Obama surprises press secretary

so even though it's my last day you better not let up now so in that spirit let me say for the last time standing up here Joshi want to get started with questions I'm not interrupting because he was saying nice things about you guys because I largely concur when I first met Josh earnest he was in Iowa I think he was wearing jeans he looked even younger than he was and since my entire campaign depended on communications in Iowa I gave him a a pretty good once-over and there are a couple things I learned about him right away number one you know he's just got that all-american Matt neg good-looking thing going that's helpful let's face it face made-for-television then the guy's name is Josh earnest which if somebody's speaking on your behalf is a pretty good name to have but what struck me most in addition to his smarts and his maturity and his actual interest in the issues was his integrity you know there are people you meet who you have a pretty good inkling right off the bat our straight shooters and we're raised to be fundamentally honest and to treat people with respect and there are times where that first impression turns out to be wrong and you're a little disappointed you see behind the curtain that there's spin and some hype and you know posturing going on but then there's others who the longer you know the better you know the more time you spend with him the more you're tested under tough situations the more that initial impression is confirmed and I have now known this guy for 10 years almost and I've watched him grow and I've watched him advance and I've watched him marry and I've watched him be a father and I've watched him manage younger people coming up behind him and he's never disappointed he has always been the guy you wanted him to be and I think that you know you if you're the president United States and you find out that this is the guy who has been voted beep the most popular press secretary ever by the White House press corps that may make you a little nervous thinking well maybe the guys kind of been too solicitous towards towards the press but the fact is is that he was worthy of that admiration he was tough and he didn't always give you guys everything he wanted but he was always prepared he was always courteous he always tried to make sure that he could share with you as much of our thinking and our policy and our vision as possible and tried to be as responsive as possible and that's how he trained the rest of his team to be so of the folks that I've had the great joy and pleasure of working with over the last 10 years on this incredible journey you know this guy ranks as high as just about anybody I've worked with he is not only a great press secretary but more importantly he is a really really good man and I'm really really proud of him so Josh congratulations and Natalie and Walter thanks for putting up with all of this because because they've made sacrifices to

Channel: CBC News

Views: 8,653,046

Keywords: CBC News, CBCNews, CBC broadcasting media, public broadcasting, news, Canadian News, Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (TV network), CBC News Network, obama, press secretary

Id: J9ZucDSx19Q

Length: 5min 15sec (315 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 17 2017