Obama vows to speak out, not to fade away
WASHINGTON: After Friday, President Barack Obama plans to spend time with his family, do some writing and hear less of himself speak. But he will not fade away, as former presidents are supposed to, and will continue to speak on issues of importance to him.
Without sounding confrontational at his last news conference as president, Obama drew several redlines for incoming president Donald Trump, saying he will not hesitate to speak out when and where “our core values may be at stake”.
Obama hands over charge of the White House on Friday, at noon (10:30 pm, India time) to Trump and leave for a sort vacation with his family. They will return to Washington DC and stay till Sasha, their youngest, finished school.
“I want to do some writing,” Obama said (a $45 million book deals awaits him, according to some news reports), adding, “I want to be quiet a little bit and not hear myself talk so darn much. I want to spend precious time with my girls.”
But, “I’m still a citizen”, and while the new administration and congress grapple with all the regular issues, which the president said was the “normal functioning of politics”, he would be focussed on moments when “our core values may be at stake”.
That will be if he sees “systematic discrimination being ratified in some fashion”, obstacles to voting rights, “efforts to silence dissent or the press” and any move to deport undocumented people who were brought to America as children.
President-elect Trump and some members of incoming administration have shown a tendency to exploit social, ideological and economic divisions and fissures for political capital and continue to pursue them despite all-around concern.
Obama chose the usual small briefing room for his news conference to make a point — he has otherwise used larger rooms in the White House before to accommodate the massive turnout when the president himself was taking questions.
Trump has had a combative and profitable relationship with media. He has used them for free 24X7 publicity but also slammed them, blacklisted reporters and media outlets, and refused to take questions from them at news conference.
Obama, who has himself had a prickly relationship with the White House press corps for trying to clamp down on leaks and prosecuting reporters, had a word for Trump, without mentioning him or his media rantings. Though he enjoyed working with them, he told them, he didn’t enjoy every report they did on him. But that’s the way it is. “You’re not supposed to be sycophants, you’re supposed to be skeptics. You’re supposed to ask me tough questions.”
And in an obvious reference to the Trump team’s move to hold the briefing elsewhere, Obama said, “And having you in this building has made this place work better. It keeps us honest. ”