Obama on CNN: Trump's impeachment is proof that the rule of law still exists in America.

Photo: MENELAOS MYRILLAS/SOOC/AFP/Getty Images

Democratic institutions in the United States and around the world show signs of weakening, the former president warned Barack Obama in an exclusive CNN interview on Thursday, and it remains the responsibility of American leaders to find ways to sustain them going forward.

Obama told CNN’s main international anchor Christiane Amanpour that the federal indictment of Donald Trump is evidence that the rule of law still reigns, for now, in the United States, according to CNN.

And he argued that the Western effort to guarantee Ukraine’s sovereignty is vital for the long-term protection of democracy.

This video shows, in English, part of the interview:

Obama said that there are still signs that democratic norms are eroding. And he warned that economic and social inequalities would only make it more difficult to maintain healthy democracies in the future.

“I think democracy will win if we fight for it,” Obama told Amanpour in Athens, where he is discussing democracy issues. “Our existing democratic institutions are fragile and we are going to have to reform them.”

Obama offered an overview of the challenges to democracy

The former president offered a broad view of global political and democratic problems, including Trump’s impeachment earlier this month that he acknowledged sending a suboptimal message to the rest of the world.

“It’s less than ideal,” Obama said. “But the fact that we have a former president who has to answer to charges brought by prosecutors confirms the basic notion that no one is above the law and charges will now be resolved through a judicial process.”

Obama said that more worrisome than Trump’s own actions is a broader effort to “silence critics through changes to the legislative process” or “intimidate the press.” He said those efforts are “right now more prominent in the Republican Party, but I don’t think it’s something unique to one party.”

Meeting with dictators or other undemocratic leaders is just one of the complexities of the US presidency, Obama commented when the interviewer asked him how he thought a president should behave when receiving such people, recalling that he dealt with many figures he disagreed with during his time in the Oval Office.

“Look, it’s complicated,” Obama said. “The president of the United States has many actions. And when he was president, he dealt with figures in some cases who were allies, who, if you press me privately, run their governments and their political parties in ways that I would say are ideally democratic? I would have to say no.”

Obama’s comments came just hours before the White House was to roll out the red carpet for the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, on an official state visit.

Modi has been accused by human rights groups of drifting towards authoritarianism, but he is also the leader of the most populous democracy in the world and the White House sees it as an important bulwark against China’s growing influence.

Obama said in the interview that no democracy could thrive with high levels of social or economic inequality.

He used the example of an overcrowded migrant boat that sank in the Mediterranean this month, a shipwreck that killed hundreds of people and received comparatively little attention regarding the submarine that disappeared among the wreckage of the Titanic.

“In some ways, it’s indicative of the degree to which people’s life chances have become so disparate,” the former president said.

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