Obama uses his final press conference to issue extraordinary warning to Trump that he will step in if he 'rounds up' children for deportation, hits voting rights or 'silences dissent' Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4133722/Obama-respond-Trump-threatens-Dreamers-rights.html#ixzz4WAXc6yK9 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

President Obama laid down a marker for President-elect Trump after he takes office

In his final press conference, Trump brought up contentions issues for the U.S. citizenry, and pointedly told Trump he would speak up if his successor strayed far from current policy on rights issues

He mentioned 'systematic discrimination' and efforts to 'punish' immigrants who came here as children 

He praised the press for making 'this place work better' in another signal to Trump, who has attacked networks and news outlets

Invokes Jim Crow efforts to 'restrict the franchise' and prioritizes voting rights amid looming fight with the GOP over voter ID laws 

But he explains that doesn't mean he would 'get on the ballot'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4133722/Obama-respond-Trump-threatens-Dreamers-rights.html#ixzz4WAY1phN2
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President Obama issued a farewell warning to President-elect Donald Trump, saying he would jump off the political sidelines if Trump goes against certain 'core values.' 

At his last scheduled news conference before leaving office on Friday, Obama said if there was 'systemic discrimination,' efforts to 'silence dissent' or to 'roll back voting rights,' he would be 'speaking out.'

It was among his most activist descriptions of his next act, and indicates Obama may be rethinking his post-presidency role and heeding the urging of some activists to play a stronger function in the leaderless Democratic Party as it navigates the Trump administration.

That group of issues, Obama explained, were 'core values that may be at stake' and would prompt him to get off the sidelines.

In his final news conference, President Obama vowed to step in if certain 'core values' were threatened

'If I saw systematic discrimination [is] being ratified in some fashion. I put in that category explicit or functional obstacles to people being able to vote, to exercise their franchise,' Obama said.

He continued: 'I put in that category institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press.'

He saved some of his most impassioned remarks for DREAMers. 'And for me, at least, I would put in that category efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids, and send them someplace else, when they love this country, they are our kids' friends and their classmates and are now entering into community colleges or in some cases serving in our military ...'

'The notion that we would just arbitrarily, or because of politics, punish those kids, when they didn't do anything wrong themselves, I think would be something that would merit me speaking out. It doesn't mean that I would get on the ballot anywhere.'

His comment about DREAMers references immigrants brought here illegally as children. Obama issued executive actions to protect them from deportation, but their fate is now in limbo.