Will rank and how confident are you that this will continue under the president elect . Obama i could not be prouder of the transformation that has taken place in our society just in the last decade. , i thinke said before we made some useful , but theions to it ofmary heroes in this stage our growth as a democracy and as a society, all the individual daughtersand sons and and couples who courageously said this is who i am, and im proud of it. That opened peoples minds and opened their hearts, and , the laws caught up. But i dont think any of that wouldve happened without the activism, in some cases loud and noisy, but in some cases just quiet and very personal. And i think that what we did as helpministration was to to move in a better in a way, but to do so that did not create an enormous systematic ands respectful of the fact that in some cases, these issues were controversial. I think the way we handled, or ,xample, dont ask dont tell being methodical about it, working with the joint chiefs, making sure that we showed this would not have an impact on the effectiveness of the greatest military on earth, and then to secretary bob gates and the joint chiefs who are ultimately working with me to do the right thing, i am proud of that. But again, none of that would thishappened without incredible transformation that was happening in society out there. Ellen thee president ial medal of freedom, i meant what i said. I think somebody that kind and into livingjecting rooms around the country, that changed attitudes, and that wasnt easy to do. That is just one small example of what was happening in countless communities all across the country. That in certain a goodwe may be provided block downfield to help the movement advance. I dont think it is something that will be reversible, because American Society has changed, the attitudes of young people in particular have changed. That doesnt mean there arent going to be some fights that are important, legal issues, issues surrounding transgender persons, there will still be some battles that need to take place. But if you talk to young people sashas generation, even if young people are conservative, many of them will tell you i dont understand how you would discriminate against someone because of their sexual persuasion. Long before today under your watch, people have said , and withave expanded the election and the incoming sayingtration, some are the system is broken. You said your job was to close the gap, and what gaps still remain when it comes to rights issues . You play int will fixing those gaps in your new life . And lastly, you are the first black president. Do you expect this country to see this again . Answer the last question first. I think we will see people of from every race, faith, corner of this country, because that is americas strength. Everybody getting a chance and everybody is on the field, we end up getting better. I think i have used this analogy before. We killed it in the olympics in iazil, and michelle and always have the olympic team here. It is a lot of fun, first of all, anytime your meeting someone who is obsessed with anything, it is impressive. And these young people are all just so healthy looking. They just being and exude fitness and health, so we have a great time talking to them. But they are of all shapes, diversityors, genetic that is on display is remarkable. At simone biles and then you look at michael phelps, they are completely different, and it is precisely because of those differences that weve got people here who can excel at any sport. Way, more than half of our metals came from women. The reason is because we had the foresight several decades ago with something called title ix to make sure that women got opportunities in sports, which is why our women compete there, because they have more opportunities than folks in other countries. I use that as a metaphor, and if, in fact, we continue to keep opportunity open to everybody, week will have a woman president , we will have a latino president , we will have a jewish president , a hindu president , who knows who we are going to have . I suspect we will have a whole bunch of mixed up presidencies, will have someone that nobody really knows what to call. And that is fine. What do i worry about . I obviously spent a lot of time at my farewell address on tuesday, so i wont go through the whole list. I worry about inequality because i think that if we are not in making sure everybody plays a role in this economy, the economy will not grow as fast and i think it will also lead to further and further separation between us as americans. And not just along racial lines. There are a whole bunch of folks that voted for the president elect because they feel forgotten and disenfranchised. They feel as if they are being looked down on, as if their kids are not going to have the same opportunities that they did. And you dont want to have an america in which a very small sliver people are doing really well and everybody else is fighting for scraps, as i said last week. Because that is oftentimes when racial divisions get magnified, because people think the only wham going to get ahead is if i make sure somebody else gets doesntmeone who worship in the same place i do. That is not a good recipe for our democracy. I said in response to previous question, i worry about making sure