Former President Bill Clinton criticized the two-term limit on the presidency during an appearance on Morning Joe, noting that leaders of states with parliamentary governments have benefited from a lack of term limits.
Host Joe Scarborough raised the topic. “Shouldn’t a president be able to take two terms, take time off, and run again?” he asked the former president. “Yes, I do, I believe that should be the rule,” Clinton answered. He made clear, however, that such a change could not apply to him. “I think that as a practical matter, you couldnt apply [the change] to anyone who has already served,” Clinton said, adding “I’ve always thought that should be the rule — not to affect me or anyone who has served, but going forward.”
“Parliamentary systems do it,” Clinton added. “The great [nineteenth-century British Prime Minister] Gladstone served four times, the last time when he was 82.”
After President Franklin Delano Roosevelt broke the two-term tradition begun by George Washington by running and winning a third and fourth term before dying in office, Congress and the states passed the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution limiting presidents to two terms in office.
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