1. President Obama sympathizes with Trayvon Martin’s parents.
“I think all of us were troubled by what happened, and any of us who are parents can imagine the heartache that those parents went through,” Obama said. “It doesn’t mean that Trayvon was a perfect kid, none of us were…You’re a teenager, especially a teenage boy, you’re gonna mess up and you won’t always have the best judgment.
“But what I think all of us agree to,” he added, “is that we should have a criminal justice system that is fair, that’s just, and what I wanted to try to explain was why this was a partiuclalry sensitive topic for African-American families because a lot of people who have sons know the experience they had being followed or being viewed suspiciously.”
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2. When discussing Russia’s antigay laws, Obama said he has “no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgender persons in a way that intimidate them or are harmful to them.”
“I think Putin and Russia have a big stake in making sure that the Olympics work,” he said, “and I think that they understand that for most of the countries that participate in the Olympics we wouldn’t tolerate gays and lesbians being treated differently. They are athletes. They are there to compete. And if Russia wants to uphold the Olympic spirit, then every judgment should be made on the track or in the swimming pool or on the balance beam and people’s sexual orientation shouldn’t have anything to do with it.”
Obama continued, “One of the things I think is very important for me to speak out on is making sure that people are treated fairly and justly because that’s what we stand for, and I believe that that’s a precept that’s not unique to America. That’s just something that should apply everywhere.”
3. The commander-in-chief give Americans safety tips for traveling abroad.
“I think the virtual rule is to show some common sense and some caution. There’s some countries where it’s less likely to experience a terrorist attack an there’s other countries that are more dangerous,” he said of the global travel warning the recently resulted in the closing of 19 embassies.
The President didn’t specify which countries require the most caution.
