The two major crisis of the obama years, saluting with a coffee cup in his hand. Nightmare. And showing newspaper a tan r a a and showing up in a tan suit. Good afternoon, everybody. I want to say a few words on a number of topics and take a few questions before the long labor day weekend. The day that he wore the tan suit it was a huge ammo. The president came out this afternoon to address serious issues. Did you notice something about his wardrobe. Hashtag tan suit started trending, and yes we tan. Republican congressman, peter king is using the suit to criticize the president. Theres no way i think any of us can excuse what the president did, you have the whole world watching. Whoever talked him into going with a tan suit theyre so desperate with the low poll numbers theyre willing to do anything. The rise of social media, the increasing popularity of talk radio, of fox news, of the polarization of sort of national media, all of those forces were at play. What that became was really emblematic of the stories we dealt with for those eight years. In the Obama Presidency there just frankly was not a lot of largescale scandal. There were mishaps and mistakes, there were problems, there were times where he said one thing and never did it. And he needed to be held to account. But it does seem like a much different time than the one were in now. All of his problems were those of politics and political debates and policy debates not of some sort of personal character flaw. The president stands squarely behind the decision he made yesterday to wear his summer suit at yesterdays meeting. [ laughter ] resistance and disrespect blatant disrespect by some members of the Republican Party towards president obama was something i took very personally. President obama always had a way of putting it in perspective that, like, sometimes you just turn one person at a time. Even when i wanted to be mad and vengeful hes like thats not going to get us anywhere alyssa. Mostly i heard him express frustration when he was running out of time. I became chief of state in 2013 he relentlessly pushed us to focus on getting done what we can get done and focussing on the people he was trying to get it done for. Its a milestone day for Affordable Care act for the first time americans will be able to sign. 24 hours this going into effect the next day were a bit rocky. Hardest day i had as press secretary were the days healthcare. Gov was a slowmoving train wreck. President obama falling on the roll out disaster. Approval at 37 percent, a ninepoint drop. We had nobody to blame, the Affordable Care act had to work it was our signature legislative accomplishment and we were getting americans sign up and the system crashing and all sort of bad experiences. And it fed into progressive critique to get more and more power concentrate in washington. More and more washington power in the executive branch and they cant run a website. We already paid a huge political price for the disruptions and nearcollapse of the system. Now after that all that mattered was making sure we could get it working so the citizens could sign up and get the Health Insurance as promised. From december 203 to may 2014 we were trying to be as creative as we could to get the word out. We were going to did everything to make sure people knew about the ability to enroll. For the care tookt act to work you needed healthy young people to sign up for insurance. I was with valerie and the resident right outside the oval and she told me about the idea that Bradley Cooper had of having the president appear on the show between two ferns it was genius because zack galifinakas has huge appeal to Young Americans and had a ridiculous new show and valerie tells the president and explain whats it is, the president never heard of it, i said i thought it was a good idea and thoerjs thought it was a good idea that it was worth trying. He said okay. I have to know whats it like to be the last black president. Seriously . Whats it like for this to be the last time you talk to a president. There were risks that it wouldnt look president ial. On the other hand, if it worked people who needed insurance were going to find out for the first time about what the insurance was and how to do it. People who would walk zack do his comedy routine are not the same people who watch evening news but theyre the people who needed to sign in. Have you heard about the Affordable Care act. I heard about that, is that the thing that doesnt work. Why get the guy who created zoom to make your website. Healthcare. Gov works great now. It was the single biggest day on healthcare. Gov. People watched and clicked and bought Health Insurance. It worked. I mean, its not just that it got a lot of hits which does surprise me but it is actually driving people to the site and people are signing up so it really made a difference and i cant thank you and the whole crew enough. Gone are the days when your broadcast or yours or yours can reach everybody that we need to reach. And you know, bring in zack and all your problems are solved . Didnt say that. One thing we heard when we had millions of people watching the video, but taking action, signing up for health care because of the comedy video they saw was that theres more tools in the tool box. Hi everybody. Welcome to west wing. West wing. West wing. The First White House with an inhouse Digital Department that would reach out to these outlets and also create videos that people would share and tweet out. You ready . Im ready. Okay. Hey everybody. Im about to go into p cast. Which is basically my Scientific Advisory group. For the west