President Obama:
On final full day, he shortens sentences for 330 drug criminals but denies clemency for activist.
WASHINGTON — Eight tumultuous years at the helm of American power have come and gone, and for President Obama, this is finally the end.
The president spent his last full day Thursday at the White House before becoming an ex-president. The big decisions and grand pronouncements are all behind him, but Obama is still in charge until Presidentelect Donald Trump takes the oath at noon on Friday.
The White House left Obama’s schedule mostly empty for the day, saying he would use the time to pack up the home he and his family have lived in for most of a decade. The only events on his public calendar were his presidential daily briefing and his final weekly lunch with Vice President Joe Biden in the president’s private dining room.
Only a skeleton staff remained Thursday at the White House, creating an eerily quiet feeling in the normally bustling West Wing. Photos of Obama and his family that for years have lined the walls of corridors in the West Wing were being taken down, with some to be transferred to Obama’s personal office, leaving big white spaces on the walls.
Many desks and offices were already empty, having been vacated by staffers who departed in recent weeks. Those staffers still left were packing up their desks, handing in their phones and saying teary farewells to their colleagues.
In a last major act as president, Obama cut short the sentences of 330 federal inmates convicted of drug crimes, bringing his bid to correct what he’s called a systematic injustice to a climactic close.
With his final offer of clemency, Obama brought his total number of commutations granted to 1,715, more than any president in U.S. history, the White House said. During his presidency Obama ordered free 568 inmates who had been sentenced to life in prison.
“He wanted to do it. He wanted the opportunity to look at as many as he could to provide relief,” Neil Eggleston, Obama’s White House counsel, said in his West Wing office. “He saw the injustice of the sentences that were imposed in many situations, and he has a strong view that people deserve a second chance.”