Robert Gates, who served as Secretary of Defense under former President Barack Obama, said during an interview over the weekend that he believes the extreme political polarization in the U.S. is the greatest threat the country faces.
Gates made the remarks during an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation” with host Margaret Brennan.
The comments were made after the two discussed the debt ceiling and the struggle in Washington, D.C., for leaders on both sides of the aisle to work together to resolve issues.
“I think it is the polarization in the country,” Gates said when asked what he thought was the greatest danger to the U.S. “We’ve always had polarization in America. If you go back to the Jefferson, Adams presidential race in 1800, the things that were said in that election would fit right into a current political environment. But what’s been different, more recently, is not just a measure of paralysis, as indicated by the debt ceiling, but a level of meanness and a lack of civility among our politicians, or the- the sense that somebody who disagrees with you is not just somebody you disagree with, but is an enemy, is a bad person.”
“This lack of civility is I think, something new and- and really is pretty pervasive in the Congress,” he said. “And it sets a pretty bad example for the rest of the country.”
Gates said that political leaders should not “demonize people to disagree with them” and that Republicans and Democrats needed to find better ways to work with each other.
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