President of the United States of America, Barack Obama on Friday held his final press conference of the year 2016.
Obama mentioned Russia and its president, Vladmir Putin many times during the conference.
He said it was shocking that a recent poll showed that 37 per cent of Republican voters approved of Putin, saying “Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave” over recent GOP praise of Russia.
Obama, who would leave the Oval office as the 44th president of the US on January 20, 2017 spoke on various issues – the US Presidential elections, the alleged involvement of Russia in the US election, the situation in Aleppo, Syria, among other things.
Here are key moments from the conference:
The US is more prosperous now than 8 years ago
Speaking on the current state of the nation, Obama said, “Every country on earth sees America as stronger and more respected than they did a decade ago”.
President Obama: "Our country is stronger and more prosperous" than it was 8 years ago https://t.co/UYpqI3esEb https://t.co/nGuJ29K1cI
— CNN (@CNN) December 16, 2016
Russia responsible for hack on the Democratic National Convention
Speaking on the hack of the Democratic National Convention, Obama laid the blame on Russia.
He said that as a matter of fact, “based on uniform intelligence assessments, the Russians were responsible for hacking the DNC, and as a consequence it is important for us to review all elements of that, and ensure that we are preventing that kind of interference through cyber attacks in the future”.
He also hoped that President-elect, Donald Trump would be concerned that such foreign interference never happened again.
“My hope is the President-elect is similarly going to be concerned that we don’t have foreign influence in our election process.”
President Obama: Based on intelligence assessments, "the Russians were responsible for hacking the DNC" https://t.co/zHhf9lyM5u
— CNN (@CNN) December 16, 2016
Obama added that the cyber-interference from Russia stopped after he put a phone call through to Putin promising consequences if the hacks continued.
Hillary Clinton was treated unfairly during the election
Obama said he was proud of Secretary Clinton, as he argued that he doesn’t think she was treated fairly during the election. He also queried the coverage of her person and of the issues.
“I think the coverage of her and the issues was troubling,” Obama said.
On the situation in Syria
Obama, who condemned the situation in Syria blamed the Assad regime, Russia and Iran for the killing of civilians in Aleppo.
Dolapo is a writer and journalist who works with YNaija. He has interests in Christianity, politics and sports.
Leave a reply