During his final presidential news conference Wednesday, President Barack Obama told reporters he won’t give President-elect Donald Trump the same latitude to govern free of criticism that he enjoyed from his predecessor.
“I’m still a citizen,” he told the press pool at about the 22:45 mark.
And as a citizen, he will reserve the right to “speak out” if he felt President-elect Donald Trump were to engage in “systemic discrimination” affecting America’s core values during his administration.
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“There’s a difference between that normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake,” Obama said. “I put in that category if I saw systematic discrimination being ratified in some fashion. I put in that category explicit or functional obstacles to people being able to vote, to exercise their franchise. I put in that category institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press. And for me at least, I would put in that category efforts to round-up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids and send them somewhere else, when they love this country.”
Obama became most heated when talking about DREAMersand stopped just short of saying he’d run for some sort of office again.
‘And for me, at least, I would put in that category efforts to round-up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids, and send them someplace else, when they love this country, they are our kids’ friends and their classmates and are now entering into community colleges or in some cases serving in our military …’
‘The notion that we would just arbitrarily, or because of politics, punish those kids, when they didn’t do anything wrong themselves, I think would be something that would merit me speaking out. It doesn’t mean that I would get on the ballot anywhere.’
Obama placed into that same category any attempts to thwart the freedom of the press.
“We are accountable to the people who send us here. And you have done it,” the president said. “You’re not supposed to be sycophants. You’re supposed to be skeptics.”
When Van Jones, Obama’s former green jobs czar was asked about this, he claimed it was necessary “Because Obama came in to fix things that were broke; Trump is coming in to break things that Obama fixed.”
The president dodged a question on the boycott of the inauguration ceremony by House Democrats.
“All I know is I’m going to be there, and so is Michelle.”
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That would have been the perfect time to say that it isn’t about the occupant of the White House that was important, but rather the office of the presidency and the peaceful transfer of power.
When Obama took the reins of power in 2009, former President George W. Bush graciously stepped aside and refused to criticize the new president.
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Clip via Fox News Channel
“I don’t think it’s good for the country to have a former president criticizing his successor,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity more than once.
“I think the office is more important than the occupant,” Bush said.
Obama obviously feels differently.
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