Former President Barack Obama, who authorized drone strikes on American citizens without judicial process, harassed journalists by naming them as criminal co-conspirators to gain access to their emails and phone records, and weaponized the IRS against his political opponents, is super-concerned that the Trump administration is leading the United States down a path toward autocracy.
Obama, speaking at The Bushnell Performing Arts Center in Hartford on Tuesday evening, told an admiring crowd that democracy as we have known it in this country is under attack.
“If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now, there is a weak commitment to what we understood – and not just my generation, at least since World War II – our understanding of how a liberal democracy is supposed to work,” he said, accoridng to Connecticut Public Radio.
“There has to be a response and pushback from civil society, from various institutions and individuals outside of government, but there also have to be people in government in both parties who say, 'No, you can't do that,’” added Obama.
Former President Barack Obama warned about a "weak commitment" to democracy by President Donald Trump's administration and the U.S. "drifting" into autocracy during a speech in Connecticut, according to media https://t.co/HudnDMIU2d pic.twitter.com/lNWb4TznkA
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) June 18, 2025
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Obama then leveled some of his most direct remarks to date at the current President, saying America is "dangerously close" to moving into autocracy territory.
“It is consistent with autocracies. It is consistent with Hungary under Orbán. It’s consistent with places that hold elections but do not otherwise observe what we think of as a fair system in which everybody’s voice matters, people have a seat at the table, and nobody's above the law," Obama said. "We're not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that.”
He says this roughly four years after his Vice President allegedly earned a record 81 million+ votes in an election in which Democrats said time and time again would see suppressed turnout due to the pandemic. He says that knowing that the same person pardoned his family members, assuring that they would be above the law.
The FBI has located documents which detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election, including allegations of interference by the CCP.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) June 17, 2025
I have immediately declassified the material and turned the documents over to the Chairman Grassley for further review. pic.twitter.com/sBVNUgN2BJ
Aside from being a Grade A hypocrite, Obama is also known for his narcissism, and that was clear in ensuing remarks in which he chastized people who claim Trump's inauguration crowd was bigger than his.
“In 2020, one person won the election, and it wasn’t the guy complaining about it,” he claimed. “And that's just a fact, just like my inauguration had more people. I say that, by the way, not because - I don’t care - but facts are important.”
Obama cares. And if not for frigid temperatures in Washington, D.C., during Trump's second inauguration, forcing planners to move it indoors, you can bet your bottom dollar the crowd in January would have far surpassed anything this nation has ever seen, including Obama's inauguration.
Since the former President is hung up on 'facts,' let's review a few behaviors during his time in the White House that some critics have viewed as autocratic behavior. We get that Obama thinks the biggest scandal of his time was wearing a tan suit, but reality suggests otherwise.
In his first week in office, Obama authorized a drone strike that killed nearly a dozen civilians, including a child. A 2013 drone strike in Yemen hit a wedding party and killed women and children.
He authorized drone strikes time and again, and even targeted and killed American citizens without charge or trial - like Anwar al-Awlaki and his 17-year-old American son, Abdulrahman.
When Hillary was in the Obama Admin, they invented one of the most radical powers in US history: to drone-assassinate US-born citizens with no due process.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 24, 2025
It not only claimed that right but carried it out, murdering al-Awlaki in Yemen and, 2 weeks later, his 16-year-old son. https://t.co/cATkAIQI8D
The former President used his Department of Justice (DOJ) to try to shut down Fox News reporter James Rosen by spying on him and accusing him of being involved in criminal behavior.
A 2010 subpoena approved by Eric Holder implicated Rosen as a possible co-conspirator under the Espionage Act of 1917. As such, investigators gained access to his phone records and two days’ worth of Rosen’s emails.
The most compelling part about this tweet are the reactions from 99% of the people responding who have no idea the Obama DOJ literally spied on @JamesRosenTV , labeled him a flight risk and a co-conspirator. Note: Tapper was highly critical of the government in support of Rosen. https://t.co/1Z9L3WE9w6
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) December 7, 2017
The DOJ had mounted a severe attack on the First Amendment and Freedom of the Press by seizing the records of reporters at Fox News and the Associated Press (AP). The AP reporters – 20 of them – had their phone records subpoenaed through their providers, something they claimed at the time was a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into news-gathering operations.
The Obama IRS compiled a “be on the lookout” list for organizations applying for tax-exempt status. Those lists included keywords and phrases such as “Tea Party,” “Israel,” and “Patriots.”
Lois Lerner and Obama’s IRS put out a BOLO on the Tea Party to target and harass conservatives. https://t.co/0OjBzTn2Rw pic.twitter.com/naiYA6vrUD
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 17, 2025
Targeting political opponents through the power of one of the most feared arms of the federal government, Americans with military drones, and journalists as criminals, all happened on Barack's watch.
Why wasn't he as concerned about a slide toward autocracy back then?
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