Monday, February 19, 2018

Full transcript: President Obama's final end-of-year press conference

I've said before I couldn't be prouder of Secretary Clinton, her outstanding service, I think she's worked tirelessly on behalf of the American people and I don't think she was treated fairly during the election, I think the coverage of her and the issues was troubling.

34? [ Laughter ] What I've said is that I can maybe give some counsel and advice to the Democratic Party and I think the thing we have to spend the most time on, because it's the thing we have the most control over, is how do we make sure that we are showing up in places where I think Democratic policies are needed, where they are helping, where they are making a difference but where people feel as if they're not being heard and where Democrats are characterized as coastal liberal latte sipping - you know, politically correct out-of-touch folks.

So what do you think about those comments? Do you think there's any truth to them? Do you think there's a danger there that they're calling into question the integrity of institutions in a similar way that Donald Trump's team has done? And the second part to that is that, Donald Trump's team repeatedly - I guess giving the indication that the investigation of the Russian hack, as well as the retaliation, might not be such a priority once he's in office.

Dovere: Well, what do you say to the electors who are going to meet on Monday and are thinking of changing their votes? Do you think that they should be given an intelligence briefing about the Russian activity or should they bear in mind everything you've said and that's out already? Should they, should votes be bound by the state votes as they've gone, and long-term, do you think that there's a need for electoral college reform that would tie it to the popular vote?

Is the vision that you've seen him putting forward what you think the party needs to be focused on and what do you say to some of the complaints that say the future of the democratic party shouldn't be a continuation of some of your political approach, part of that is complaints that, decisions that you have made as President, as the leader of the party have structurally weakened the DNC and the Democratic party and they think that that has led to or has helped lead to some of the losses in elections around the country.

I'd like to think, I think I can show that in those elections, I always cast a broad net.

You know, how is it that we have some voters or some elected officials who think that Michelle Obama's healthy eating initiative and school nutrition program is a greater threat to democracy than our government going after the press if they're issuing a story they don't like.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/obama-press-conference-transcript-232763 

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