Transcripts For MSNBCW The Way I See It 20201019

I worked for about eight years as the chief official photographer for the outbreabam administration. I documented all the important moments of his presidency, the emotion, the tough decisions, the stressful times, the fun times. But also showing what he was like as a dad, as a husband, just as a human being. To me, that shows how the job of the president should be done. I think its my right as an american citizen to speak out. I really come at this from a unique perspective, not just as a former photo journalist, but also having worked for both the obama and Reagan Administrations and seen what its like on the inside of a presidency. Whether you agree or disagree with a president s policies, how that president should behave i got high hopes im going to throw some shade tonight, if thats okay. But i want to tell you first how i got there. So if we go back to january 20th, 2017, president obama had left his successor a personal note and stuck it in the drawer of the resolute desk. And the last line of the note was, michelle and i wish you and melania the very best as you embark on this great adventure and know that we stand ready to help in any ways which we can. Good luck and god speed. With that, he level the oval office for the last time. Thank you, sir. Thank you. He went and said goodbye to the household staff, butlers, ushers, groundskeepers. Vaughn everett who was one of the butlers and had been there since the reagan years, you can imagine what it was like for him to have been there for the first africanamerican president. Theres a tradition that the president comes to the white house the morning before the inauguration for a reception. After everyone else had finally boarded the motorcade, president obama took trump aside to brief him on a pending National Security issue. He escorted trump to the limousine. They had to ride in the limousine to the capitol together. The guy on the far left is mike white. He was the head of the president ial protective division of the secret service. You always see the person in that position behind the president or behind the first lady. As they were leaving the podium, i now noticed that mike white and his deputy were behind trump and melania and not behind president obama. Thats when it really hit me that this for real had happened. Physically and mentally, there was a sense of relief, almost excitement that i would not have a blackberry with me 24 7 365 for eight years anymore. You have no idea how good of a feeling it was to be done with that. But there was a sense of disbelief and worry. I was. I really was concerned for the country. To this day i have that same feeling. Im not literally in the room anymore, but i know what happens in the room. Thats what scares me about whats happening today in the oval office. After i left the white house, i started this personal instagram account. My intention was to highlight some of the photographs that i had made throughout my career. I never intended to be vocal in any way about what was going on. So the first day he came to me with his photo that he wanted to post on instagram with the president sitting on the resolute desk and the red curtains and he wrote a caption something like, i like the old curtains better, what did you think. I said, you cant say that, because he had spent eight years having no voice and no opinion of what was going on. And suddenly heres an opinion about drapes. I said you cant do that. Now, what i didnt tell you is i had just seen a picture of the redecorated oval office with these gold, ornate curtains. There was even a comment on that very first post from somebody that said pete is dropping shade with a comment on drapes. [ laughter ] and i have to admit i had no idea what dropping shade meant. I knew what i was doing. I just didnt know it was called dropping or throwing shade. Can you give us a question . Dont be give us a question. When you report fake news, which cnn does a lot, you are the enemy of the people. Go ahead. Mr. President thank you. Its nice to be here. Is there hope for the journalism. I think theres a lot of people doing a lot of great work, but it doesnt help when the president of the United States calls journalists fake news and the enemy of the people. I think thats really dangerous. I think our president is causing grave damage to the institution of the free press. [ applause ] i want to ask you as a photojournalist your comment that photographing is to the truth. When youre the chief White House Photographer, when youre consciously or subconsciously building a public image of brand obama, was there a conflict . Yeah, i think thats a good question. I often say to people, though my background is as a photojournalist, certainly when youre the chief White House Photographer, youre working for the government. So i didnt ever think of it as a conflict, because i want a pr photographer. I look at myself as a historian with a camera. The job as the chief official White House Photographer is to visually document the presidency for history. So when inauguration rolled around, i had in the back of my mind for the journey i was about to take this thought. Make authentic photographs. Think mood, emotion, context. Be ready for the fleeting moments, both big and small. My goal was to create the best photographic archive of a president that had ever been done, lasting images for history. The origination of my office was a military office during the kennedy administration. Lbj wanted somebody to cover everything and he hired this guy named yoshi yokomoto who had traveled with him as vice president. Johnson was such a character and yokomoto was such a great photographer. His pictures are amazing. More than anyone, his work was the kind of work that i wanted to do. I wanted the level of access that he had to johnson. Thats sort of what i was striving for witstrive ing for with obama. Photographs can tell a administrator ri just as a book can tell a juror ri. It breaks down the idea that these people are somehow different from us. Yes, they have different responsibilities, yes, they have greater anxieties, but theyre leading a life that has a daily ritual to it. I knew how the job should be done having worked for the Reagan Administration too. The White House Photo editor called me up out of the blue and said we want you to apply for this job. It was totally unexpected. You know, im in my 20s. I had never met a president before. I was just nervous. It was kind of like just sort of overwhelming to me. I actually turn it down at first. A, i was not really that into politics. B, i was really not the biggest fan of reagan. [ speaking foreign language] this is familiar. But you hope that what youre doing is important for history, right . I used to say journalism is the first draft of history. Im thinking heres a chance to actually be involved in documenting history. The Photograph Office primarily, it was myself and fitz and jack and then pete. But we were very much a team. Lets lock that sucker down. Working at the white house as the first woman official photographer was a humbling experience. I was recording for history. Is pete nice and clear . Yes. Okay. The or ka good family man. The white house has become more and more a stage a theater. The question has become, are the Television Networks going to manage that theater, are they going to manage that stage, or is the white house going to do that . They were very aware of creating the best backdrop possible for tv networks and time and newsweek. Do you want us on either side of the tree or what . Well, i think for release purposes, it would be better to have you doing something. My suggestion was watering the tree. We have two shovels. We have a chain saw. No, please. Its too hot. Can we just do a watering tree. Watering the tree is fine. [ laughter ] did you get that, pete . Yeah. You did, huh . Ive got an idea for another picture, just one more. Ive got the chain saw and youre blocking me off, stopping me. Dont just stand there. Youre supposed to be saying no. Im not going to start the saw. [ laughter ] all right. Thank you. The amount of access you get as the chief official White House Photographer is really totally dependent on the relationship that you have with the president. All i tried to do was push for more access for the behindthescenes moments, most of which were never seen until after he had left the presidency. Some of the pictures that i would make would be fairly intimate. After mrs. Reagan had undergone Breast Cancer surgery at bethesda hospital, every day at the end of the day he would take the helicopter and go visit her. They were exactly the same way together behind the scenes as they were in public. It was very much a true love and companionship between the two of them. I always felt that the best pictures i made of reagan were not from planned events. They were things that happened between events and moments that you couldnt ever predict that would just happen and that really humanizes the president of the United States. One of the roles of commander in chief is you send people into harms way, but