Obama says to speak up "if Trump threatens core U.S. values"

PanARMENIAN.Net - President Barack Obama vowed to speak up if Donald Trump threatens core U.S. values and reassured Americans "we'll be okay" Wednesday, January 18, in a political swansong after eight years as president, AFP reports.

During his final press conference and public appearance before Trump's inauguration on Friday, the 55-year-old said he was stepping back but would return to the political breach in extremis.

"I want to do some writing, I want to be quiet a little bit and not hear myself talk so darn much. I want to spend precious time with my girls," he said.

But, he added, any effort to enforce systematic discrimination, erode voting rights, muzzle the press or round up young immigrants, would cause him to speak out.

"There's a difference between that normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake."

During the campaign Trump vowed to ban Muslims from entering the United States and deport millions of illegal immigrants, many of them Latin Americans long-settled in the country.

His strident tone since winning election and the contrast with eight years of Obama's liberal agenda has given the country something akin to political whiplash.

Obama was resolute and reassuring. "I have offered my best advice," he said, describing his conversations with the president-elect.

"I can tell you that -- this is something I have told him -- that this is a job of such magnitude that you can't do it by yourself. You are enormously reliant on a team."

He also defended his decision -- slammed by Trump's Republicans -- to commute the sentence of transgender army private Chelsea Manning, jailed for 35 years for handing classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks.

"Let's be clear. Chelsea Manning has served a tough prison sentence," Obama said. "I know I feel very comfortable that justice has been served and that a message has still been sent."