John Kerry delivered a rousing commencement speech at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Wednesday, telling graduates there’s “nothing normal” about the Trump administration and “nothing American about it either.”
The former secretary of state derided President Donald Trump for attacking the first amendment, threatening journalists, making false promises and failing to act on climate change. Kerry started his speech by discussing the current political climate:
It’s not normal to see a president of the United States decrying “so-called judges.” It’s not normal for the leader of the country that invented the first amendment to routinely degrade and even threaten journalists. And no it’s not normal to see the head of the FBI fired summarily because he was investigating connections between Russia and the presidential campaign of the very man who fired him. And it’s not normal that when you close your eyes and you listen to the news, too often the political back-and-forth in America, sounds too much like it does in the kinds of countries that the State Department warns Americans not to travel to.
Still, the 2004 presidential candidate insisted graduates take the long view. The world has decided to move forward on issues like climate change, he said, even if America’s leadership lags behind.
“I believe the world has already made a different bet ― a bet on science, a bet on reality, and a bet that we have to move forward with or without America’s political leaders,” Kerry said.
He went on to discuss the deadly terrorist attack in Manchester, England, and how the world’s governments can only fight extremists by working together.
Watch the entire speech in the video above.
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