Clip of Obama’s final press conference goes viral as it’s brutally compared to Trump

At times like these, it is difficult not to be nostalgic of presidents-past who did not demean the core tenets of democracy.

This tendency of reminiscing is perhaps why an old clip of Barack Obama has recently made the rounds on Twitter as president Trump prepares to leave office on Wednesday.

A clip from 2017 posted by Howard Mortman, the communications director of C-SPAN, shows former President Obama’s final press conference before leaving office.

In the video – which has been viewed on twitter more than 1.5 million times – Obama is well-spoken with a calm happy demeanor, expressing his thanks to the press corps. He also joked about their complaints about his ‘long answers’ – adding, as people laughed, that he did this because the press always asked “six part questions”.

Acknowledging that he had not always “enjoyed every story”, Obama made sure to convey the importance of the press to the government’s operation.

"You’re not supposed to be sycophants, you're supposed to be skeptics. You’re supposed to ask me tough questions,” he said at the time.

“You're not supposed to be complimentary, but you're supposed to cast a critical eye on folks who hold enormous power."

First of all, try to imagine Donald Trump carefully answering a 6-part question from a journalist, much less allowing the reporter to finish speaking.

Trump has in the past four years essentially waged a war on the free press; popularizing the dangerous phrase “fake news”, berating journalists as the “enemy of the people” and generally “dangerously” undermining the truth.

People across social media took time to watch the video of Obama on Wednesday, remarking it was a ‘brilliant’ and ‘exemplary’ final press conference.

“This is what true leadership is,” one person wrote, seemingly making a comparison to the kind of leadership that succeeded Obama. “This is how you show respect...class personified to people who disagree with you,” another person added.

Others shared the clip, noting they were not expecting anything similar from President Trump, who has just a few hours before he officially leaves office: “ Not holding my breath for a similar-type press conference today or tomorrow morning…” one person wrote.

On Tuesday, Trump did give a farewell speech, which, as you may have guessed, was full of inaccuracies and false claims. He has not specifically addressed journalists in a farewell press conference, which is not really surprising.

Either way, for those who found themselves missing the normal rapport with journalists shouldn’t be too worried anymore, as Obama’s former vice president will be sworn in shortly.