then the president usually is the one who has to go talk to all the families who have lost someone. Hes clearly empathetic and compassionate, and you can see the emotion in their faces as theyre looking up to see what reagan is saying. Thats the way a president should behave in times like that. In some respects i think it did a disservice not to show him in these true authentic behind the scenes moments more than they did. Okay. [ laughter ] scram. Mr. President , just have a step this way. Hes to the left and im to the right. [ laughter ] another half step. Big smiles. There we go. Big smile. I wanted this time to talk with you about an extremely sensitive and profoundly important matter of foreign policy. Certainly during the iran contra affair, there were a lot of pictures i made where he was agonizing over what he did or what he didnt do. It was a big scandal. I made that picture where the Tower Commission after this manymonth investigation had concluded that, in fact, reagan had sold arms for hostages. You see that look of reagans face. He was still somewhat in denial. But to me, it really defines that whole scandal and how impactful it was on his presidency. I did not necessarily agree with some of the things that president reagan was doing, for example, how long it took him to come to grips with aids. I think that, in retrospect, is more than disappointing. But this photo i made of him holding a baby with hiv did help destigmatize the disease. I was naive and not as politically aware as i should have been at the time, but i did feel that he was a decent human being, he respected other people from all walks of life. When reagan had passed away and his body was being flown to the west coast, nancy reagan requested that pete would be on the plane with them. Of course, he has bed been out the white house for so many years and peter did that. When i left the white house under reagan, it wasnt like i was that well known. So for nine years i was a freelance photographer. After that, i went to work for the Chicago Tribune based in d. C. If somebody had told me that i would end up working for the most iconic republican president of our generation and then the most iconic democrat president of our generation, i would have said they were crazy. What are those words . Yes, we can thank you, illinois i love you thank you thank you, illinois. In 2004 barack obama was elected to the senate. I didnt see in his 2004 speech at the convention because i was traveling with kerry. The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes america has a place for him too. Make sure you get a picture of obama. I was like, i dont even know what the guy looks like. Youre on the front page of every paper this week. Youre all other television. Everyones calling you the savior of the democratic party. Are you . I rank 99th out of 100 in seniority. Im going to be sharpening pencils and scrubbing the floors for the first couple of years. Jeff zeleny came up to me and said i am pitching a story of following obamas first year in the senate. I love this picture because hes got the half a sandwich in his mouth and sasha is eyeing the other half. This is the day i met him. The presence of my camera didnt bother him at all, which is not always the case, especially with politicians. Did that say anything about him to you . You know, i found a good subject. This was the first day that he was in washington as the newlyelected senator. Senator obama spent the day with his family and showing them around and helping them understand what it was like and sasha was 3. I think he thought i was a competent photographer. I continued to further that trust as the year went by. In the age of youtube and so much internet video, do photographs still have a very powerful impact in terms of covering politics . You know, i like the still photograph. It stops time. You can remember a still photograph. A lot of photojournalists now are evolving into video, but i still think the still photograph for me says a lot more. I wasnt with him every day, but i got to know him pretty well professionally. It was very clear he was different from most politicians. I hadnt really seen somebody, especially a freshman senator, with this kind of presence. He had us call him barack. He was casual. Held email you in the middle of the night. Generationally, he had more in common with the people who worked for him in their 20s than he did with probably the other senators in washington. This would have been 2005. I went to russia and ukraine and asser b ass ass ass asserbajan with him. Hes just a regular guy. Then i went to africa with him in 2006. We went to mandelas cell. Not only that. Youve got the view of the outside. On a clear day, you can see capetown. When we went to kenya, he had this meeting with some ngos and word got out that he was in there. When he emerged from this meeting, there were like thousands of people waiting to hear him say a few words. When we went to nairobi, ive got this guy writing down the bullet points of what he was talking about. Hey. The reception at his grandmothers village was like chaotic. Any time i think a child comes back to his parents grave, it makes you reflect on your own life and mortality. It makes you think about the next generation. My wife and i are going to get tested for hiv aids. I just want everybody to remember that if a u. S. Senator can get tested and his wife can get tested, then everybody in this crowd can get tested, because you need to know your status. Seeing the overwhelming response that he got in africa, i remember coming back from that trip saying that i bet he runs for president. I mean, just the way people were hanging onto his every word, you just see in peoples faces that this guy was Something Special to them. He was very intelligent, but i think he also had the right temperament to become president. To me, this picture really tells a story about a young u. S. Senator about to walk out and announce that hes running for president knowing that his life will never be the same. I think you could see that in his face. You could see the anxiety in michelle as shes trying to brush off some lint from the back of his jacket. I knew the gravity of the moment and i knew he had a shot. I knew that once people got to see him and hear from him, that he had a shot. He had the kind of qualities within him where people would relate to him. I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States of america. People forget that hillary was so far ahead, had so many endorsements that people thought he was a long shot. Does obama face a big uphill battle despite all the Media Attention hes getting . He will have to deal with the issue of only two years in the u. S. Senate. The media was ready to write us off or put us in the barrel. It was like, no, theres this broader force out there that was not going to let that happen. American history wont be the same again. Americans elected a young man with a young family, an africanamerican, the first ever. Its been a long time coming. Tonight because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to america. He call called me on january and said do you want the job . I said i have to have access to everything. He said, the president gets it. Theres no worries there. I said, okay, ill be there tomorrow. Two days later i met up with obama. He walked into the room and he said, were going to have some fun. I think there was an enormous amount of respect over saes when he was elected. I think they were excited that our country had finally put prejudice aside and elected an africanamerican president , really a definite kind of politician. That resonated around the world. Pete was with the president all the time. He started his day around 9 00. Id get a schedule, but i came to learn that the schedule was really just a starting point. I covered all the behind the scenes meetings, all the situation room meetings. I cant take ownership of this analogy, but imagine trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose that never shuts off. It was nonstop every day, 24 7, always on call, always ready. That was the challenge for me for my job for eight years. Pete had walking pneumonia one time and he still came to work. If you really want to document the presidency for history, youve got to be there all the time, because you cant predict when images are going to happen. Pete really wanted to be the guy who disappears. And thats the gift when youre the White House Photographer, is that the president doesnt even know youre in the room. Occasionally the cabinet would be gathered to present some really tough decisions to the president. You know, the chatter chatter people commiserating, and the first sign that the president was imminent was when pete walked in, everything would freeze. So i dont know what it felt like for him for eight years to have that Chilling Effect on every room. Why should historians Pay Attention to what you do . I think for me the job of the chief official White House Photographer is important for history. Thats the one thing that i am concerned about with, you know, whats happening with the