Obama calls notion of voting fraud 'fake news' in final press conference

In his final press conference, President Obama linked current efforts to "restrict the franchise" of voting from many Americans back to the country's "legacy of slavery" and Jim Crow laws.

"We are the only country in the advanced world that makes it harder to vote rather than easier," the president said from the White House briefing room. "The reason that we are the only country among advanced democracies that makes it harder to vote is it traces directly back to Jim Crow and the legacy of slavery."

Obama also called the notion of voting fraud "fake news." 

Here’s a partial transcript with video below the fold.

“We are the only country in the advanced world that makes it harder to vote rather than easier. And that dates back. There's a -- there's an ugly history to that that we should not be shy about talking about. 

Reporter: Voting rights? 

Yes, I'm talking about voting rights. The reason that we are the only country among advanced democracies that makes it harder to vote is it traces directly back to Jim crow and the legacy of slavery. And it became sort of acceptable to restrict the franchise. And that's not who we are. That shouldn’t be who we are. That's not when America works best. So I hope people pay a lot of attention to making sure that everybody has a chance to vote. Make it easier, not harder. This whole notion of voting fraud, this is something that has constantly been disproved. This is fake news. The notion that there are a whole bunch of people out there who are going out there and are not eligible to vote and want to vote. We have the opposite problem. We have a whole bunch of people who are eligible to vote, who don't vote. The idea we put in place a bunch of barriers to people voting doesn't make sense.