Barack Obama: Last Press Conference of the Departing President

During his 8-year presidential term, Barack Obama stood at the podium of the White House many times. When addressing the nation regarding incidents and armed attacks in which lives were lost, he often could not hide his emotions, Reuters reports, Patria conveys.

However, in the press room of the West Wing of the White House on Wednesday, filled with reporters from around the world, there was no room for sentiment.

Obama had previously been criticized by civil groups on multiple occasions for using the Espionage Act of 1917 to prosecute more whistleblowers and those responsible for leaking information than all previous administrations combined, as well as for seizing phone records from a news agency. But on Wednesday, he positioned himself as a defender of press freedom.

- You don't need to be sycophants, you need to be skeptics. You need to ask tough questions, the outgoing president emphasized.

He stressed that threats to press freedom would be threats to "core values" which would serve as a trigger for him to break presidential tradition and speak out from retirement, which he otherwise intends to spend writing and enjoying peace with his family.

- There is a difference between the normal functioning of politics and certain issues or moments when our core values can be called into question, the president said, adding: "I put the ratification of systematic discrimination, as well as visible or functional obstacles to people's right to vote, into that category. These are also institutional efforts to silence the media, as well as to send children who grew up here and love this country - somewhere else."

Reporters' questions concerned progress on LGBT rights, the commutation of whistleblower Chelsea Manning's sentence, disappointment with Israeli-Palestinian relations, and Russian aggression.

Despite the numerous blows he received during his two terms, Obama asserted that his optimistic vision has not been shaken. Although Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton did not win the election, he also spoke about the expectation that one day he will see a woman at the head of the US, or a president of Latin American origin, or a Jewish, or Hindu president, or others. "We will have such a mixed structure of presidents that at one point no one will know what to call them," the president revealed his vision.

- I believe in the American people. I believe that people are more good than bad. I believe that tragic things happen and that there is evil in the world, but I also think that, in the end, if we work diligently, and if we nurture what is true and right within us, the world will become a better place. That was my endeavor during my term, and I see it in the young people I worked with.

The president added: "Deep down, I feel that we will be OK. We just have to fight for it, we have to work for it, and not take it for granted. And I know that you will help us in this. Thank you, media! Good luck!"

Then he waved with his left hand and walked away, accompanied by the sound of camera shutters and questions that would never be answered.