current administration, that the access is not the same as i had for president obama. I think history will suffer as a result. President obama puts his Administration Front and center on yet another major aspect of the countrys troubled economic front. Restructuring the u. S. Auto industry. Early in 2009 we were in the midst of this big financial crisis. I think this picture helped show whos in the room, the mood, the emotion of the moment, which was he was about to call the ceos of two Automobile Companies to tell them the federal government was going to take over the company. As you recall, it was very controversial at the time. I was thinking who is this man, how does he deal with crisis. I think some words that were crossing my mind were leadership, character and empathy. The more ive studied leaders in crisis times, whether its lincoln or fdr or Teddy Roosevelt or lbj during the civil rights struggle, they had almost a family resemblance of leadership traits, the first one being humility, the ability to acknowledge and learn from your mistakes. I would go from there to empathy as an absolutely critical human quality, the ability to understand others points of view and feel a sense of connection to those other people. All the leaders ive studied were able to communicate in a way to the people so they felt a sense of trust in what they were saying. They were inspired to act because of them. And then beyond communication is the ability to control emotions and to remain cool during difficult times. And then at the very end in some ways you have to have the selfconfidence to create a team of people around you who can criticize you, who can question your assumptions, who can argue with you and then to accept its going to come from the country at large is such an important quality in a leader. Looking at president obama, he came into office with a desire to wind down americas wars overseas and step up the focus at home. But events had a way of intervening, especially in the middle east. I want to speak to you tonight about our effort in afghanistan. We did not ask for this fight, but while weve achieved hardearned milestones in iraq, the situation in afghanistan has deteriorated. As commander in chief, i have determined that it is in our Vital National interest to send an additional 30,000 u. S. Troops to afghanistan. President obama again and again would come back to, okay, if we do what youre proposing, how is it likely to play out . He welcomed dissent and debate and discussion. His belief was that he would make the best decisions if he had been exposed to the greatest array of counter arguments, alternative viewpoints. Lets say a really difficult backdrop like syria. We had tensioned over that. We had nothing but lousy options confronting the president. But the person who has to live with the consequences and to know that they own the outcome, thats the president and the president alone. President obama said actually that he viewed the presidency as a relay race. Youre given certain problems when you come in, you work on those problems. Some of those things will not be solved during your time. Maybe some steps have been taken to get that solved, maybe weve gone backwards or forwards. Wars are going to be there that maybe shouldnt have been fought or you wish hadnt been fought. Wars are going to be there that have been left unfinished. But its really that continuing march. For me, it is constantly important to remind myself why i got into this business in the first place, especially when its hard. You look at an issue right now like health care. So many of us campaigned on the idea that we were going to change this health care system. Well, here we are with a chance to change it. This is an early Health Care Speech he was working on with jon favreau. Every page looked like this. So i think it really shows you how involved he was in the words that were coming out of his mouth. Dont you wish we had that now . I think this picture also tells you something about how he works with other people, because instead of just handing john the markedup draft the next morning when he came to the oval office, he called john in and they sat on his sofa for an hour and a half and went over every change that he had made. I know how bitter and contentious the issue of Health Insurance reform has become. This bill is the greatest threat to freedom that i have seen in the 19 years ive been here in washington. Weve gotten caught up in the political game in a way thats just not healthy. This is nancy deparo, who was has responsible as anyone for the Affordable Care act. She had two young boys and they never saw their mom for like two years. Like she would leave the house early in the morning and the boys hadnt even woken up yet and by the time she got home they were often already asleep. Thats the kind of sacrifice that people at the white house made. President obama was aware of this. It wasnt anything that was ever said, but i started noticing it where wherever he could, he would make a point to make sure the boys were invited when the nba basketball players came to the white house or events like that. This is nicky. He invited him into the oval office to share a power bar with him. Nicky came to one of my book signings. Hes now a sophomore at duke. He told me how much this picture meant to him. He realizes now the good work that his mom was doing. Theres still lobbying to be done, lots of phone calls in the limo with his legislative director. I think this was the phone call where he realized that they probably had enough votes. He took his lucky charms out of his pocket. I saw that he took his lucky charms out that morning. I was like, okay, this is a good sign. The bill is passed. [ cheers and applause ] he felt on this day that he got something done that bettered peoples lives. He caught me in an embarrassing moment. That never happens to me. Sorry about that. Thats all right. Man, i tell you National Geographic and suddenly the camera broke down. Golly. Remember, youve got to take the lens cap off. The lens cap is important. No, no. I filled the disk. The speech was so exciting, i filled the disk. One of the cool things that my office did was hang jumbo prints. Its a tradition that started with the nixon administration. So we would update them every few weeks. Theres actually only a few dozen people that interact with the president of the United States on a regular basis. Yet theres hundreds of people working for him. So this was a way for them to see him in a very personal way. I think it sort of gave them added purpose. The first time that we went to the u. N. , we had a break one afternoon and he and reggie love played basketball for like an hour. Now, reggie love was 27 at the time, was 66. He was the captain of the Duke University Basketball Team when they won a national championship. Barack obama was 20 years older, at least four inches shorter and didnt start for his high school Basketball Team. But hes like the most competitive guy ive ever met. At one point barack obama goes up, blocks reggies shot. They finish the game and president obama makes a beeline towards me, comes up to me and he goes, did you get that block . [ laughter ] im like scrolling through and i come to this picture and he goes, thats great, make that a jumbo. [ laughter ] he made reggie sign it, dear mr. President , nice block, reggie love. Somebody came to me and said, we need to get these online. He said the white house wants us to put pictures out on flickr, which was a photo streaming platform. My job was to make an edit from 10,000 do you know to what would be about 50 pictures a week. That was unprecedented. No Previous Administration had ever put out as many pictures. I thought it was a great way for the public to see what was happening behind the scenes. When you get to be my age and you look back at things that happened early in your life, you start sort of connecting the dots a little bit. I was trying to remember with jane when we went to washington. I think it was in 1965. But we went and visited the white house and we also got this book called the white house. I used to look at this book all the time. This book was published shortly before kennedy was assassinated and Jackie Kennedy wrote the introduction. She said that the book originally was intended just for children. Im going to get emotional just reading this. It seems such a shame that they, meaning the kids that visited the white house, should have nothing to take away with them. It was hoped they would read more about the president s who interested them the most. I was one of them. This book for each administration was updated subsequently. The last version of this, i have the cover photo and have several photos of president obama inside the book. So you talk about full circle. [ applause ] this was when my mom met president obama for the first time. He wrote, to lillian, it was a joy to meet you, thanks for doing such a great job with pete. So this is my grandmother and grandfather. They were both born in the azor azores. They immigrated within a year or two of each other. My parents both worked. My