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CNN NEWSROOM

Obama End-of-Year Press Conference; Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 18, 2015 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Dating five years ago, at which time his suggestion, as I gather some Republicans are now suggesting, was, "You know, Assad's not so bad, let him just be as brutal and repressive as he can, but at least he'll keep order." I said, "Look. The problem is that the history of trying to keep order when a large majority of the country has turned against you is not good."

And five years later, I was right. So we now have an opportunity -- and John Kerry is meeting as we speak with Syria and Turkey and Iran and the Gulf countries and other parties who are interested, we now have an opportunity not to turn back the clock, it's going to be difficult to completely overcome the devastation that's happened in Syria already, but to find a political transition that maintains the Syrian state, that recognizes a bunch of stakeholders inside of Syria and hopefully to initiate a cease-fire that won't be perfect, but allows all the parties to turn on what should be our number one focus, and that is destroying Daesh and its allies in the region.

And that is going to be a difficult process, it's going to be a pain staking process, but there is no shortcut to that. And that's not based on some idealism on my part, that's our hard-headed calculation about what's going to be required to get the job done.

QUESTION: Do you think that Assad, though, could remain in power a year from now?

OBAMA: I think that Assad is going to have to leave in order for the country to stop the bloodletting and for all the parties involved to be able to move forward in a nonsectarian way. He has lost legitimacy in the eyes of a large majority of the country.

Now, is there a way of us constructing a bridge creating a political transition that allows those who are aligned with Assad right now, allows the Russians, allows the Iranians to ensure that their equities are respected and minorities, that minorities like the Alawites (ph) are not crushed or retribution is not the order of the day, I think that's going to be very important as well.

And that's what make this so difficult. You know, sadly, had Assad made a decision earlier that he was not more important personally than his entire country, that kind of political transition would have been much easier. It's a lot harder now.

But John Kerry has been doing excellent work in moving that process forward and I do think that you've seen from the Russians a recognition that after a couple months, they're not really moving the needle that much in this fight of sizable deployment inside of Syria. And of course, that's what I suggested would happen, because there's only so much bombing you can do when an entire country is outraged and believes that its ruler doesn't represent them.

Sheryl (ph) Bowl (ph)?

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to ask about the surprise (ph) in Congress. Specifically, what are your top legislative priorities for next year? And how has the new speaker, Paul Ryan, changed the dynamic with you and Capitol Hill? And can you be more ambitious next year doing things like maybe completing the Transatlantic Trade Partnership or even getting tax reform?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, it's important to give some credit where credit is due. John Boehner did a favor to all of us, including now Speaker Ryan, by working with us to agree on a top line budget framework. That was the basis for subsequent negotiations. He was able to do that because he was going out the door, and was then given, I think, a little more room to maneuver than he previously had.

Having said that, I also want to give Speaker Ryan credit. I called both him and Mitch McConnell, as well as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for the orderly way in which they actually negotiated a budget, the way Congress is historically and typically supposed to work. I think (ph) we've gotten kind of used to last-minute crises and shutdown threats and so forth. And this -- this is a messy process that doesn't satisfy everybody completely, but it's more typical of American democracy, and I think that Speaker Ryan deserves a role in that.

I will say that, in his interactions with me, he has been professional, he has reached out to tell me what he can do and what he cannot do. I think it's a good working relationship.

We recognize that we disagree on a whole bunch of other stuff, and have fundamentally different visions for where we want to move the country, but, perhaps because even before he was elected he had worked on Capitol Hill, I think he is respectful of the process and respectful of how legislation works.

So kudos to him, as well as all the leaders and appropriators who were involved in this process. Now, just want to repeat, because sometimes we take for granted what's happened.

I said early on in this process that I wasn't going to sign a budget that -- that did not relieve sequester, this artificial austerity that was making it difficult to invest in things like education and our military. And I said I would not accept a lot of ideological riders that were attached to a big budget deal.

And we met our goals. And because of some terrific negotiations by the Democrats up on Capitol Hill, and I think some pretty good work by our legislative staffs here, we're gonna be able to fund environmental protection, we're gonna be able to make sure that we're investing in things like early childhood education and making college more affordable.

We're going to be able to implement the clean power plant rule. We're going to be able to continue to invest in clean energy that spurs on innovation. We're going to be able to make sure that our military gets the equipment and the training that it needs to be effective in fighting ISIL and other threats around the world.

So it was a -- it was a good win. And there are some things in there that I don't like, but that's the nature of legislation and -- and compromise. And I think the system worked. That gives me some optimism that, next year, on a narrow set of issues, we can get some more work done.