wing what we wanted to do is present a different perspective on president obama than they might be getting from the new media. The White House Press corpse was not at all pleased. There were deeply, passionatelyargued conversations on the part of white house reporters who felt this was government propaganda. This was kind of the beginning of that era of really bypassing the gate keepers, the Traditional Press and being able to talk directly to the people. There you go. My tweet has been posted. For journalists its all about access wex need to be able to cover the president of the United States. We want our cameras and reporters in the room. Americans deserve to see a president not through a filtered lens but through the cleareyed lens of journalists. They were so trying to put us in our place. You know. No questions shouted here. And no questions shouted there. We dont like it. It just wasnt doing anybody any good. I appreciate you shouting out a question since im sure theres a lot of other colleagues of yours who would want to do the same. The attention between the White House Press corp should be and there always will be in normal circumstances but president obama not only would never have called the press the enemy of the people it never would have occurred to him villainization of your enemies, us versus them, president obama never saw politics that way. He always believed the country was filled with good people, including people who didnt agree with him politically. That was uplifting. Super emma just about sleeps in her cape. But when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide plus downy free. Its gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old bargain detergent. Tide pods plus downy free. Safe for sensitive skin with eczema and psoriasis. groans hmph. food grunting menacingly when the food you love doesnt love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. Tum tumtum tum tums smooth driving pays off you never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today in the unlikely event someone with ebola does reach our shores, weve taken new measures to be prepared at home. In ebola president obama led one of the most historic Public Health efforts and success in history. More labs across the country have capacity to quickly test for the virus. We have many tools in the National Security tool box. We have development, hurmt humanitarian existence and the power of moral leadership, to bring the world together to fight ebola crisis. One thing that helped him get past the political road blocks was the ability to appeal to the people. Faced with this outbreak the world is looking to us, the United States, but we have to act fast. We cant doddle on this. The reality is this epidemic will get worse before it gets better. In the case of the Ebola Outbreak in west africa president obama laid out in pretty clear terms what the country could be facing yet republicans were accusing him of down playing the threat and doing their best to stoke fear among the american republic. In less than three weeks voters go to the polls and looks like i fear election. Every novel starts with a panel saying theres nothing to worry about. President obama hope forward bipartisan support during this time of a deadly epidemic, it just didnt seem to about be in the cards. I think one the fundamental miscalculations of the obama world, not just president obama himself but the people around him was that they fundamentally dis misunderstood the Republican Party. Its purpose was not it make policy in a bipartisan way with president obama, its irpurpose was to completely defang the presidency if they had to in hi clear voter frustration and disgust much of it directed at the washington establishment. President obama will face last two years of presidency with the opposing party in power. Horrendous night for the democratic party. Obviously republicans had a good night and they deserve credit for running good campaigns. Midterms were a blood bath for us in 2014 s they typically are but in the senate particularly bad where we lost the senate and knowing that said okay lets put together the agenda that well put into place. Immediately after the mid terms to remind everybody that washington may think. President s term is over but its not. President ial terms are four years time for tuesday take care of business. Tuesday take care of business years. Its time for us to take care of business, things this country cant wait two or four years, things to put into place our future. I can remember on certain instances that scur on theim that occur on the immigration issue, he would come to capitol hill to convince the Republican Caucus it was in our interest politically to vote for what he wanted. He said politically, we will be an extinct party if we didnt listen to him, although the president himself did see him saeflz a unite himself as a uniter not diver i dont think he was abled to deliver on that. It was clear that president obama didnt want to sit back and be completely irrelevant president. Its time to get this done and im going to do my small part by sign these executive orders as president. We found every lever we could to move the needle for people. Some of the changes were enormous. Thank you. Speaker paul ryan famously responded to these kinds of executive orders by saying president s dont get to write laws which is certainly true and obama was saying i dont care, im going to do this anyway. President obama seemed to feel there was an asterisk over the constitution. Said all of this separation of powers and restraints and checks an balances, thats fine, unless the