President Obama Takes On Trump and Anonymous Op-Ed

President Obama took on the Trump administration — and that anonymous op-ed — in his most political speech since leaving office.

Transcript

00:00They're not doing us a service by actively promoting 90% of the crazy stuff that's coming

00:06out of this White House, and then saying, don't worry, we're preventing the other 10%.

00:14That's not how things are supposed to work.

00:27In a healthy democracy, there's some checks and balances on this kind of behavior, this

00:33kind of inconsistency, but right now there's nothing.

00:42Republicans who know better in Congress, and they're there, they're quoted saying, yeah,

00:49we know this is kind of crazy, are still bending over backwards to shield this behavior from

00:59scrutiny or accountability or consequence.

01:01The claim that everything will turn out okay because there are people inside the White

01:06House who secretly aren't following the president's orders, that is not a check.

01:13I'm being serious here.

01:14That's not how our democracy is supposed to work.

01:18These people aren't elected, they're not accountable, this is not normal.

01:28These are extraordinary times, and they're dangerous times.

01:33In two months, we have the chance, not the certainty, but the chance to restore some

01:41semblance of sanity to our politics.

01:44You cannot sit back and wait for a savior.

01:51You can't opt out because you don't feel sufficiently inspired by this or that particular candidate.

01:57This is not a rock concert, this is not Coachella.

02:04We don't need a messiah.

02:08All we need are decent, honest, hardworking people who are accountable and who have America's

02:15best interests at heart.

02:17One election will not fix everything that needs to be fixed, but it will be a start.

02:25And you have to start it.

02:29What's going to fix our democracy is you.