mom was a nurse. My dad was a boat mechanic. I had no interest in anything other than sports. I didnt get interested in photography until i was in college. If there was such a category, i would have been the most unlikely to succeed. I think when he was at bu, he took a course in photography and he came home and said, mom, i want to be a photographer. I said, oh my god, four years at bu and youre going to take pictures. Thats what i thought, oh my god. To me, it was magic, shooting a roll of film, rolling that film up onto the reel and as youre shaking the tray, the image starts to appear. Youre in control from start to finish. I was like, this is what i want to do. He really wanted to be a photographer. Thats a really competitive field. And the day that he left to go to kansas to get his masters degree and he was driving out of the driveway, i started to cry. Our dad said, why are you crying, hes just going away for a year. I said, no, hes not, hes never coming back. I was trying to make a good picture for every assignment no matter how bad it was. You know, if theres a dog that crosses the street at 1 00, that has the potential to be a page one photo. You realize your photographs do have an impact. I got a call one day from the director of photography at the sun times. He goes, we want you to come interview. I flew up to chicago and he hired me. I went from a 6,000 circulation daily newspaper where i was the only photographer to a 600,000 circulation photographer where i was one of 25 photojournalists. I really think it was helpful for me to have the number of experiences that i had had. I did some stuff for National Geographic. When life was a monthly, i did some work for them. Right after 9 11, a correspondent and i snuck into afghanistan just as the war was getting underway. In some ways, it was one of the more fulfilling things ive ever done in my career because my images were appearing in the tribune every day. I really felt that i was doing good work and people were seeing it. I dont want people to come away with the impression that i was a war photographer, because i wasnt. But when there are rpgs coming at you, i did not do a really good job because i was scared. Ill admit it. The realization was, okay, im not good at this. [ applause ] we thank you again for coming here tonight. Lindsey was actually kidnapped twice in her career. We know that brian swims with sharks. So pete, was there ever a time where you really felt fearful in the white house beyond january 20th, 2017 . [ laughter ] this white house. Nor, i didnt feel fearful. I didnt swim with sharks. I had it easier than these two. You have to determine when its time to t give the man some spa, so its more just the intuitive sense of when its time to slowly back away. Every three months we would go to walter reed and he would visit wounded warriors. I think it affected him emotionally. One time we went and we saw cory remsburg. He had gotten hit by an iud. The guy he was with got killed instantly, cory was thrown into a ravine, he was underwater. Somehow he survived without drowning. He had to relearn how to walk, talk and eat. But heres the thing that really took me aback. President obama had met cory in normandy the previous june, and i had taken a picture of that encounter. The picture, we had sent a copy to the family, and it was taped on the hospital wall. And i was looking at that picture and looking at cory and saying to myself, this is the real cost of war. You dont usually see it that starkly. Cory has made remarkable progress. Three years later he visited with president obama again and was starting to walk with a walker. In january of 2014, he was a guest of honor at the state of the Union Address and sat next toes michelle obama. And then towards the end of the administration, president obama visited him in arizona at his new house. One of the most important parts of the president s day was when they would go out to cities all over the u. S. It seemed like forever. Thank god you guys are all right. When youre face to face with peop people. I dont want to hurt, theres so much in this world to make me bleed. Those images are burned into your brain. Stay with me, lets just breathe. And you carry that with you. Pete would always tell me the stories of what happened on the road that day, and when you go back, you are constantly reminded why youre working so hard. Everything you gave, nothing you would save nothing you would take, everything you gave hold me till i die i want you on the other side the morning meeting was at 9 30 in the oval office, and every day it was the same kind of meeting. People sittingki in the same chairsle in the same spots, and would think,po oh, my god, i cat look at another picture from this meeting. But you have to look through frame by frame just in case. One night i saw a scene, and i started to cry. And ito get chills thinking abo it, because it was some i dont know what the meeting was, but i knew from looking at the president s face the intensity of the decision thats he was making. And i was incredibly moved because i knew the responsibility and the weight of that job, and it made me understand how important it is to have the right person in that chair making those decisions. When we vote, were voting for a Decision Maker who is listening to everyone around him and is then making that decision. People say, it doesnt matter who is in s the white house, it doesnt matter. It totally matters who is in the white house. Breaking news that the worlds most wanted man has been killed inmo a mission led by United States special forces. Reporter President Trump laying out what he watched as he started toha view this operatio in the situation room. When you look at this picture, it definitely looks like hes looking at the camera, dont you think . And ive been in this room more than a thousand times. The photographer is completely blocking the screen. It looks fishy to me. If youre going to release a photo like that, then youve got to be truthful about whats taking place. What was he looking at . Ill go to the New York Times story that i saw. Unlike his predecessor, mr. Trump does not allow his Staff Photographer free range to capture behindthescenes photographs of life and work in the whiteif house. Instead he most often invites ms. Craighead or other White House Photographers into the room specifically for the purpose of taking an official picture. We need to have real moments of real history, not posed moments of history. So its hard to know what youre missing. We all talked about the bin laden raid. It was a very tense day. Throughout that day, he had meetings in the situation room, and they had set up the Communications Link in a small Conference Room across from the big situation room. So when president obama walked in, Brigadier General brad webb stood upne to give up his chair. P president obama saw that he was on a laptop communicating directly with admiral bob craven who was essentially running the raid from afghanistan, and he said, no, no, stay right there, im just going to pull up a chair next to you. Thats why president xt obama is seated where he is. You have the most powerful people in the executive branch of our government all sitting in this room at the same time. Yet they wereoo powerless. There was essentially nothing they could do to affect the outcome of whatey they were witnessing. And now itst up to those specl forces on the ground. That moment is so powerful because nobody is posing. You can see the nerves on everybodys face in that room. Tonight i can reportn to th American People and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killedha Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al qaeda. The picture in the bottom right is right after they knew they had killed bin laden. You dont see any high fives, its like very anticlimactic in a lot of ways. As a photographer, as well as as ar, human being, what were somef the things which were easy for you to capture and what were a little more difficult . I dont know that there was anything k that was easy. The hardest things were when he wouldt have to meet with famils that were affected by tragedies. Im sorry to say we had to do this too many times. It was w incredibly emotional a difficult and felt intrusive at times, but it was also part of my job to document these moments,do but i would say thos were the most difficult times. You dialed 911. Whats the location of your emergency . 