president trying really tire at which point he can do whatever he wants. Criticism of the president being an imperial president was ridiculous. What the president wanted to do since the first day in office was work with republicans to find consensus. The republicans refused to do that. They limited his options what he could do legislatively by his second term sand he tried to make progress on important issues like immigration anyway he could. Historic deportation almost 1,000 a day. Estimated 2 million deportations. Im there are children being left without parents. Frustrated that washington let the immigration issue fester for decades, tonight the president to take steps to fix it himself. Executive action was the only way reform was going to happen. Is my fellow americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once too. What happened first with the daca program for Young Children was that were going to give these kids a chance to come out of the shadows and earn their citizenship. We expanded the program in november 2014 to parents. Among the myriad of problems in the immigration system this is one he felt he could address. Are we a nation that accepts the ripping of cruelty from parents arms or are we a nation that works to keep them together. The president said find me a way to make this happen. Wasnt his first choice. He preferred to have it as sound, settled law. I was not comfortable with executive orders because i was a member of congress and thats not the way the constitution was designed. I certainly understood the frustration but look what it has led to. President obama set a bad example that was noticed by the notfamously attendive successor who as said basically i can do it, you cant stop me, thats no way to run a government of constitutional respect between the branches. To those members of congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better or the wisdom of me acting where congress has failed, i have one answer, pass a bill. But when i started seeing things, i didnt know what was happening. So i kept it in. He started believing things that werent true. I knew something was wrong. But i didnt say a word. During the course of their disease around 50 of people with parkinsons may experience hallucinations or delusions. But now, doctors are prescribing nuplazid. The only fda approved medicine. Proven to significantly reduce hallucinations and delusions related to parkinsons. Dont take nuplazid if you are allergic to its ingredients. 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I think even the most important moments in the white house were mixes of highs and lows. Im certainly not going to be stopping for a minute in the effort to make life better for ordinary americans. There are times when you see your efforts coming to fruition and there are times you see americas efforts come to fruition june 2015 is one of those times. A week we called skoet us week, one the Affordable Care act was challenged in court. Supreme court for the second time bailed out obamacare. Second was Marriage Equality. In 2008 the difference of marriage act was still in effect. Defensive marriage act was next to support gay marriage and obama becomes another historic day at the Supreme Court. Waiting on a few big rulings, one of those possibly paving the way for Marriage Equality. We go in friday morning. Speaking to you from the Supreme Court. We have read from the bench. Boom, Marriage Equality becomes reality in america. I repeat, speaking to you from the steps of the Supreme Court, theres a right to Marriage Equality read just from the bench now. Were all watching tv seeing jubilation at the Supreme Court. Progress on this journey often comes in small increments, sometimes two steps forward one step back propelled by dedicated perspecti persistence. When a slow and steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunder bolt. I dont think there was a dry eye in the white house. I had just got engaged and suddenly felt like my marriage was going to be more complete because everyone else now had that right and that freedom too. We had planned if we had owo the Supreme Court decision what if we lit the white house in rainbow colors. Its not so easy, its actually really hard to get the separation of the colors on that large of a projections so we secretly tested it. We didnt know it would actually happen and we had to have these lighting guys on call because we didnt know what day it was going to happen. I think it only really happened twice where in the white house thousands of people came to Lafayette Park first was the night we killed bin laden and the second was the night we celebrated Marriage Equality. Was extraordinary to be there and see that. Thought it was amazing encapsulatation why you doal this work, nine out of ten days it feels like youre throwing yourself against the wall and then sometimes you get that moment when the whole country is different in the evening than it was that morning. Mrs. Obama tells the story of trying to sneak out the white house and realized i never tried to get out of here on my own before, hows one get out . We were going on a venture outside where people were gathered and we werent going to ask anyones permission. Mallia and i were now on a crusade. And they start to head towards the front door and the usher se sort of said, you, first of all its locked, you may not want to go out that door because every camera in america is pointed at that door right now so lets find you another route. It had taken ten minutes to get out of our own home but we had done it, we were outside, standing on a patch of lawn off to one side out of sight of the public. But with a beautiful closeup view of the white house. Lit up in pride. To see people gathered in an evening outside on a beautiful summer night and to feel whole and to feel accepted and to feel that they had the right to love, that was pretty cool. The last two years obama just kind of decided im going to be completely myself. And people liked it. His Approval Ratings were higher than at any point. Whats so crazy about trumps election was obama was very popular. People responded to the sense of authentici authenticity. 