As David said, it's an election year, and obviously, a lot of the legislative process is going to be skewed by people looking over their shoulders, worrying about primaries, trying to position themselves relative to the presidential candidates. So that makes it harder.

But I think there are going to be a handful of areas where we can make real progress. One of them, you already mentioned, Trans-Pacific Partnership, which now has been out, Congress has had a chance to review, and it meets the bar that I set.

It is consistent with what I promised, which is the most pro- labor, pro-environment, progressive trade deal in history, that eliminates just about every tariff on American manufacturing goods in countries that up until this point have charged a tax, essentially, on anything that American workers and American businesses sell in these areas.

It brings those taxes down to zero on basically all of American manufactured products. A huge win for agriculture, because now -- you know, the people of Japan are going to be in a better position to enjoy American beef and American pork, which, up until this point, even though we're much more efficient producers, has have been tagged with a tax that makes -- you know, our products uncompetitive in Japanese markets.

So this is a big deal, and I think Speaker Ryan would like to try to get it done. And there are both proponents and opponents of this in both Democratic and Republican parties, and so it's gonna be an interesting situation where we're going to have to stitch together the same kind of bipartisan effort, in order for us to get it done.

A second area that I think is possible is criminal justice reform. There has been sincere, serious negotiations and efforts by Democrats and Republicans to create a criminal justice system that is more fair, more even handed, more proportionate and is smarter about how we reduce crime. And I have really been impressed by the dedication of a core group of Democrats and Republicans. Some of them the most liberal Democrats and the most conservative Republicans coming together saying this is the right thing to do. We've got a good bill in the Senate that passed with bipartisan support out of committee. My hope is that that gets to the floor. And that we can pair it up with a good bill out of the House. And then this is an area where potentially can see us save money, reduce recidivism, you know, make sure people who make a mistake on nonviolent crimes have to pay the price. Have to serve time, but are released in a -- in a reasonable fashion. That they have more support so they're less likely to go back into the criminal system, subsequently.

And that's an area where we may be able to make a big difference. So those are just two examples. We'll keep on looking for a number of examples like that. And -- and wherever there's an opportunity, I'm going to take it.

Phillip Grub (ph). Phillip Grub (ph).

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. You mentioned climate change already. And at the time of the signing of the deal in Paris you said it was potentially a turning point for the the world. But this was a deal that was -- that is not a legally binding document and you bypassed Congress pretty much completely.

Are you worried at this point that a Republican president who might take over for you in the White House could stop the deal in its tracks entirely, and considering that possibility, are you more interested in campaigning for a Democrat nominee considering that danger?

OBAMA: I think it's fair I was going to be campaigning for a Democratic nominee even without that danger. And I am very confident that we're going to have a terrific Democratic nominee and -- whose phone is that, guys? Come on, now. Somebody. You recognize your ring, don't be embarrassed. Just turn it off. There you go. OK. Can I still here it?

All right, I think it's off now.

I think we will have a strong Democratic nominee. I think that nominee will win. I think I will have a Democratic successor and I will campaign very hard to make that happy for a whole variety of reasons because they're far more likely to share my fundamental vision about where America should go.

But having said that, what I think people should also feel good about is that the agreement struck in Paris, although not legally binding when it comes to the targets that had been set does create this architecture in which all around the world countries are saying this is where we're going.

We're going to be chasing after this clean energy future. This is how we're going to meet our goals. We're going to double down on solar power. We're going to double down on wind power. We're going to invest more heavily in biofuels. We're going to figure out battery technologies.

And what you saw in this budget, which I think was really significant, was an extension of the solar tax credits and wind tax credits that we had helped to really boost early on in my administration and that it resulted in wind power increasing threefold, solar power increasing by twentyfold. Those tax credits are now going to be extended for five to seven years and as a consequence, that combination of market signals means that the private sector is going to start investing much more heavily. They know this is coming. And it's not just coming here. It's coming around the world.

You now have a global marketplace for clean energy that is stable and accelerating over the course of the next decade. That then creates a different dynamic that is independent of what Congress does, but also helps to shape what Congress does. Because the more people that are now getting jobs in solar installation and production, the more that you have companies who are seeing how American innovation can sell products in clean energy all across the Asia Pacific and in Europe and in Africa. Suddenly, there's a big monetary incentive to getting this right.