12 dickinson drive. I think theres someone shooting at the sandy hook school. I saw a glimpse of somebody running down the hallway. Theres still a crowd and theyre still shooting. Theres still shooting going on, please. One of the worst days of his presidencyt was the day of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in newtown. John brennan who, at that time, was the Homeland Security adviser wasnd updating him throughout the morning and then finally came in and said that 26 people had died, including 20 grade school kids. Hes reacting as a parent more than probably as a president , imagining the horror of kissing your child in the morning, sending them off to school on the school bus, and then only a few hours later having to identifys your childs body wh has been shot multiple times at close range. He felt it was his duty as president tois speak to the natn in these times of tragedy. I had never seen him do this before,o blowing his cheeks aso whether he was unsure he would be able to keep it together. Those who died today were children. Beautiful little kidsto between the ages of five and ten years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them. Birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the following were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to help our children fulfill their dreams. So ourul hearts are broken toda. This eveninge michelle and i wl do what i know every parent in america will do, which is hug our children a little tighter, and well tell them that we love them, and well remind each other how deeply we love one another. But there are families in connecticut who cannot a do tha tonight. And they need all of us right now. Ins the hard days to come, the Community Needs us to be at our best as americans, and i will do everything in my power as president to help. T malia, who had just gotten home from school, was standing in the wahallway, and he latche on heran and would not let her. Two days later, he was invited to come to newtown. It happened to coincide with sashas annual dance retitle which he was going to have to miss, so heas decided to stop b the dress rehearsal in the afternoon before flying up to newtown. He sat in the box by himself, started editing his remarks already fored that night, and tn when sasha was dancing, he would turn and watch her. At one point i went down to the third row to take some pictures of sasha in her outfit because i figured those would be the only pictures they would have. When i was standing there, this one young dance troupe had filed from pebackstage and sat in the row right in front of me, and there were about 20 to 25 little kids. I said, how old are you guys . She said, were six. I thought to myself, you know, this is what just got wiped out in j newtown, was this whole ro. I had to turn away and i started crying. We flew up to connecticut and spent two and a half hours meeting with the families. This is the wheeler family, francine and david. Their son ben, who was six, was shot and killed. And theirnd oldest son nate hidn the School Supply closet during the shooting. We learned that the president was coming. We waited for a long time because the president s people were trying to hurry him through the hprocess, and he said no. I will h take as long as it tak. He comes in and he made a beeline for francine. He just wrapped her up. Just held her. Let her sob into his lapel. And i asked him, i said, is this different . And he said, i hope so, but i dont know. Theres no substitute for empathy. It is a foundational relationship between human beings. And to know that the guy who is running the show cares enough not just to come and visit but to let you know that he cares about you, that he cares about your wife, to know that he cares about your nineyearold kid. We are so good at dismissing the people that we elect to serve us. Were so good at turning them into things that arent people. And we have to be very careful about that. Because when you do that, then youth get the elected officials that you deserve. Ive seen him run up these steps many times. He didnt run up the steps that night. Whether its newtown or aurora or any of these places, he was the only guy that was always in those rooms, you know. So you could sense his anger at what was going on around him. So can we go to the place we usually get the cherry tomatoes . Can i get one kale bunch . Thank you. Oh, yeah, im voting. I know joe biden so im voting for joe biden. Jo youre pete, right . Yeah. I was at your show the other night. Ot im toni brown. Welcome to madison. The president takes responsibility for this happening. So, you know, the president started in 2009, so as he gets to know me more and he gets to meet patti, he would tell people that he liked her better than he liked me, you know. So he would start working on me, like,on in terms of like, wait minute, you guys have been together for whatever it was, 15, 17 years, so why havent you gotten married. Go president obama pushes everybody to get married. He loves love stories. Michelle was on the trip, and were sitting in the Conference Room, andin hes just, like, no letting it go, and hes turning to michelle and saying, can you believe pete wont ask patti to marry him . And thats t when he brought up well do thehe wedding in the re garden and ill officiate. I remember i said to him, i said, no, i dont want to do that. He goes, whart, the rose garden is not good enough for you . The most interesting part of my job was that i saw him in all these different compartments of his life. I saw him as a dad, i saw how he behaved with his children. I watched his family grow up, essentially. You know, i think sasha and malia did such a great job under the limelight, and its really a testament to michelle and barack and marian robinson, who you see here on the right, michelles mom helped out, especially when michelle went on solo trips overseas. I saw him singing happy birthday to michelle. We were on a boat ride on the gulf coast, and i saw michelle stroking his hand. Then atro the second inaugurati, just before they boarded the motorcade, i approached him. Michelle was standing next to him. I said, mr. President , do you mind if i ride in the limousine with you for part of the parade route . And he looked me in the eye and he said, well, michelle and i were planning to make out. Andg then he just started laughing. He was like, of course, you can. And hell tell you that the best day at the white house was the day Congress Passed the Affordable Care p act. Not true. The best day for him at the white house was the day sashas coach could noty make the game and he got to coach the game. With a little help from reggie love. So the sidwell friends vipers were undefeated, and during the first half, under the tutelage of coachde obama, they fell behind, so he called time out. And sasha is looking at him like, dad, you are embarrassing me. These are like nineyearold girls. And hes coaching as if this is game 7 of the nba finals. One of my favorite days was we had a big snowstorm. It was called snowmageddon, and he ended upcoming o kocoming out twoco hours, it was them and men the rose garden. Sasha, you could see what she was aboutld to do. She dids it. Who else could throw a snowball in the face of the president of the United States and not get tackled by the secret service . To this day, he has a photo thats the lockscreen photo on his ipad, and its this picture of the three of them doing snow angels on the south lawn. And then they grow up. Where did the time go you were just a little girl in my arms i can see with my eyes closed there is a moment when our world was so calm princess in a kingdom i would gladly give away the throne to see you smile how is it you will stay here and although youre grown youll always with my child snow angel i just want you to stay this way forever snow angel in my heart well always be together snow angel. One of the most emotional days was in 2015 in the morning on this day, the Supreme Court upheld samesex marriage. It was a beautiful, summery, warm morning. Everyone knew that decision would come down that day. We didnt know when. Like every morning, i went and unlocked the door, turned on the television. Reporter you can hear the cheer in the crowd, a very dramatic moment here, a 54 decision. I called joe, my now husband who was there, and he said, its done. The president walked in and put his arm around me. It felt like for that period of time we were on the right side of history. The president did an interview in the cabinet room several months before then. Ive been going through an evolution on this issue. When ion think about members ofy own staff who are incredibly committed in monogamous relationships, i think samesex couples should be able to get married. When he legalized samesex marriages,eg that was a moment r me as well. Sometimes there are days like this when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt. Then later that morning we flew m to charleston. President obama was invited to give the eulogy for reverend clemente pinckney. He was one of the nine americans shot and killed at emmanuel methodistue Episcopal Church by someone who had prayed with this group ofha nine people patat a r service for an hour and then took out a gun and killed them all. President obama wanted to give a eulogy with ant theme of grace. Amazing grace. Amazing grace. