What Happened In Washington This Week? 7 Stories You Might Have Missed

Government officials were busy this week. With President Obama leaving, a President-elect Donald Trump preparing for inauguration, a new Congress gearing up and the intelligence community growing increasingly frustrated, there's been a lot to cover.

Don't feel bad if you didn't catch all of the stories. We're here to help.

Here's what you might have missed this week:

A PRESIDENT SAYS GOODBYE

On Tuesday, President Obama offered a tearful farewell address to the nation from Chicago, where he celebrated his 2008 and 2012 election victories. He defended the accomplishments of his administration as he prepares to leave office:

If I had told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history . If I had told you that we would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran's nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, and take out the mastermind of 9/11 . If I had told you that we would win marriage equality, and secure the right to health insurance for another 20 million of our fellow citizens - you might have said our sights were set a little too high.

Watch the full speech on Patch. Obama also gave his vice president an emotional sendoff on Thursday, awarding Joe Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction.

CABINET CONFIRMATION HEARINGS KICK OFF

Rex Tillerson, nominee for secretary of state, said he has not talked to Trump in-depth about Russia and hesitated in calling out human rights abusers. Ben Carson, with little experience for his potential role as secretary of housing and urban development, faced relatively gentle lines of questioning. And Gen. James Mattis, who already has Sen. Tim Kaine's vote locked up for secretary of defense, appears to be much more skeptical of Moscow than his future boss.

EXPLOSIVE CLAIMS ABOUT TRUMP PUBLISHED

After somewhat vague reports were published about a mystery dossier of intelligence connecting Trump and Russia, BuzzFeed published the whole dossier, asking readers to judge its veracity for themselves and igniting a firestorm. The claims made range from the scandalous to the salacious, drawing financial connection between the Trump campaign and Moscow and alleging that the Kremlin is blackmailing the president-elect. Its contents remain largely unconfirmed, and may well be false.

But such allegations are likely not welcome as the president-elect struggles with much worse approval ratings than the sitting commander in chief.

TRUMP HOLDS FIRST PRESS CONFERENCE IN MONTHS

Having not held a press conference since winning the election in November, Trump finally met with a crowd of reporters on Wednesday — and they had a lot to ask. The reports from BuzzFeed and CNN, Trump's conflicts of interest and accusations of "fake news" took center stage at the event at Trump Tower. The president-elect called BuzzFeed a "failing pile of garbage" and refused to take a question from a CNN reporter. He also announced that he will not be divesting from his companies; instead, his sons will be in charge.

PRESIDENT-ELECT FEUDS WITH INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

Trump also compared the intelligence community to Nazi Germany for letting the news of the dossier leak — an odd metaphor that raised many eyebrows. He also said that he had been told the report was completely false by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, but Clapper said he did not know whether the documents were accurate or not. Clapper also said he does not believe the document itself came from intelligence officials — it had been making its way around D.C. for months —but anonymous sources speaking to CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post may well have been from within the nation's spy agencies.

OBAMACARE UNDER THE KNIFE

Both the Senate and the House passed resolutions this week as the first step of repealing Obamacare. No Democrats joined with Republicans to pass the resolution; Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Senate Republican to vote "no." Paul Ryan held a town hall on CNN, in part to discuss repeal, and Donald Trump said he would work to craft a replacement bill. But as of yet, no clear vision of a Republican health care system has emerged.

FBI UNDER INVESTIGATION

The inspector general of the Justice Department will review the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email case. FBI Director James Comey is now facing criticism from all sides, as Trump continues to diminish the work of the intelligence community, and Democrats are continuing to fume about his decision to bring up the email issue 11 days before the election.

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