Obama's final press conference explains Trump's election victory

US President Obama just had his last press conference. He answered questions about Russia, Israel and why Trump won the election.

The outgoing US president began his press conference by talking about the importance of journalists, who "push government to be better."

The first question asked was regarding Chelsea Manning.

President Obama said his decision to commute Chelsea Manning's sentence was "entirely appropriate," arguing that the person behind one of the biggest leaks of classified information in US history had received a tough but appropriate prison sentence.

"I feel comfortable that justice has been done," Mr Obama said, rejecting criticism that his actions would only encourage future espionage and disclosure of classified documents.

Manning, a former intelligence analyst, was arrested seven years ago for leaking more than 700,000 diplomatic cables, videos and documents to WikiLeaks, which then exposed the nature of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Chelsea Manning has served a tough prison sentence,” President Obama stressed.

"I think that when Manning went to court, a proper trial was conducted and she accepted responsibility for her crimes. The sentence Manning received was disproportionate to what other whistleblowers have received, and she has already served a significant amount of time so a commutation, not a pardon, is part of the sentence."

"The commutation sends a message that whistleblowers need to work through established channels to raise concerns about government actions," Obama said.

At the press conference, President Obama also blamed his counterpart Putin and mentioned continuing sanctions related to developments in Ukraine.

The White House chief also spoke about America's role as a guarantor, saying that "big countries don't go around and invade and bully smaller countries." "In multilateral issues, America is always on the right side of the issue."

Asked if he would try to maintain his legacy while Donald Trump is President, Obama replied, "it's entirely appropriate for Trump to carry out his vision and his values, I don't expect there to be a big overlap." And that, when Trump is President, "he'll see the complexity of certain issues, and that will lead him to make decisions like I did when I was President."

Explaining why Donald Trump won the presidential election, Mr. Obama said: "Many people voted for Mr. Trump because they felt forgotten and disenfranchised...". Mr. Obama also said that rumors of voting fraud were "fake news" but there was a problem that there were people who were eligible to vote but could not do so.

According to Vietnamnet