no kings or lords, no serfs or subjects, but only citizens, each of us free to pursue our own version of happiness and able to determine our collective faith to an elected representative government.”
He said his presidential center’s exhibits focus on the country’s shared values “that make democracy possible.”
“A belief in the intrinsic dignity and worth of all people, and that no one is above the law or beneath its protection,” he continued. “A belief in checks and balances in our government, and an accountability that comes with it. An independent judiciary and a robust free press. A belief that our military and law enforcement owe allegiance not to any president or political party, but to the people and our Constitution.
“A belief in the peaceful transfer of power after the people have spoken in fair and free elections, recognizing that in a large, complicated society like ours, no group or faction gets its way 100 percent of the time,” Obama continued. “And it believes that qualities of character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, sense of duty, and honor, those things matter in our public dealings, just as they do in our private lives.”
The former president added that these values are not solely party values before evoking the names of his two former Republican presidential rivals in the 2008 and 2012 elections. Former Presidents Biden, Clinton and George W. Bush were all in attendance at the ceremony.
“Every president here today, as different as we are, has tried our best to uphold values that John McCain and Mitt Romney believed in, no less than I did,” he said.
The remarks are the latest Obama has made this week where he has hinted at Trump. He previously slammed institutions for falling for the idea that “everything is about money.”
“We’ve got a set of institutions that have fallen victim to the siren song of ‘everything is about money, and everything is about attention, and everything is about fame, and everything is about getting over,” he said at another event for his presidential center Tuesday.
Obama remains the most popular among the surviving former presidents. A CNN poll released Thursday showed that 57 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the 44th president. The same poll found that by comparison, 34 percent and 30 percent of Americans view Trump and Biden, respectively, in a favorable light.
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