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His sense of humor, even when we were going through tough time he and we generally had good humor which you need to get through things, have a laugh about the predicament youre in. After the midterm elections my advisors asked me mr. President do you have a bucket list. This guy as the professionals will tell you have realtiming. I said, well, i have something that rhymes with bucket list. [ cheers and applause ] taking executive action on immigration, bucket. [ cheers and applause ] President Trump enjoyed the setting at the White House Correspondent center, it gave him an opportunity to speak in public in a way that was so different than the other public appearances he made. Im a mellow sort of guy and thats why i invited luther, my anger translator to join us. I was actually at the second to last White House Correspondents dinner. Hold on to your lily white butt. [ laughter ] and what was great about it was that at least most black people believed that president obama had to be extremely fed up with the way he was treated by republicans, by a lot of the public, by people like donald trump, but he was such a dignified individual but he refused to show and we got to see what angry obama looked like. In our fast changing world traditions like the White House Correspondent dinner are important. I mean, really, what is this dinner . And why am i required to do it. The best part of that experience was watching him and the president rehearse. So, we didnt do a lot of rehearsing for comedy in the white house because theres schroeder more important stuff to s schroeder more important stuff to theres more important stuff to do and theres only about 30 minutes to rehearse. Every time hed open his mouth president obama would start laughing. I had no confidence hed keep it forgot together together together for the actual performance. We count on the press to shed the most important issues of the day and count on. You can count on fox news to terrify old people with nonsense. You can see some of his speeches begin with couple jokes at his own expense which sets up admission structure to say now lets turn attention to other people too. Donald trump. Is here tonight. [ cheers and applause ] now, i know that hes taken some flack lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald, and thats because he can finally get back to focussing on the issues that matter, like, did we fake the moon landing . [ laughter ] if folks just want to understand what a president ial take down looks like watch that. And where are biggie and tupac . I sat a table across away from donald trump and i had never seen such a pissed off look, it was priceless. All kid ago side. All kidding aside. We all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. For example, in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice at the steak house the Mens Cooking Team did not request the judges from omaha steaks and there was a lot of blame to go around but you mr. Trump recognized the real problem was the lack of leadership and ultimately you didnt blame lil john or me meatloaf, you fired gary bu sey. These are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night. Donald trump did not know what to do. Hed never been in a position he could be totally, surgical humiliated and not being able to respond. I mean, obama did it with such precision. People were clapping because it was funny. I was clapping because i knew the patience. The night they gave Us Donald Trump president obama had a good time that night at trumps expense but you could argue that trump later tried to have his revenge. betsy well played. vo add some thrill to your wish list. At the season of audi sales event. Get exceptional offers now. Narrator upgrade your protectin this holiday season. S uh um. Its shiori. Shori. Thank you, thats great. Shiori. I really love it. Secret stops sweat 3x more Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo start your day with secret. Than ordinary antiperspirants. With secret youre unstoppable. No sweat. Try it and love it or get your money back. Secret. All strength, no sweat ythey customize yours lcar insurance. So you only pay for what you need. Wow. That will save me lots of money. This games boring. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. You know what never gets old is when youre standing there and they say, mr. Speaker, that never gets old. Mr. Speaker its the president of the United States [ cheers and applause ] my fellow americans, tonight marks the eighth year that ive come here to report on the state of the union. And for this final one im going to try to make it a little shorter. I think theres always been two stories in america. I know some you have have to get back to iowa. [ laughter ] progressive story, as a country that can change for the better and become more inclusive and extend more rights and opportunities to more people and theres always a reaction against that type of change. Now our president is right now, youre right, its pathetic trump really saw in this instinctive way where the Republican Base was. We have leadership right now in this country especially at the top that is grossly incompetent. They dont know what the hell theyre doing. He was a showman who could feel his way toward what people were really saying and for trump that was about race. Thats why birtherism exploded donald trump on to the republican scene and why trump was the authentic skpopokes per for obama during the Obama Presidency. Theyre not offering serious solutions, theyre fanning resentment and blame and anger and hate. And that is not the america we know. Thats not the america i know. Hillary clinton was the nominee that clearly donald trump was still running against barack obama and his legacy. And things were really heating up and suddenly this word of russia attempts to influence the election comes out. A number of us felt very strongly and ultimately the president felt strongly that we had to at least tell the American People before the election that there was a foreign actor attempting to put his thumb on the scale of our democracy. Around we did, on october 7, 2016 the director of National Intelligence jim clapper and i issued a public statement. For the first time the Obama Administration is publicly blaming russia for recent hack attacks on american political targets say tharg trying to targets saying theyre trying to influence the election. No offense jeh johnson the defensive Homeland Security but hes not the president of the United States. Why didnt the president issue it . He was afraid it would be misinprettied as him putting a thumb on for clinton. He takes a pass and leaves it up to Homeland Security to make the announcement through a lowkey way, through the press, if you will. Wasnt until after the election the main stream media came back to the russians attempting to influence our election. We send, yes, we told you about this in october. Frankly, that statement which was unprecedented did not get at tension it deserved because of other events on friday october 7th. Breaking news about donald trump, a decadeold audio tape surfacing today in which trump is heard making crude and vulgar comments about women, including how he gropes them. I think Michelle Obama saw the access Hollywood Tape not so much in political term or as a political bomb shell but she was genuinely hurt. She spoke up in a way we rarely or maybe ever heard her speak in very personal terms. A candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women and i have to tell you that i i cant stop thinking about this. We all know that if we let hillarys opponent win this election than we are send ag clear message to our kids that everything theyre seeing and hearing is perfectly okay. This is a night Hillary Clinton has been waiting for. We have an unconventional candidate against an unprecedented candidate. Michigan less than a thousand votes. Virginia three percentage points. Florida less than a percent. New hampshire, 200 votes. Whats incredible is just how tight all of the races are. Election night, president obama had no role, no specific thing to do, so he and michelle go to the white House Theater and watch dr. Strange new superhero movie that came out and president s phone is buzzing about the numbers out of florida and your starting to see the election is not going to be the cake walk perhaps they thought it would be. We have a new projections. Ohio will go to donald trump donald trump is the apparent winner in florida. He just blew through every single estimate that democrats had and frankly even republicans. This is a nuclear bomb of a political story. Encouraged Hillary Clinton to con seed, its a real blow not just to her but to him. Its my high honor to introduce to you the president elect of the United States of america, Donald Trump Trump was so antieverything that obama thought the country stood for. It felt more visceral to obama and his staff than a typical defeat. 2016, as you might imagine, there were a lot of devastated people Walking Around the white house. It was a result that we hadnt predicted and that frankly we were all pretty horrified by. Even around the table of the white house senior staff it was clear there was going to be an emotional day at the white house. Some of it was root in shock, the outcome. Some of it was root in a sense that the outcome of the election had been a direct repudiation of all of the things that we had been trying to do over the last eight years. I thought i better go talk to my team and i was devastated myself but i knew i didnt want to go in there and cry because i was trying to uplift them and in the midst of gelinas give dst ofv the midst of giving that speech we heard president obama wanted to give i speech in the rose garden. The path this country has taken has never been a straight line. We zig and zag. Sometimes you know, we move in ways that some people think is forward and others think is moving back. And thats okay. He had the ability even as a politician whose bearing a great weight of responsibility to look beyond himself and to think about the best interest of the country and also to think basket feelings sket feelings country and also to think about the feelings and emotions of the people who worked for him. And his sensitivity showed a lot of humanity that may not have been evident to people who saw president obama on the television screen. There was this consolation role that many of us felt we were trying to play. Then whenever id see president obama i was the person in need of consolation and one time he just said, remember all that hope talk, like, you dont need hope when