that the basic machinery of our democracy works better. We are the only country in the advanced world that makes it harder to vote, rather than easier. And that dates back. There is an ugly history to that that we should not be shy about talking about. Yes, im talking about voting rights. Theres a reason that we are the only country among advanced democracies that makes it harder to vote, it traces directly back to jim crow and the legacy of slavery. And it became sort of acceptable to frustrate the franchise. And that is not who we are. That shouldnt be who we are. That is not when America Works best. So i hope that people pay a lot of attention to making sure that everybody has a chance to vote. Make it easier, not harder. This whole issue of voting fraud , this is something that has constantly been disproved. This is fake news. The notion that there are a whole bunch people out there who are going out there and are not eligible to vote and want to vote. We have the opposite problem. We have a whole bunch of people who are eligible to vote who dont vote. So the idea that we put in place a whole bunch of barriers to people voting doesnt make sense. And as ive said before, political gerrymandering that makes your vote matter less because politicians have decided you live in a district where everybody votes the same way you do, so these are not competitive democraticwe get 90 districts and 90 republican districts. Hat is bad for democracy, too i worry about that. I think it is very important for us to make sure that our criminal Justice System is fair and just, but i also think it is very important to make sure that it is not politicized, that it maintains and integrity that is outside of partisan politics at every level. I think at some point were will to have to in this require some action by the supreme court, we have to reexamine the flood of endless money that goes into our politics, we just think is very unhealthy. So there are a whole bunch of things i worry about there. And as i said in my speech on tuesday, weve got more work to do on race. It is simply not true that things have gotten worse. They havent. Things are getting better, and i have more confidence on racial issues in the next generation than i do in our generation or the previous generation. I think kids are smarter about it. They are more tolerant, they are more inclusive by instinct than myare, and hopefully presidency may have helped that along a little. When we feel stress, when we , when we are just fed information that encourages some of our worst instincts, we tend to fall back into some of the old racial fears and racial divisions and racial stereotypes , and its very hard for us to break out of those and to listen, and to think about imagines people, and being in that persons shoes. And by the way, its no longer a blackandwhite issue a long. You have hispanic folks, asian , this is not just the same old battle. This stew that is bubbling up of people everywhere. We have to make sure that in her own lives and families in workplaces that we do a better everybody with understandingand that not everybody starts off in the same situation, and imagining what it would be like if you were born in innercity and had no job prospects anywhere within a 20 mile radius , or how does it feel being born theree rural county where is no Job Opportunities in a 20 mile radius, and seeing those two things as connected as opposed to separate. So we have work to do, but ,verall, i think on this front the trend lines ultimately i think will be good. Christie, you are going to get the last question. I have been knowing her since springfield, illinois. Senator, shestate would listen to what i had to do iso the least i can give her the last question as president of the united states. Go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. I have a personal question for you. The first lady put the steaks of the 2016 election in personal terms in a speech that resonated across the country and she spoke to concerns of a lot of women, lgbt folks, people of color, many others. How you and the first lady are talking to your daughters about the meaning of this election and how you interpret it for yourself and for them. Obama you know, every parent rags on their daughters or their sons. Dontr mom and daughter brag on you, youve got problems. But my daughters are something. And they just surprise and me more andimpress more every single day as they grow up. So these days, when we talk, we talked as parent to child, but also, we learn from them. And i think it was really interesting to see how malia and sasha reacted. They were disappointed. They paid attention to what their mom said during the it. Aign and believed it was consistent with what we have tried to teach them in our household and what ive tried to model as a father, and with their mom, what we have asked them to expect from future boyfriends or spouses. But what we have also tried to teach them is resilience and we thato teach them hope, and the only thing that is the end of the world is the end of the world. Knocked down, you get up, brush yourself off and you get back to work. And that tended to be their. Ttitude, i think neither of them intend to pursue too, ie in, and in that, think their mothers input shows. Them have grown up in an environment where i think they cannot help but be