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. It was emotional in the moment, asot you can imagine. I, didnt know he was going to sing amazing grace. I didnt realize, like, the struggle. Th you could see him trying to decide, can i pull this off . Shouldpu i speak the words or sg them . And hes trying to get the courage up to d sing, and he di. Im blind but now i see [ applause ] bidding farewell to the reverends daughters and widow, with some of the other families backstage, and then we flew back to d. C. Someone had decided to light the white house in rainbow colors. These are all white house staff out on the north lawn. People were crying, people were drinking champagne. It was, i think, one of only two times that i called my wife. I said to her, i dont care what youre doing or what youre wearing, get in a taxi and come to the white house. You need to be here to see this celebration. How many people are you going to speaking to . Theres going to be like 800 people here. Are you ready, man . Am i ready . Yeah. Yeah. Was obama nice . Yeah. Youll hear all about him today. Sweet. Clearly i could see what he meant to the africanamerican community. As time went on, i was probably more aware of just trying to tell the story of what it meant for them, you know, to have him up on stage. It was often in the back of my mind that he was the first africanamerican president , and i had to incorporate that into my photography. This is ruby bridges in person anddg as pictured in the famous Norman Rockwell painting. She was the first africanamerican to desegregate schools in louisiana. I think its fair to say that if it hadnt been for you guys, i might not be here and we wouldnt be h looking at this together. This is Paul T Mccartney singing michelle to michelle. The next day i was walking along the promenade with president obama. I said, that was really cool when Paul Mccartney sang to michelle. He said, yeah, i dont think michelle t obama as a young africanamerican kid thought she would be sittinga in the front row as the first lady while the beatles sang her a song. Then theres this picture. This is jacob from philadelphia. At one point, she said that kid cant believe, even though hes seeing, the presidt in the ovalse office, until he n feel his hair, he doesnt truly believe hes just like me. That single image stands for so much more. It stands for how kids will see themselves differently forever. But, too, i think it tells you something t about barack obama. At the behest of a fiveyearold kid, you would go ahead, bend over and let that kid touch your head like that. The fact that you would let a kid into the office to show him what the office has been, what it could be again, to show kind of the integrity of purpose, i think thats inspiring. The presidency is about a lot more than even just policy. Theres something intangible about that office. What do people remember about the obamas . They remember the marriage between barack and michelle obama, they remember a certain speech he gave, they remember how the rooms that used to be only full of white men are suddenly full of people of different races and genders. Thats what they take away from the Obama Presidency, and frankly, thats going to have a Lasting Impact on this country and on the world. I think obama understood that the images of him not only being president but being president in a certain way, that could change attitudes. It did, i think, change perspectives on what is possible and whativ is achievable for people of color in this country, but it also woke this, you know, constantly present, ugly, horrific racism. When i first met pete, his politics were not at all evident. I always wondered, what did pete sousa get from president obama . Like, how did he change . Because he spent so much time with s president obama. The political concern, the feeling that you have to care and make a difference, you can make a difference. He could no longer be this fly on the wall. And i would see these moments where pete became serious for president obama. Wait pete is most changed is by becoming a vocal, political person because of president obama. Reporter hundreds of citizens from the president executive orders are turning to action. Pete nisousa is a very unliky instagramli superstar when he started responding to the president s tweets by posting obamas photos, with snarky captions. Heres the president s photographer showing pics of how the president handles certain situations. Its earned him the moniker the king of shade. Do you have a picture for every a single thing that donal trumpy has lied about with bark obama . Prettyit much. Much, yeah. How much joy do you get when you do it . I get a lot of joy, actually. I picture you sitting at home giggling, s working on your laptop. My wife said she didnt know i was that funny, and i said, you just havent been paying attention. When i first started out, i was trying to be humorous in my comments. I had all these reporters wanting to interview me about what i was doing on instagram, and i would not respond, just say, it speaks for itself. In the words of some younger people, they say you troll President Trump. Why . T the photographs i post on instagram now and the words i write, i think, speak for themselves. And i think ive gotten more and more out there in terms of making it pretty damn clear how i feel. There are also a lot of questions about the phone call you received from President Trump. What he said was the president. Yes, the president said that he knew what he signed up for, but it hurts, anyway. He couldnt remember my husbands name. If my husband lost his life for our country, why cant you remember his name . Since leaving the white house, i made this conscious decision that i couldnt not say anything, that i couldnt not speak out. It was all about the dignity of the office of the presidency. Special couns especially for young people. I didnt want them to think this is the way a president is supposed to behave. No, its not. Pete bore witness to an ethical, decent, not perfect, certainly fallible, lawabiding, humane presidency for eight years. And my hunch when i saw pete draw devastating contrasts between what was and what is was he just felt he had no choice. Whatever instinct that pete may have had to remain behind the scenes seems to have been obliterated by the harm that President Trump was doing and the urgency to call that out, to mobilize people. This was a 911. It just got progressively worse. I just thought it was dangerous. I think over time, yeah, my instagram posts got more pointed. I thought that trump had just gone way too far. And i said, okay, i want to do this book, shade. Trump tweet on one page, my response on the other. Oba obamas Coffee Table Book about his legacy will hopefully last a lifetime. The shade book will hopefully outlive its usefulness on january 20, 2021. Pete souza. I was surprised to see him hit this nerve on social media. I was surprised to see him on a Television Show talking. Hes a behindthescenes guy. It spoke to how offended he was about the new reality and how he felt compelled to speak up. We usually dont see this from a White House Photographer, that fly on the wall quality to him or to her. What made you want to step out and make this stand . I think this guy disrespects the office of the presidency. Its as simple as that. I always thought of you as fairly apolitical. What is it about this moment and this president that has changed you . He bullies people, he lies, he calls you guys the enemy of the people. He doesnt believe our own intelligence agencies. Theres just too many things. Im trying to make an argument that this is not who we are, that this president really doesnt speak for us as americans, what it means to be an american. Believe me, he gets lots of hate mail because i get a lot of them on his behalf. Hes not loved by everyone for sure. But for the people who feel strongly as he does, they see him as almost a leader to help them get that message across and to help make some change in this country right now. How are you . So good to see you. Congratulations. You, too. My god, youre kicking ass. I love the book. I saw the potus today, and one of the things i was telling him was, you can tell stories now and in context and make complete sense. Like you couldnt have defended yourself the way you did about benghazi, for instance. No, but i had no choice because i was speaking on behalf of the government and on behalf of the president. That is what i wanted to do and what i committed to do at the time, but that meant that in that period, i didnt have my own voice. Im a journalist who wishes i could give my opinion once in a while. Im wondering as the white house official photographer, did you have to wait for a certain time to throw shade . I would never have done it if jeb bush or john kasich or look, this is not a partisan thing to me. This is somebody that i feel is not a good person, doesnt respect the office of the presidency, thinks about himself and not other people, lies to us. So it became something that i felt i had to do. I dont think a pho photojournalist is supposed to be opinionated. Im now opinionated. I, in some ways, have now ruined any chance that i have of being a working photojournalist again. But to me thats a small price to pay for doing what i think is the right thing. Pete and i and ive never talked about this probably feel the same sense of obligation along with other colleagues to fight these battles because we dont want obama to do it. He shouldnt do it. His voice is too