United States President Barack Obama is set to hold his final press conference of 2016 on Friday afternoon, and a full replay of the event is available to view below, on this page. In the press conference, Obama is addressed the U.S. response to Russia in the wake of that country’s cyber attacks that, according to U.S. intelligence operations, attempted to influence this year’s presidential election — even working to tilt the election to Donald Trump.
But the president’s measured remarks left many Democrats distressed.
Putin must be watching this Obama press conference with a victorious smile. Trump too. Rank and file Dems will feel crushed by it.
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) December 16, 2016
Watch the full replay of the Obama press conference from the White House at 2:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time/11:15 a.m. Pacific by clicking on the video below.
While Obama was harshly critical of Trump during the presidential campaign, as the president stumped for his chosen successor, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, since the election, he has refrained from verbal barbs aimed at Trump directly. Instead, Obama has pledged his cooperation with the Trump transition team to ensure an orderly and peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next.
But Trump’s repeated denials of the Russian cyber attacks and the president-elect’s refusal to attend briefings by U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly have pushed the “orderly transition” lower on Obama’s priorities list.
In fact, Trump has not only ignored the views of the U.S. intelligence community, he has expressed open disdain for American intelligence agencies and defended Russia against the views of the CIA.
“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe they interfered,” Trump told Time Magazine when asked about the CIA assessment that Russia tampered with the election through clandestine online attacks.
On Friday morning, a few hours prior to Obama’s live stream press conference, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was spotted entering Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, where Trump has stationed himself during his transition to the presidency. Johnson was later seen leaving the building without offering comment.
Sec Homeland Security Jeh Johnson just went up elevator for meetings at Trump Tower. Walked in the front door. No questions
— Terrence Dopp (@tdopp) December 16, 2016
What the Homeland Security chief may have discussed with the President-Elect remains unknown.
However, in an interview on Thursday that aired Friday morning on National Public Radio, Obama pledged retaliation against Russia for the cyber attacks. Watch Obama give that interview in the video below.
In the interview, Obama was not specific about what form the retaliation would take or when it might occur, indicating only that the U.S. would take action “at a time and place of our own choosing.”
Obama also said that he had contacted Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the election hacking allegations.
“Mr. Putin is well aware of my feelings about this, because I spoke to him directly about it,” Obama told NPR.
While the CIA has reportedly alleged that the Russian hacking was designed specifically to promote the election of Trump, Obama did not specifically endorse that view in his NPR interview.
However, Obama did say that whatever the intentions , the outcome of the Russian hacking was to favor Trump over Clinton.
“What the Russian hack had done was create more problems for the Clinton campaign than it had for the Trump campaign,” Obama told NPR. “There’s no doubt that it contributed to an atmosphere in which the only focus for weeks at a time, months at a time were Hillary’s emails, the Clinton Foundation, political gossip surrounding the DNC.”
While Trump himself has not held a press conference since the November 8 election, Obama’s Friday presser, seen in the live stream above on this page, will be his fifth since the election.
[Featured Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
