President Barack Obama knocked Republican presidential candidates for anti-Muslim rhetoric and accused critics on Tuesday of playing into the hands of Islamic State in a speech aimed at setting an optimistic tone for his last year in office.
Obama, delivering his last State of the Union speech to Congress before leaving office next year, said it was fiction to declare the United States was in economic decline or getting weaker on the international stage.
In a direct slap at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, Obama said insulting Muslims hurt the United States and "betrayed" its identity.
"When politicians insult Muslims ... that doesn’t make us safer," he said, drawing applause from the crowd in the House of Representatives chamber. "It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals."
He criticized the negative tone of the current presidential race, arguing the US has the "strongest, most durable economy in the world".
"Anyone claiming that America's economy is in decline is peddling fiction," Mr Obama told lawmakers in Washington.
He called on voters and politicians to change the divisive tone of politics and to "change the system to reflect our better selves".
Mr Obama said a major regret of his presidency was that Republicans and Democrats had become more hostile towards each other.
"Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get all the attention," he said.
And he took indirect aim to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump who has been criticised for his comments about Muslims and immigrants.
"When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalised, or a kid bullied, that doesn't make us safer," Mr Obama said.
"That's not telling it like it is. It's just wrong... And it betrays who we are as a country."
In the year ahead, Mr Obama said he wanted to:
- close the Guantanamo Bay prison
- achieve meaningful criminal justice reform
- address rising tide of prescription drug abuse
- authorize the use of military force against IS
- lift the embargo on Cuba
He also announced a new national cancer research initiative that Vice-President Joe Biden will be leading.
He only mentioned guns briefly, despite a recent policy push for executive actions on gun control, though a chair was left empty in the chamber to symbolise victims of gun violence.