important by being trivialized to have to respond to tweets, you know . Ive never been overtly political, and now i am political. I want to make sure Everybody Knows that what this guy is doing is not only not normal, but its really dangerous to the country. This is a serious job, being the president. Im going to do everything i can to make sure people dont forget that. President obama invited the president elect just two days after the election to the white house. It was a surreal day. It just so happens by sheer coincidence that another meeting had been scheduled that day with a young boy, alex mittlebury. Alex had written a letter to president obama that he was so taken with that he read excerpts of it at his u. N. Speech that year. I can still remember seeing her in the ambulance covered with ash and dust. Its horrific with somebody a year younger to me being hurt in another country while im sitting at my grandmas watching tv. For days he wanted to ask about omeran, where is syria . First he wanted to send a letter to omeran. I said, i dont have his address, i dont think hes going to get it, and thats when he said, i want to write to the president. Its the idea of you write it, you drop it, and thats the end of it. Little did we know. He said he wanted omeran to come live with him and his family. Since he wont bring toys, alex wrote, i will share my bike and i will teach him how to ride it. We will give him a family, and he will be our brother. Those are the words of a sixyearold boy. Its so nice to meet you. How have you been . Good. You look very nice in your suit. Thank you. Is that a new suit . Uhhuh. I thought so. You being so nice and kind hopefully makes other people think the same way. I was very proud. This picture was made 22 minutes after trump had left. This sixyearold kid, the son of two immigrants, showed more compassion, more empathy, more understanding and knows more about what it means to be an american than our current president. This is something we take very seriously. As soon as there is an outbreak in the world of any disease, the cdc is in communication with the World Health Organization and other multilateral agencies to try to make sure that weve got an appropriate response. Having watched president obama based on the way he handled the h1m1 epidemic and the ebola crisis, if the coronavirus had happened during his presidency, he would have done what it took from day one. This is 49 11s. Thats how many people have died. I view everything now through the lens of the presidency. One thing thats changed is that the vast majority of the country now realizes that having a competent, honest person in the presidency really does matter. I want to speak directly to the young men and women of color in this country. I want you to know that you matter, i want you to know that your lives matter. You have the power to make things better, and you have helped to make the entire country feel as if this is something thats got to change. There is a light at the end of this road and i know that theres still a long way to go as long as my head is high and i walk with pride go with the strength inside take every step in stride no chance will pass me by as long as i always try note wont let my passions die as long as im alive the future belongs to me whoa, the future belongs to me its going to be a beautiful thing to see. America has always been two stories battling each other. You know, the progressive, inclusive story of people getting more rights and more people being allowed the promise of citizenship and opportunity and struggling to overcome things versus people who dont want to give up power, you know. And if you just stacked up the images of the Obama Presidency and the trump presidency, you would see the two stories of america in the starkest possible contrast. I think thats why petes images have triggered such emotion in people because he says, thats my america. My america is in these pictures. The history has been written and the glory days are gone how will you be remembered. Thank you, god bless you. Will you be someone they reference with wise words to quote a paragraph, a page, a chapter, more than a footnote as simple as the questions asked the answer i propose is to look beyond the days gone past to see tomorrow knows that the future belongs to me whoa, the future belongs to me and its going to be a beautiful thing to see. Okay, that was amazing. Hello, im joy reid, and that was the way i see it. Im joined now by pete souza, dawn porter, director of the way i see it and white house detective robert gibbs who met souza who covered thenpresident obama as photographer and then hired him as chief photographer when president obama took office. Thank you all for being here. I want to start with you, pete. Its good to see you again through the camera lens here, but i first want to wish you condolences. I know you lost your mom this week, and im so sorry to hear that. Im in that club as well, and im sorry to hear that and wanted to give you those condolences to start out. Thanks, joy. I mean, it was she was an incredible woman. She lived til 94 and went peacefully which is, i guess, a good thing. That is. Did your mom have a favorite photo, a favorite photo that you took during your years as White House Photographer . Did she have a favorite of your photos . I think any photograph that i made was her favorite. You know, thats just the way a mother is, right . Watching this documentary, i have to admit i teared up through a lot of it, man. Just going back and remembering some of those poignant moments over the eight years that president obama was in office. But i think probably cried the most during the sandy hook portion. It was incredibly moving. Talk a little bit about being a fly on the wall in those really tough and painful moments when the president is comforting people who are weeping into his shoulder. Talk a bit about that. You know, there is no rule book or guidebook on how you interact with people that are affected by a national tragedy, whether it be a mass shooting or a natural disaster. Its inherent in you how you react to these families. The newtown one was especially difficult because, you know, there were 20 little kids, 20 first graders that had been shot and killed, and he looked at it just as a parent, i think, in so many ways. When we went to newtown two days after the shooting, you know, the families were still in shock. And here they are meeting the president of the United States under those circumstances. So it was very, very emotional. And, you know, my job was to document those moments, but i didnt ever want to make anybody feel uncomfortable. I mean, i thought David Wheeler just his interview for this film was just so poignant, and i think it really spoke to probably how all the families were feeling that night. Yeah. I wrote down what he said. In one of his quotes, he said, there is no substitute for empathy. It is foundational to the relationship between human beings. I thought his interview was fantastic. It was one of the most poignant moments in the film. I want to go to you, robert gibbs, quickly, because youre the man responsible for having the National Treasure that is pete souza. Shade or no shade, just when hes being himself and taking photographs. Tell us how it came together and how you hired this man to photograph the white house. I met him in 2005. He was on assignment for the Chicago Tribune, and he was bugging me to get him behind the scenes of the swearing in. I had avoided taking his phone call for several weeks, and i think he called me the night before on somebody elses number, because i answered the phone. And i knew at that point i couldnt pretend like i had lost a signal or something, and i was you know, we were all running around pretty harried, and i just said, you know, well make it work. Come tomorrow like 7 30 or 8 00, whatever time i told him. I just sort of trusted the process would work out. What i think you learn pretty quickly with pete is how seamlessly he slips into the background of all this. Hes able to capture those moments at sandy hook, hes able to capture those moments inside the oval office because you dont know hes there. You dont feel it. And i think it became so unobtrusive so quickly that there wasnt an excuse to kick him out in 2005, as much as i probably wanted to because i was just theyre like two press staffers, you dont have time to mind the photographer. But i knew pete could capture great images. And you saw that picture at r Robbin Island when we went in 2006 with thensenator obama. You see that tour guide is explaining what mandela went through. What you dont see in that is, as hes talking about this, pete rushes by everybody down the hall and out the door. And im like, where is pete going . Im like, i dont know, hell figure it all out. About a minute later, the tour guide finishes, and obama steps into the cell that mandela spent all those years. I see pete is on the outside, and hes outside looking into the bars. Hes not taking a picture with the open door that wasnt afforded to mandela, he was showing us the view that mandela had for