Former president Barack Obama said over the weekend that the country’s political leadership is in need of “new blood.”
America has “a deficit of leadership, and we need new blood,” Obama said during a keynote speech at a private reception for his charitable foundation. “People cling to power instead of seeing the power in other people.”
As in his other recent speeches, Obama did not name President Trump directly, and he avoided touching on the continuing partial government shutdown, which marked its 17th day Monday.
“I have no shortage of causes that I want to work on,” Obama said. “The single most important thing we could do was to make sure that we were helping the next generations to make the changes that this world needs.”
Obama and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, hope the foundation will encourage new leaders as well as be a vehicle for the couple’s work on issues such as the environment, income inequality, and education.
“We are, once again, going to change the world for the better,” Obama said.