And that's been the history of environmental progress in this country and now we've exported it around the world. Every time we have made a decision, you know what, we're going to have clean air. The predictions were, everything would fall apart. And low and behold, turns out that American innovation makes getting clean air a lot less expensive than people expected and it happens a lot faster than expected.

When we made a decision that we were going to double fuel efficiency standards on cars, everybody said, I'm just going to ruin the American auto industry. The American auto industry has been booming over the last couple years.

Acid rain. When George H.W. Bush instituted a system to charge for the emissions that were causing acid rain, everybody said, well you can't do that, that's going to ruin business and it turned out that it was smoother, faster, quicker, better.

And acid rain -- folks who were born, I don't know -- some of you reporters are getting younger or I'm getting older, you may not remember it but that was a big deal and now most folks don't even remember it anymore because it got solved. And there's no reason why the same won't happen here.

Now, do I think there's going to be a lot of noise and campaigning next year about how we're going to stop Paris in its tracks? There will probably be a lot of noise about that. Do I actually think two years from now, three years from now, even Republican members of Congress are going to look at it and say that's a smart thing to do? I don't think they will.

Keep in mind that right now the American Republican party is the only major party that I can think of in the advanced world that effectively denies climate change. I mean, it's an outlier. Many of the key signatories to this deal, the architects of this deal, come from center-right governments. Even the far right parties in many of these countries. They may not like immigrants for example, but they admit, yes, the science tells us that we have to do something about climate change. So my sense is that this is something that may be an advantage in terms of short-term politics in the Republican primary. It's not something that is going to be a winner for Republicans long- term.

QUESTION: You mentioned American leadership. But is it embarrassing to you that the other party denies climate change? OBAMA: No, because first of all, I'm not a member of that party.

Second of all, it didn't stop us from being the key leader in getting this done. I mean, this is something that I have been working on now for five, six years. When I went to Copenhagen, I essentially engaged in 24 hours of diplomacy to salvage from a pretty chaotic process, the basic principle that all countries had to participate.

We couldn't have a rigid division between developed countries and developing countries when it came to solving this problem. That was the initial foundation for us. Then working with other countries, culminating in the joint announcement with China, bringing in India, bringing in Brazil and the other big, emerging countries, working with the Europeans in getting this done.

This would not have happened without American leadership. And by the way, the same is true for the Iran nuclear deal. The same is true for the Trans-Pacific partnership. The same is true for stamping out Ebola, something you guys may recall from last year, which was the potential end of the world.

You know, at each juncture, what we have said is that American strength and American exceptionalism is not just a matter of us bombing somebody. More often, it's a matter of us convening, setting the agenda, pointing other nations in a direction that's good for everybody and good for U.S. interests.

Engaging in painstaking diplomacy, leading by example and sometimes, the results don't come overnight, they don't come the following day, but they come. And this year, what you really saw was that steady, persistent leadership on many initiatives that I began when I first came into office.

Alright.

QUESTION: Mr. President?

OBAMA: I've got April Ryan (ph)?

QUESTION: Mr. President, I want to ask you something about criminal justice -- on that subject and also something on Secretary Kerry (ph). Your administration contends (ph) the United States is five percent of the world population, but 25 percent of the global jail population. What legislation are you supporting that significantly cuts mass incarceration in this country? And going back to the Assad (ph) issue, does Assad have to go to defeat ISIS? OBAMA: Well, we're going to defeat ISIS, and we're going to do so by systemically squeezing them, cutting off their supply lines, cutting off their financing, taking out their leadership, taking out their forces, taking out their infrastructure. We're going to do so in partnership with forces on the ground that sometimes are spotty, sometimes need capacity building, need our assistance, need our training, but we're seeing steadily progress in many of these areas. And so they're going to be on the run.

Now, they are going to continue to be dangerous, so -- so let me just be very clear, because whenever I say that we have made progress in squeezing the territory that they control or made real end roads against them, what people will say is, well, if something happens around the world, then obviously that must not be true.

But in any battle, in any fight, even as you make progress, there's still dangers involved. And ISIL's capacity both to infiltrate Western countries with people who have travel to Syria or travel to Iraq and the savviness of their social media, their ability to recruit disaffected individuals who may be French or British or even U.S. citizens, will continue to make them dangerous for some time. But -- but -- but we will systemically go after them.

Now, in order for us to stamp them out thoroughly, we have to eliminate lawless areas in which they cannot still roam. So we can -- we can disable them, we can dismantle much of their infrastructure, greatly reduce the threat that they pose to the United States, our allies and our neighbors, but in the same way that Al Qaida is pinned down and has much more difficulty carrying out any significant attacks because of how we have systemically dismantled them, they still pose a threat.

