During my eight years as the chief official White House Photographer for the obama 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 got hope i got high hopes zblooifrmts i think its my right as an american citizen the speak out when i see wrong. I really come at this from a unique perspective, not just as a former photo journalist, but also having worked for the reagan and obama administrations, and seeing what its like on the inside of the presidency. Whether you agree or disagree with the president s policies, how that president should behave high hopes i got high hopes im going throw some shade tonight if thats okay. But i want to tell you first how i got there. So, if you go back to january 20, 2017, president obama 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 impart on this great adventure, and know that we stand ready to help in any ways in which we can. Good luck and good speed. With that, he left the oval office for the last time. Morning, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you, guys. He went and said goodbye to the staff, ushers, grounds keepers. One that had been there since the reagan eras, you can imagine what it was the like for him with the first africanamerican president. Theres a comes before the inauguration. After everyone else 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 also see the person in that position behind the president , behind the first lady. As they were leaving the podium, i now notice that mike white and his deputy were behind trump and melania and not behind president obama. Thats when it really hit me that its for real now. You know, if i go back to january 20, 2017, im ready for the job to be done, because, you know, it just takes something out of you physically, mentally. Theres 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. And 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 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 . And 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. And i said, you cant do that. Now, what i cant tell you is i had just seen a picture of the redecorated oval office with these gold ornate curtains, and there was even a comment on that first post from somebody that said, pete is dropping shade with a comment on drapes. And i have to admit, i have no idea what dropping shade meant. I knew what i was doing. I just didnt know it was called dropping or throwing shade. If theres a question, then give us a question. When you report fake news, which cnn does a lot, youre the enemy of the people. Go ahead. Hi pete. Hi. Its nice to be here. Is there hope for photo 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. The official White House Photographer to president S Ronald Reagan and barack obama, please welcome to the stage, pete joseph souza i want to ask you as a photo journalist, your commitment to photographing is the truth. But when youre the chief White House Photographer, will you consciously or sub consciously building an image of obama . Yeah, i think thats a good question. I often say to people, though my background is a photo journalist, certainly when youre the chief White House Photographer, youre working for the government. But, so, i didnt ever think of it as a conflict, because i wasnt a pr photographer. I look at myself as a historian with a cam rachlt. The job as the chief official house photographer is to visibly 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 had this guy named yoshi yokomoto who travelled with him as vice president. And you know, johnson was such a character. And okomoto was such a great photographer that his pictures were just amazing. More than anyone, his work was the kind of work that i wanted to do. I wanted the level of access that yokomoto had to johnson. Thats what i was striving for with obama. Photographs can tell a story just as a book can tell a story. And its a very special thing because it breaks down the idea that these people are somehow different from us. Yes, they have different responsibilities, greater anxieties, but theyre leading a life that has a daily ritual to it. I think i knew how the job should be done having worked for the reagan administration, too. The White House Photo editor called me up one day out of the blue and said, i want to you apply for this job. It was totally unexpected. Im in my 20s. I had never met a president before. I was just nervous. Its kind of just like, overwhelming to me. I actually turned it down at first. A, he was not really that into politics. B, i was really not the biggest fan of reagan. Five ways. [ speaking Foreign Language ] well, this is but you hope that what youre doing is important for history, right . Used to say journalism is the first of history. Im thinking heres a chance to actually be involved in documenting history. The Photograph Office primarily it was myself and fits and jack and then pete. But we were very much a team. Working at the white house as the first woman official photographer was a humbling experience. I was recording for history. Now was pete nice and clear . Yes. Okay. The orchestration of Television Coverage absorbs the white house. They provide pictures of him looking like a leader, confident with his marlboro man walk, a good family man. The white house has become more and more a theater, and the question has become, are the Television Networks going manage that theater, manage that space, or is the white house going to do that . They were very aware of creating the best backdrop possible for tv networks in time and newsweek. You want us beside the tree, or what . I think for these purposes it would be better to have you doing some nice watering of the tree. We have two shovels. We have a chain saw. No, please. Pete, too hot. Should we just do watering the tree . Watering the tree is fine. Did you get that, pete is this. Yeah. Ive got an idea for a picture. Just one more. Ive got the chain saw. No, and youre blocking me off. Stopping me from dont just stand there. Youre supposed to be im not going to start the saw. No. All right. Thank you. The amount of access you get as the chief official White House Photographer is really totally dependent on the relationship you have with the president. All i tried to do was push for more access for the behind the scenes 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 Naval Hospital every day at the end of the day he would take the hospital 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 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. They would just happen and that really humanizes. 