FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You know, look, people of both parties and no party should be concerned with this current situation. Folks should want to see a restoration of honesty, and decency and lawfulness to our government.

(APPLAUSE)

They should want to see some checks on what’s happening. It is not a Democratic or Republican idea that we are not supposed to pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal-justice system to try to punish political opponents. That’s not how America works; that’s how some tin pot dictatorship works — that’s not supposed to be America.

(APPLAUSE)

It shouldn’t be Democratic or Republican to say we do not threaten freedom of the press just because they publish stories we don’t like. It shouldn’t be Democratic or Republican to say we don’t target certain groups based on what they look like, or how they pray.