Summary
Barack Obama has given his last press conference of the year and is off to watch the new Star Wars film. Highlights from the conference:
- Obama celebrated his successes, made in spite of his difficulties with Congress. He was specifically proud of the Paris climate change agreement, the more than 17m people who signed up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act and the trade deal.
- In the wake of the San Bernardino shooting and Paris attacks, his discussion was heavy on national security. “We’re going to defeat Isil and we’re going to do so by systematically squeezing them... We’re seeing steady progress,” Obama said.
- Obama said he still hopes to close Guantanamo Bay before leaving office. “I think we can make a strong argument that Guantanamo continues to be one of the key magnets for Jihadi recruitment,” he said.
- He said he is confident that the Democrats will pick a good candidate for the 2016 election and that that person will win.
“Okay everybody I gotta get to Star Wars,” Obama says.
He tells the reporters Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, then exits the press briefing room.
At Obama’s end of year press conference last year, he only called on female reporters.
This year:
.@POTUS (2:06-2:57) questioners: @robertarampton, @djusatoday, @jpaceDC, @cherylbolen, @PhilipinDC, & @AprilDRyan. pic.twitter.com/MAL9taiZwF
— Jeremy Art (@cspanJeremy) December 18, 2015
“American exceptionalism is not just a matter of bombing somebody,” Obama says.
He goes on to make the claim for American leadership on issues from the Iran nuclear deal, the TPP trade deal, the response to Ebola and the Paris climate change talks.
Back to national security.
“We’re going to defeat Isil and we’re going to do so by systematically squeezing them... We’re seeing steady progress,” Obama says.
He says Isis is going to continue to be dangerous, even when progress to reduce its power is successful. One example of this is the group’s social media savvy, he says.
I'm old enough to remember when Obama said he would be succinct
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) December 18, 2015
Time for climate change.
Obama notes that the Republican party is one of the only major political groups that essentially denies climate change.
And he is prepared for the party to try and stop the implementation of the Paris climate change agreement.
“Do I actually think that two years from now, three years from now, even Republican members of Congress are going to look at that and think it’s a smart thing to do?”
He doesn’t think that, he says.
“I think it’s fair I was going to be campaigning for a Democratic nominee,” Obama says.
He is confident the Democratic nominee will be “terrific” and will win.
Someone in the press room’s phone is ringing while Obama predicts the Democrat’s 2016 election success.
The president stops to tell the unidentified person to turn off their phone “don’t be embarrassed,” he says.
“It’s an election year and obviously a lot of the legislative process is going to be skewed by people looking over their shoulders, worried about the primaries,” Obama says.
That’s going to make the dealmaking process even more difficult, he says.
Obama is asked about Congress. Earlier, he said every battle he has had with Congress has been an “uphill battle”.
He says that the new speaker of the house, Paul Ryan, is “respectful of how the process works.”
“So, kudos to him,” Obama says.
Something else Ryan is respectful of: camo.
Check out the Ryan for Congress camo hats and show your support. https://t.co/cjRLdSGXxO pic.twitter.com/zofcdTbHjn
— Paul Ryan (@PRyan) December 14, 2015
Updated
Obama is asked if his presidency will end before Bashar al-Assad’s. He responds by saying there “has been a lot of revisionist history”.
We did not depose Egypt Mubarak. Syria is different from Egypt & Libya's Gadaffi. We need to speak out on Assad. pic.twitter.com/kc3KtAR2KJ
— Jon-Christopher Bua (@JCBua) December 18, 2015
“When you have an authoritarian leader that is killing hundreds of thousands of his own people, the notion that we would just stand by and say nothing is contrary to who we are,” Obama says.
“You cannot bring peace to Syria, you cannot get an end to the civil war, unless you get a government that is recognised by the majority as a legitimate government... This is the argument I’ve had with Mr Putin.”
A reporter notes that Obama still has not closed Guantanamo Bay.
He says he will present a plan to Congress that he does not expect them to approve.
Obama says there is a strong argument to close it: it’s expensive, there are only a handful of people being held there and closing it is part of the US counterrorism strategy.
“I think we can make a strong argument that Guantanamo continues to be one of the key magnets for Jihadi recruitment,” he says.
Obama: "It's really expensive and we are essentially detaining a handful of people. Each person is costing several million dollars."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 18, 2015
Obama: This is a different kind of challenge from what we had with al-Qaida, which had cells. Isil try to encourage people with propaganda.
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 18, 2015
Obama is discussing the issues with balancing privacy with the government’s need to collect intelligence.
“No government is going to have the capacity to read every single person’s texts or social media,” Obama said.
On to national security:
“The United States continues to lead a global coalition in our commitment to destroy Isil,” Obama said.
He said that the country has “hit harder Isil harder than ever” and is “stepping up our support for our partners on the ground”.
Obama praised the military for their work around the world. “This holiday season all of us our united in our gratitude for their service,” Obama said.
This afternoon, he is heading to San Bernardino, where earlier this month, 14 people were killed in a shooting.
“Interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter and we are already halfway through,” Obama said.
He highlighted the supreme court’s landmark decision to legalize same-sex marriage.
“There’s still a lot more that Congress can do to promote job growth and increase wages,” Obama said.
Obama touted the success of the healthcare program, where 17 million more Americans have gained coverage and “new customers are up one-third over the last year”.
He also celebrated being one of the more than 200 nations that signed the climate deal in Paris last week.
“We have shown what is possible when America leads,” he said.
Updated
Barack Obama has arrived.
“Clearly this is not the most important event taking place at the White House today,” he begins.
There is a Star Wars screening there today, he said.
Updated
Barack Obama has commuted the jail sentences of 95 people, mainly for drug trafficking offences, and pardoned two others, the White House announced on Friday.
The president has said reforms of the US criminal justice system to reduce the number of people serving long sentences for non-violent drug crimes is among the priorities for his last year in office.
A recurring offence in a list of the 95 inmates published by the White House is “conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base”. But in the case of Carolyn Yvonne Butler of San Antonio, Texas, the offence was armed bank robbery with 48 years’ imprisonment from 1992; this has been commuted to expire in April next year.
Obama told a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People conference earlier this year: “Over the last few decades, we’ve locked up more and more nonviolent drug offenders than ever before, for longer than ever before. And that is the real reason our prison population is so high. In far too many cases, the punishment simply does not fit the crime.
“If you’re a low-level drug dealer, or you violate your parole, you owe some debt to society. You have to be held accountable and make amends. But you don’t owe 20 years. You don’t owe a life sentence. That’s disproportionate to the price that should be paid.”
Hello, and welcome to our live blog of Barack Obama’s end-of-year address at the White House.
Foreign policy in Syria, the terrorism threat at home and the upcoming final year of his presidency are likely to dominate the agenda, writes Washington correspondent David Smith, who is in the White House briefing room.
The annual media interaction caps a week in which Obama has gone on a public relations offensive, emphasising security issues at the Pentagon and National Counterterrorism Center but also championing the contribution of immigrants at a naturalisation ceremony.
After the address, Obama will head to San Bernardino, California, to console the families of those murdered when Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire on 2 December.
Obama’s visit will be “patterned after” a similar trip to Roseburg, Oregon, in October when he met for about an hour with families of victims of a shooting at a community college there, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.
Obama will stop in San Bernardino on his way to Hawaii, where he will spend the holidays with his family.
Friday’s press conference could also see him face questions about his plans to shut the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, his tempestuous relationship with Congress and his predictions for how Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and others will fare in next year’s presidential election. He is unlikely to accept the mantle of “lame duck president”.
Updated