patriotic, to love this country flawed to see that it is , but see that they have , andnsibilities to fix it that they need to be active citizens, and they have to be in a position to talk to their andnds and their teachers their future coworkers in ways that try to shed some light as just generate a lot of sound and fury. And i expect that is what they are going to do. Mope. Ont and what i really am proud of them what makes me proudest about them is that they also dont get cynical about it. They have not assumed because their side didnt win or because some of the values they care about dont seem that they were vindicated, that automatically america had somehow rejected them or rejected their values. Idle think they feel that way. Have, in part through osmosis and in part through conversations appreciate that this is a big complicated democracy and it doesnt always work exactly the way you might want. It doesnt guarantee certain but if you engage in lotare involved, there are more good people than bad in this country. There is a core of decency to this country. And they have to be a part of lifting that up, and i expect they will be. Sense, they are representative of this generation that makes me really optimistic. I have been asked ive had some conversations with some journalists where they said, you seem like you are ok, but really, what are you thinking . No, what im saying really is what i think. I believe in this country. I believe in the american people. That people are more good than bad. I believe tragic things happen. I think there is evil in the world, but i think that, at the end of the day, if we work hard and we are true to those things in us that field through feel right, that the world gets a little better each time. Thats what this presidency has tried to be about. And i see that in the young people i have worked with. I could not be prouder of them. And so this is not just a matter of no drama obama. This is what i really believe. That behind closed doors, i curse more than i do in public, and sometimes i get mad and frustrated, like everybody else does. , i think we are going to be ok. We just have to fight for it, we have to work for it and not taken for granted, and i know that you will help us do that. Thank you very much, press corps. There you have it, that is the last time we will be seeing barack obama in the white house reefing room there, giving his final press conference as president of the united states. He is in power for one more day, really. Donald trump will be sworn in on friday. He touched on a host of Foreign Policy and domestic issues during that address, and to talk about that a bit more im joined by a professor at Empire State College of the State University of new york. Thank you for being with us. There were a lot of messages in for incoming president donald trump. On russia, for example, dont mix up the issue with ukraine with the nuclear issue. He also said about israel, warning donald trump against any unilateral moves. Theres an awful lot of lastminute advice for the incoming president , wasnt there . Yes. Look, president obama has his own ideas about donald trump. Y the things he has said about the president elect during the campaign. But now like the rest of us, he has to hope for the best. And part of that is giving him advice about being thoughtful and about trying to see things. Hrough those are not things that a normal president that of normal outgoing president says to a normal incoming president , but this is not a normal situation. Donald trump has acted differently than we have come to expect from president. Obama i think is made it pretty clear that he has been talking to the incoming president and that he hopes the incoming president will take his advice seriously. I guess we will all find out. He said it is appropriate now for donald trump to do his bidding for the country and to act in line with his value, admitting that there will be very little overlap. These are two very different president s, arent they . Absolutely. There was sort of an obvious expect ae can conservative republican to maintain the policies of it liberal democrat like himself. His point there was to give trump room to show that he understands that trump is going to be a different kind of president that he is. But the new notice that the president at the end of that statement where he talks about how he hopes that perhaps when evidence ands the gets into the situation tries to figure out, he might be convinced to do things differently than he had expected, and in the end, he would find a few areas where he policies ofin the president obama. If the diplomatic way of getting to the point where he sort of nudging mr. Trump, saying you will see that when you get into the oval office. Aura thank you very much we will take a short break and we will bexxxxxxxx÷o÷o÷o÷o÷m÷m÷p 01 18 17 01 18 17 [captioning made possible by democracy now ] amy from pacifica, this is democracy now yesterday after years of advocacy, when we heard the president had commuted Chelsea Mannings sentence, we were so relieved and we finally felt like there would be some sense of longoverdue justice in her case. Amy supporters of Army WhistleblowerChelsea Manning and puerto rican independence activist Oscar Lopez Rivera are celebrating after president obama commuted their sentences in one of his last acts in office