Watch: Obama issues somber warning about democracy under assault 'around the world'

Former President Barack Obama warned that democracy is under attack across the globe at the "Democracy Forum" his foundation convened in New York City.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer played a clip of the "powerful remarks" Obama delivered.

"Democratic ideas are currently under assault around the world," Obama warned.

"We see a manifestation of it in the unjustified and brutal war in Ukraine, we see it in the back sliding that's taking place in what were well-established democracies," he explained. "We see it in the escalating polarization and disinformation that's so evident in recent elections, whether it's in Brazil, the Philippines, Italy, Sweden -- right here in the United States."

"And let me be clear here, the threat to democracy doesn't always run along a conservative-liberal, left-right axis," Obama continued. "This has nothing to do with traditional partisan lines or policy preferences."

"What we're seeing, what's being challenged, are the foundational principles of democracy itself," he said. "The notion that all citizens have a right to freely participate in selecting who governs them, the notion that votes will be counted and the party that gets more votes wins, that losers concede, that power is transferred peacefully, that the winners don't abuse the machinery of government to punish losers and entrench themselves and make it impossible for other parties to compete in future elections. The notion that judiciary should be independent, that nobody is above the law, and that our political debate should at least aspire to be rooted in facts and logic rather than fabrication and propaganda."

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