There are still operatives who are interested in carrying out terrorist attacks because they still operate in areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan or more prominently right now in Yemen that are hard to reach. Our -- our long-term goal has to be able to stabilize these areas so that they don't have any safe haven, and in order for us to do that in Syria, there has to be an end to the civil war. There has to be an actual government that has a police capacity and a structure in these areas that currently aren't governed.

And it is my firm belief and the belief of the experts in this administration that so long as Assad is there, we cannot achieve that kind of stability inside of Syria, and, you know, I -- I think the history over the last several years indicates as much. So that's going to continue to be a top priority for us, moving aggressively on the military track and not letting ISIL take a breath and pounding away at them with our special forces and our airstrikes and the training and advising of partners that can go after them. But we also have to keep very aggressive on this diplomatic track in order for us to bring countries together. All right?

Everybody? On criminal justice reform? I -- I answered the question. I'm hopeful.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

OBAMA: Right. In April (ph), what I said was is that I strongly support the Senate legislation that's already been put forward. I'm hopeful that the House can come up with legislation that follows the same principles, which is to make sure that we're doing sentencing reform, but we're also doing a better job in terms of reducing recidivism and providing support for ex-offenders. And if we can get those two bills together in a conference, then I'm somewhat optimistic that we're gonna be able to make a difference.

Now keep in mind, April (ph), when you use the term mass incarceration, statistically the overwhelming majority of people who are incarcerated are in state prisons and state facilities for state crimes. We can only focus on federal law and federal crimes. And so there's still going to be a large population of individuals who are incarcerated even for nonviolent drug crimes because this is a trend that started in the late '80s and '90s and accelerated at the state levels.

But if we can show at the federal level that we can be smart on crime, more cost effective, more just, more proportionate, then we can set a trend for other states to follow as well. And that's our hope.

This is not going to be something that's reversed overnight. So just to go back to my general principle, April (ph), it took 20 years for us to get to the point we are now. And only 20 years probably before we reverse -- we reverse some of these major trends.

OK, everybody, I gotta get to Star Wars. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Appreciate you. Thank you. Merry Christmas, everybody.

[14:57:35]

[14:57:36] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: There he is, the president of the United States. He's off to a "Star Wars" presentation for some young kids over at the White House.

Let's just listen and see if he says anything.

OBAMA: Merry Christmas. Everybody, have fun with your families.

BLITZER: He said, "Merry Christmas."

Merry Christmas, Mr. President, to you, as well.

We heard, nearly an hour, the president touting some of his major achievements, at least in his mind, that occurred over the past year on climate change, the Iran nuclear deal opening the door to Cuba, resumptions of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. He also suggested the U.S. is making progress on the war on ISIS, although ISIS remains, in his words, "still very dangerous." He said detecting lone-wolf terrorists in the United States is as difficult as detecting mass shooters here in the United States. And he went on.

Jake Tapper, the president does have an annual end-of-year news conference before he heads off to his vacation in Hawaii. This is what he did today.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT & CNN ANCHOR, THE LEAD: Just before we assess that, I want to note, the "Star Wars" screening, he's going to a screening with Gold Star families and their kids. I happen to know one of the children who lost his father before he could even meet his father fighting in Afghanistan. And I know he and his mom are just over the moon attending this. So just a special moment.

BLITZER: Very cool watching "Star Wars" at the White House.

TAPPER: At the White House, a nice moment for the White House to be doing that for these families.

That said, I have to say, first of all, the most interesting thing that the President Saud that we know about this week was in an off- the-record conference with a numb of columnists in which he talked about concerns about why he does not want there to be a major military effort in Iraq and Syria. He said he has been advised it could cost hundreds of lives. I think he said --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He said 100 deaths a month and 500 injured and could cost $10 billion a month.

TAPPER: $10 billion. Remarkably, he was not asked about that at this press conference, but that's something our viewers should know about. It was in an off-the-record meeting with columnists. And national press, Peter Baker, of "The New York Times" wrote about it and that's very, very interesting. The president obviously was trying to tout things he thinks are important, some achievements being done by Congress. He gave kudos to the new house speaker, Paul Ryan, for working with him. He talked about the trade partnership in the Pacific. He talked about the nuclear deal with Iran, Cuba and other things that he achieved. But he couldn't get past the issues of ISIS. And he did say he wanted to underline that even though he pointed out that 40 percent of the land ISIS --