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, folks. Always wanted to stand on the cabinet. [ laughter ]. Mr. President. Another half step. Here 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 irancontra affair there were a lot of pictures that i made where he was agonizing over what he did or what he didnt do. It was a big scandal. I made that picture with the to youer commission after this manymonth investigation that concluded that in fact reagan had sold arms for hostages. You see that look on reagans face. He was still somewhat in denial, but to me it really defines that whole scandal and how impactful it was on his whole 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 grip 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. That 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 given flown to the west coast, nancy reagan requested that pete be on the plane. He had been at the white house so many years, and pete did that. Lps your immune defenses every day, with vitamin c, d and zinc. Season, after season. Ace your immune support, with centrum. Crankypated a bad mood related to a sluggish gut. Miralax is different. It works naturally with the water in your body to unblock your gut. Free your gut, and your mood will follow. Your journey requires Liberty Mutual. They customize your Car 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. [laugh] dad i got a job im moving out. [laugh] dream sequence ending no in three, no two, keep packing one. 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 base in the d. C. If somebody 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 all, i love you thank you thank you, illinois in 2004, barack obama was elected to the senate. I didnt see his 2004 speech at the convention because i was traveling with carrie. The hope of the skinny kid with a funny name who believes that america has a place for him, too. I remember the editors in chicago said to me, make you get a picture of obama. I didnt even know what he looks like. Youre on the front page of every paper. Youre all over television. Everyones calling you the future, the savior of the democratic party. Are you . I rang 99th out of 100 in seniority. Im going to be sharpening pencils the first couple years. Jeff zeleny came up to me one day and said, hey, im pitching a story and saying the editors following obamas fist year in the senate. I love this picture because, you know, hes got half a sandwich in his mouth, and then sashas eyeing the other half. This is the day i met him. The president said my camera didnt bother him at all, which is not always the case, especially with politicians. Did they say anything about him to you . I found a good subject. This was the first day that he was in washington as the newly elected senator. And malia was 6. Senator obama spent the day with his family and showing them around and helping them understand what it was like. Sasha was 3. I mean, i think he thought i was a competent photographer. I continue to further that trust as the year went by. Why in the age of youtube and so much 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 photo journalists 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 this 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. He would email you in the middle of the night. Generationally he had more in common than the people who worked for him in his 20s than he did probably the other senators in washington. This would have been 2005. I went to russia and ukraine, azerbaijan with him. Were in the middle of red square, and not a Single Person recognizes him. He was just plain a regular guy. And then went to africa with him in 2006. And we went to mandelas cell. The view on the outside on a clear day, you can see capetown. When we went to kenya, he had a meeting with some ngos. Word got out he was in there, and 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, he gave a big speech. I got a picture of a guy writing down the bullet points of what he was talking about. Hey the reception at his moms village was chaotic. Any time i think a child comes back to his parents grave makes you reflect on your own life, mortality. Makes you think about the next generation. My wife and i are going to get tested for hiv aids. I want everybody to remember, 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 he got in africa, i remember coming back from that trip saying that, you know, i bet he runs for president. I mean, just the way people were hanging on to his every word, you could just see in peoples faces that this guy was Something Special to them. Obviously 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, announce that hes running for president , knowing that his life will never be the same and i think you can see that in his face. You see the anxiety in michelle. Shes trying to brush off lint from the back of his jacket. I knew the gravity of the moment, and i knew he had a shot. I knew 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 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 total long shot. Doesnt obama face a big uphill battle despite all the Media Attention hes getting . Hell 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, the broader force out there is not going let this 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, but tonight, because of what we did on this day in this election at this defining moment, change has come to america. Gibbs called me on january 5th and offered me the job. I just said to gibbs, look, if i do this, i have to have access to everything. And he said to me, the president elect gets it. Theres no worries here. I said, okay, ill be there tomorrow. Two days later, i met up with obama. He walked in the room and he said, were going to have some fun. Moving on the horizon, smooth sailing i think there was an enormous amount of respect overseas when he was elected. I think people were just excited that our country had finally put prejudice aside and elected an africanamerican president. Really a different kind of politician. That resonated around the world. I wont let you down, no, honey, i wont let you down pete was with the president all the time. Every thursday around 9 00 i get his schedule, but i came to learn the schedule was really just a starting point. All right, lets go. 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. I wont let you down, no, honey, i wont let you down 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, you got to be there all the time. Because you cant predict when an image is going to happen. Pete really want