all those years. About that moment he starts taking those pictures, about six other photographers, all with their cameras around their necks and fanny packs, they all rushed by us like a herd of people trying to capture what pete had captured. Pretty early on you realize the eye that pete has for this kind of stuff and the ability to capture it in a way that really, really is poignant. You know, there was something that you all mentioned when you talk about being that fly on the wall and the truth of a real photograph when its real. That situation room moment when president obama, you know, takes that seat to the side because hes like, no, im not going to interrupt this operation, i want this to go forward. He takes that seat to the side, that iconic photo, pete, that you took in the situation room upon the killing of Osama Bin Laden as contrasted with the posed photo that donald trump had created where you make the point, you know, the photographer is obviously standing in front of the screen. Theyre not looking at a screen, theyre looking at a camera. I want you each to talk about that because were facing a moment where we cant necessarily trust the images, the words out of the white house and the press secretary. So first you, pete, and then robert. I think we need authentic moments for history. I always looked at my job as just hang around. Hang around and be there when things are happening and photograph as theyre happening. You know, dont direct anything, dont stage anything. You either get it or you dont. And i think, you know, especially in that situation room photograph, you can tell the emotion. You can see how tense it is in that room, because, you know, its while theyre watching the raid. The next day i remember there was a little bit of sort of controversy of why did hillary have her hand up to her face. I remember she was doing an interview, and at one point she said, i didnt even realize pete was in the room. And i was like, thats the way i wanted it to be. I didnt want people to realize i was there. Youre trying to blend in the best you can, and thats the way you make the best pictures is if youre there when i guess we cant say the s word when stuff is happening. Stuff happens. Really quickly, robert. Well, i think, look, i think pete wanted to be that, as he says in the film, historian with a camera. He does that. In reality, the history of the raid against Osama Bin Laden, the history of the auto bailout, the history of so many of those moments isnt when somebody stands in front of a podium flanked by a flag and cabinet members and tells you what he already knows and what hes now just communicating to you, its when that raid happens, its when that decision gets made. Its the moments of that anguish and that anxiety, and thats what pete captures so perfectly. And i think the advent, really, of social media allowed everybody in the world to have that window seat for the Obama Administration and to be able to see it on their phones and not just in their newspapers every day. And i think that kind of catapulted us into the ability to tell a story as a leader, as a father, as a husband, you know, somebody who liked to have fun in the snow with the girls, but also could sit there in a room and make an anguished, tough decision. Well said. Were going to take a quick break. Ill be right back with robert gibbs, pete souza. Stay with us. Souza. Stay with us facing leaks takes strength, so heres to the strong, who trust in our performance and comfortable, longlasting protection. Because your strength is supported by ours. Depend. The only thing stronger than us, is you. Introducing the new sleep number 360 smart bed. Depend. Now temperature balancing, so you can sleep better together. Can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. Can it help with snoring . Ive never heard snoring. Exactly. No problem. And done. So you can really promise better sleep . Not promise. Prove. Its our weekend special. Save up to 1,000 on the new sleep number 360 smart bed and adjustable base. Plus, 0 interest for 48 months. Ends monday. Were back with pete souza, dawn porter and robert gibbs. Dawn porter, youve directed some great projects, including good trouble with my friends Aaron Alexander and ben arnon, so youre a wonderful filmmaker. How did you get involved in this project and what drew you to it. Lauren is one of the producers of this film, and she and her producing partners were kind of obsessed with his instagram. Jamie went to his show, she saw his books, and it was really jamies idea that this could be a good film. But what really drew me to it, and i was in the middle of making the film good trouble about john lewis is lewis was doing what was asked of him by citizens. He was speaking out. And with the journalism background that i have, i understood what it took for him to cross the line from being the observer, the fly on the wall, to being the person to articulate the opinions. And i really respected that, and i we just wanted to amplify what pete was doing, and i think add our own kind of plea for people to, you know, really lean into the fact that what we are seeing now is abnormal. And that is why we have the gift of pete worked for two different administrations and he makes the point that it was not a partisan thing that he was doing, it was really to honor america that he was doing this. Yeah. He also, right, documented the reagans and their sort of love story, and there is a lot of great stuff in the film about that, too. Dawn, ive heard that you got a little emotional at an event with pete and hearing the story. I wonder if there is a particular photo that has particular meaning to you. I know for me my favorite pete souza photo that he took during this time was the little boy rubbing president obamas hair. I love that photo. It is my personal favorite. Is there a particular photo that speaks to you out of all of these many photos . There are so many. I actually think some of the ones that i like the most are of president obama just clearly wrestling with a decision. Because it gives me, you know, kind of that faith that my leader is doing the job that, in this case, he should be doing, that hes really got the countrys welfare at top of mind. I also actually really loved some of the photos that are less well known that pete made in africa and seeing its like the definition of hope in the faces of the people hanging on thensenator obamas words. And then, of course, some of the family photos really just kind of grab your heart, and the love and care and bond between the president and his family is so evident, and pete captured it so beautifully. I know that those photos are really important to the obamas as well. Yeah, and, you know, pete, the photos also that i love are the fun photos. A fun obama is a great obama. Hes great with kids. He has like baby magic. He holds the baby, the baby stops crying. When you were in those moments with families and with kids, did you ever get asked, you know what, you should go. Were you ever asked, get out of the room . No. I mean and its a good thing, because there is a lot of families now that have some great pictures of their young kids. And i think they are i think they treasure them. Yeah. And, robert gibbs, i have to ask you if youve got a favorite photo out of all of them. You were working with the man and you saw him doing the tough decisions, having the fun time with the kids, having the tragic moments. Is there a photo for you that speaks the most to you out of all that youve seen in those eight years . Yeah, i loved the photos, as dawn said, of the weight of the office sitting on the shoulders of the president. Those were the tough decisions. And so i think watching him wrestle with that. But i also love i think the ones of him playing with the girls in the snow are just great, because he im not entirely sure who is having more fun in those pictures. I think it might be i think it might be president obama, even though sasha had a snowball. So i think thats what these photos really let people see is not just a president and not just a leader and not just somebody concerned about the right policy, but the values that animate those decisions. Yeah, absolutely. Well, i have to tell you, for eight years we had a good, goodman as president. You can see it in all those images and a National Treasure as his photographer, pete souza. Your shade is epic, it is perfection, we appreciate you so much. Thank you for allowing us to see the president in this way. Dawn porter, thank you for making this wonderful, wonderful film. And, robert gibbs, thank you for everything and the honesty that came from that office when you were running the shop. Thank you all for joining us tonight. Thank you. Have a good night. This is World Headquarters in new york. And this is the week. From a moment of church to the affairs of our state, we are 16 days from election day. Lets focus on whats to come and what you need to know in the home stretch of this historic race. Nearly 25 million voters have already cast their ballots by mail or in person. That is up nearly 300 from 2016. Young voters made up 19 of