Politics

Obama Throws Shade At Trump In A Way Only A Law Professor Can

President Obama makes it clear: his relationship with the press is much different than Donald Trump's.

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President Barack Obama holds the last news conference of his presidency. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama holds the last news conference of his presidency. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

I have enjoyed working with all of you. That does not, of course, mean that I’ve enjoyed every story that you have filed, but that’s the point of this relationship. You’re not supposed to be sycophants, you’re supposed to be skeptics. You’re supposed to ask me tough questions. You’re not supposed to be complimentary, but you’re supposed to cast a critical eye on folks who hold enormous power, and make sure that we are accountable to the people who sent us here. And you have done that, and you’ve done it, for the most part, in ways that I could appreciate for fairness, even if I didn’t always agree with your conclusions.

And having you in this building has made this place work better. It keeps us honest, it makes us work harder. You have made us think about how we are doing what we do, and whether or not we’re able to deliver on what’s been requested by our constituents. […]

I spent a lot of time in my farewell address talking about the state of our democracy. It goes without saying that essential to that is a free press. That is part of how this place, this country, this grand experiment in self-government has to work. It doesn’t work if we don’t have a well-informed citizenry, and you are the conduit through which they receive the information about what’s taking place in the halls of power. So America needs you, and democracy needs you. We need you to establish a baseline of facts and evidence that we can use as a starting point for the kind of reasoned and informed debates that ultimately lead to progress.

And so my hope is that you will continue with the same tenacity that you showed us, to do the hard work of getting to the bottom of stories and getting them right, and to push those of us in power to be the best version of ourselves, and to push this country to be the best version of itself. I have no doubt that you will do so.

—President Barack Obama, in his final press conference as president, getting his law professor on, lecturing on the importance of the First Amendment. He encouraged the reporters to keep up the good fight under the next administration, and threw shade at the president-elect’s tantrum over the White House press corps.

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