Obama defends presidential legacy on social media

With the start of the New Year, President Obama took the opportunity to reflect on his legacy on Twitter.

“It’s been the privilege of my life to serve as your President,” Mr. Obama wrote Sunday. With less than three-weeks left of his presidency, the soon-to-be 44th President of the United States of America shared his personal highlights in a seven-part Twitter message.

“I wanted to take a moment to look back on the remarkable progress that you made possible,” Mr. Obama’s first post said, gaining more than 42 thousand retweets from social media users. 

The president then jumped into the economy, laying out that 15.6 million private sector jobs were added in the past 81 months. “The longest streak of job growth in our history,” he said. 

He defended the Affordable Care Act, a policy President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican leaders have promised to repeal and replace, saying the number of Americans without health insurance has dropped significantly since his presidency. “Nearly every American now has access to financial security and affordable healthcare,” he wrote. 

He also touted that America cut it’s reliance on foreign oil during his time in office, and put more emphasis on clean energy for the sake of the Earth’s health. “We acted on a global scale to save the one planet we’ve got,” he wrote. 

Mr. Obama also told social media users that the United States continued to be a global leader, “partnering with nations to meet global problems.”

And he spotlighted the historic Supreme Court ruling that same-sex couples now have the constitutional right to marry in the United States. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority in 2015.

“We’ve made history in our work to reaffirm that all are created equal,” Mr. Obama tweeted.

He finished off his tweeting by adding that he looked forward to standing with fellow Americans “as a citizen,” and wished everyone a happy 2017. His messages was followed up a swell of responses on Twitter, with some coming from admiration alums like former speechwriter Jon Favreau. 

Mr. Obama’s tweets, which were shared on the @POTUS handle, will be moved to a new handle called @POTUS44. The @POTUS handle will transition over to Mr. Trump when he takes over the presidency come January 20. 

Mr. Trump has been critical about the Obama administration’s stance on immigration, foreign policy and the economy. However, he told CBS News’ Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes” after winning the 2016 Presidential Election that he was open to keeping some of the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Obama’s signature domestic policy. 

In his final days in office, Mr. Obama will go to the Capitol Hill to meet with Democrats and strategize a way to save the healthcare law, which the White House says provides health coverage to 20 million Americans.

Mr. Obama will be delivering a farewell address to the nation from Chicago next week, the White House confirmed Monday. The speech, which will be delivered from his hometown, will possibly be his last chance to defend his presidential legacy directly to the American people before departing the Oval Office.

In:
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
• Barack Obama