things are going well. This is when you need hope, if you believe in that whole hope thing. This is the time. When he would walk away, few of these conversations, i would just think who is consoling him . I hope michelle is, if michelle is consoling him, whose consoling michelle. And i remembered getting in the beast for the final ride to air force one, we climb in, obama takes out his ipad, pops it open like he always does and hes making fun of me a little bit because i wasnt wearing socks, and then theres a pause and he says, what if we were wrong . I was like, well, wrong about what . He said he had read an article that was going on about how democrats lost sight of how important identity globalism. What if we were wrong, he said . What if people want to just fall back into their tribe . And i argued with him, immediately. I said, no, if youd run for office, you wouldve won. You wouldve killed trump. Young people agree with you and theyre the future. And he said, maybe, youre right. But he, also, said, maybe i was 15 years, too early. I dont think president barack obama was too early. He became president , in a time when we needed him. It was his time. Humira patients,. This ones for you. You inspired us to make your humira experience even better. With humira citratefree. It has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, theres less liquid, and a thinner needle. With less pain immediately following injection. Ask your doctor about humira citratefree. And you can use your copay card to pay as little as 5 a month. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Serious and sometimes fatal infections,. Including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened,. 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Well, we always have reminded ourselves, every day that we were in the white house, that we we werent here just for the pomp and circumstances. My own career started in chicago. Thats where i learned the power of ordinary people, coming together, and bringing about changes that would make a difference in their lives. He was a consequential president. He did not just occupy the office. I chose to try and do big things with it, and move the, i think, country in a more equitable, fair, and progressive direction. Health care overshadows everything, and the fact that the president was able to do something that president s have tried for a hundred years, and succeeded, no one can take that away. Its easy to forget what it was like in january of 2009. The country was going down the drain, fast, economically. It was an unbelievable crisis. And we were fighting two wars. And that, somebody could come in and manage that situation, in a way that prevented the worst from happening, and did it with such grace and integrity. I think thats going to wear very well, in history. We got to chicago and the weather had gone pretty far south. So, originally, we were going to chopper in to chicago. We ended up going the motorcade route. We sat down at one of his favorite restaurants and really talked about about his legacy. Weve shown whats possible. And the promise of our democracy is not that every gain we make is permanent. Each, successive generation has to reinforce our best impulses, and try to do something about our worst impulses. And, you know, we we make progress. And then, sometimes, we take a step back. Before we start Going Forward again. But thats not a cause for despair. Thats thats a cause for hope. He brought, to the table, a sense of decency and dignity and intellect. No corruption. No stain on his character. The legacy of president obama is that, his election told my kids that they could be president. The fact that this country is capable of electing a black man to be president means that were capable of really changing, and it means that we have a good reason to, literally, have hope. Did you see some idealism in thatdo that young man . I did, and that idealism hasnt left. People like to note. Additional wrinkles. But my spirit is unchanged. Its undaunted. Mr. President , thank you for your service and your family. Thank you. You got a speech to make. I do. I dont want to be late. 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. How would i describe him, in one word . Its a great question. Elegant. Integrity, without question. If i told you that we would win Marriage Equality, and secure the right to Health Insurance for another 20 million of our fellow citizens. One word. One word is going to be really hard. Cool. The first word that actually comes to my mind is solid. Intellectual. I would say wise. A blessing. I guess, thats two. If i had told yall that, you mightve said our sights were set a little too high. But, thats what we did. Thats what you did. Resilient. Thats not the most fun word but thats what he is. People kept trying to knock him down. People kept trying to demoralize him. They kept trying to question himself. He never let any of that get to him. And without resilience, he could not have done what he did, as president. Yes, we can. Yes, we did. Yes, we can. Thank you. God bless you. May god continue to bless the United States of america. This is an msnbc special presentation. Washington, d. C. Holds more power and influence, than anywhere else in the world. D. C. Emergency 911. How can i help you . I need the police to come quickly. Ive just found my wife, dead. Reporter and as a homicide prosecutor, ive learned some people will do anything to get a piece of that power, for themselves. How does somebody in d. C. Get away with that . When i received the assignment to prosecute the case involving the murder of viola