Former President Barack Obama sat down for a conversation with “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night, in which he outlined the powers that the President of the United States should not have at their disposal.
“Don’t politicize our military. As president, you are Commander-in-Chief. You are responsible for directing our military,” Obama explained. “There had been a whole series of norms that were in place to ensure that you weren’t trying to make that military loyal to you, as opposed to the Constitution and the people of the United States. We’re gonna have to find mechanisms to restore that.”
His comments come as current President Donald Trump is in the midst of waging an ongoing military campaign against Iran. The conflict passed the 60-day mark outlined by the War Powers Act of 1973 without Congressional approval days ago, prompting some to begin calling it an “illegal war.” During his conversation with Colbert, Obama also advocated for the illegalization of a president’s outside business interests.
“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,” he said. “I mean, I thought this was a pretty obvious principle.”
Obama additionally argued for the independence of the U.S. Attorney General, despite the position technically falling under the purview of the Executive Branch.
“The White House shouldn’t be able to direct the Attorney General to go around prosecuting whoever the president wants to prosecute,” Obama said. “The idea is that the Attorney General is the people’s lawyer. It’s not the president’s consigliere.”
“We can survive a lot — bad policy, funky elections. There’s a bunch of stuff that we can overcome,” he continued. “We can’t overcome the politicization of the criminal justice system, the awesome power of the state. 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.”
To add to his point, Obama reflected on his relationship in office with former AG Eric Holder.
“[We need to be] restoring some sense of the Justice Department being independent in making judgments about specific cases and prosecutions,” the 44th President remarked. “I would consult with Eric Holder, my Attorney General, all the time around broad policy issues. But that’s different than, ‘Who do you charge? What case do you bring?’”
