President Obama COMPLETE REMARKS at 2016 White House Correspondents' Dinner (C-SPAN)

the c-span networks bring you long-form public affairs programming from the nation's capital and are a public service of your television provider c-span created by cable you can't say it but you know it's true good evening everybody it is an honor to be here at my last and perhaps the last white house correspondents day you all look great the end of the republic has never looked better i do apologize i know i was a little late tonight i was running on cpt which stands for jokes that white people should not make it's a tip for you jeff anyway here we are my eighth and final appearance at this unique event and i am excited if this material works well i'm gonna use it at goldman sachs next year earn me some serious tubmans that's right that's right my brilliant and beautiful wife michelle is here tonight she looks so happy to be here that's called practice it's like learning to do three-minute planks she makes it look easy now but next year at this time someone else will be standing here in this very spot and it's anyone's guess who she will be but but standing here i can't help but be reflective a little sentimental you know eight years ago i said it was time to change the tone of our politics in hindsight i clearly should have been more specific eight years ago i was a young man full of idealism and vigor and look at me now i am gray and grizzled just counting down the days till my death panel hillary once questioned whether i'd be ready for a 3 a.m phone call no i'm awake anyway because i got to go to the bathroom i'm up in fact somebody recently said to me mr president you are so yesterday justin trudeau has completely replaced you he's so handsome he's so charming he's the future and i said justin just give it a rest i resented that meanwhile michelle has not aged today the only way you can date her in photos is by looking at me take a look here we are in 2008 here we are a few years later and this one is from two weeks ago so time passes in just six short months i will be officially a lame duck which means congress now will flat out reject my authority and republican leaders won't take my phone calls and this is going to take some getting used to it's really going to it's a curveball i don't know what to do with it of course in fact four months now congressional republicans have been saying there are things i cannot do in my final year unfortunately this dinner was not one of them but on everything else it's another story and you know who you are republicans in fact i think we've got republican senators tim scott and uh corey gardner they're in the house which reminds me security bar the doors judge merrick garland come on out we're going to do this right here right now it's like the red wedding but it's not just congress even some foreign leaders they've been looking ahead anticipating my departure last week prince george showed up to our meeting in his bathrobe that was a slap in the face a clear breach of protocol although while in england i did have lunch with her majesty the queen took in a performance of shakespeare hit the links with david cameron just in case anybody is still debating whether i'm black enough i think that settles the debate i won't lie that look this is a tough transition it's hard key staff are now starting to leave the white house even reporters have left me savannah guthrie she's left the white house press corps to host the today show norah o'donnell left the briefing room to host cbs this morning jake tapper left journalism to join cnn but the prospect of leaving the white house is a mixed bag you might have heard that someone jumped the white house fence last week but i have to give secret service credit they found michelle brought her back she's hateful she's safe back at home now it's only nine more months baby settle down and yet somehow despite all this despite the churn in my final year my approval ratings keep going up the last time i was this high i was trying to decide on my major and here's the thing i i haven't really done anything differently so it's odd even my aides can't explain the rising poll numbers what has changed nobody can figure it out puzzling anyway in this last year i do have more appreciation for those who've been with me on this amazing ride like one of our finest public servants joe biden god bless you love that guy i love joe biden i really do i and i want to thank him for his friendship for his counsel for always giving it to me straight for not shooting anybody in the face thank you joe also i would be remiss let's give it up for our host larry wilmore also known as one of the two black guys who's not jon stewart you're the south african guy right i love him i love larry and his parents are here who are from evanston which is a great town i also would like to acknowledge some of the award-winning reporters that we have with us here tonight rachel mcadams mark ruffalo leah schreiber thank you all for everything that you've done i'm just joking as you know spotlight is a film a movie about investigative journalists with the resources and the autonomy to chase down the truth and hold the powerful accountable best fantasy film since star wars i look that was maybe a cheap shot i understand the news business is tough these days it keeps changing all the time every year at this dinner somebody makes a joke about buzzfeed for example changing the media landscape and every year the washington post lasts a little bit less hard it's kind of a silence there especially at the washington post table um gop chairman reince priebus is here as well glad to see that you feel that you've earned a night off congratulations on all your success the republican party the nomination process it's all going great keep it up kendall jenner is also here and we had a chance to meet her backstage she seems like a very nice young woman i'm not exactly sure what she does but i am told that my twitter mentions are about to go through the roof helen mirren is here tonight i don't even have a joke here i just think helen mirren is awesome she's awesome sitting at the same table i see mike bloomberg mike a combative controversial new york billionaire is leading the gop primary and it is not you that has to sting a little bit although it's it's not an entirely fair comparison between you and the donald after all mike was a big city mayor he knows policy in depth and he's actually worth the amount of money that he says he is what an election season for example we've got the bright new face of the democratic party here tonight mr bernie sanders bernie you look like a million bucks or to put it in terms you'll understand you look like 37 000 donations of 27 each a lot of folks have been surprised by the bernie phenomena especially his appeal to young people but not me i get it just recently a young person came up to me and said she was sick of politicians standing in the way of her dreams as if we were actually going to let malia go to burning man this year was not going to happen bernie might have let her go not us i am hurt though bernie that you've been distancing yourself a little from me i mean that's just not something that you do to your comrade bernie's slogan has helped his campaign catch fire among young people feel the burn feel the burn it's a good slogan hillary's slogan has not had the same effect let's see this i've said how much i admire hillary's toughness her smarts her policy chops her experience you've got to admit it though hillary trying to appeal to young voters is a little bit like your relative who just signed up for facebook dear america did you get my poke is it appearing on your wall i'm not sure i'm using this right love and hillary it's not entirely persuasive meanwhile on the republican side things are a little more how shall we say this a little more loose just look at the confusion over the invitations to tonight's dinner were asked to check whether they wanted steak or fish but instead a whole bunch of you wrote in paul ryan that's not an option people steak or fish you may not like steak or fish but that's your choice meanwhile some candidates aren't polling high enough to qualify for their own joke tonight the rules were well established ahead of time and then there's ted cruz ted had a tough week he went to indiana hoosier country stood on a basketball court and called the hoop a basketball ring what else is in his lexicon baseball sticks football hats but sure i'm the foreign one well let me conclude tonight on a more serious note i want to thank the washington press corps i want to thank carol for all that you do you know the free press is central to our democracy and now i'm just kidding you know i've got to talk about trump come on we weren't just going to stop there come on although i am a little hurt that he's not here tonight we had so much fun the last time and it is surprising you've got a room full of reporters celebrities cameras and he says no is this dinner too tacky for the donald what could he possibly be doing instead is he at home eating a trump steak tweeting out insults to angela merkel what's he doing the republican establishment is incredulous that he's their most likely nominee incredulous shocking they say donald lacks the foreign policy experience to be president but in fairness he has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world miss sweden miss argentina miss azerbaijan and there's one area where donald's experience could be invaluable and that's closing guantanamo because trump knows a thing or two about running waterfront properties into the ground all right that's probably enough i mean we i've got more material no no i don't want to spend too much time on the donald following your lead i want to show some restraint because i think we can all agree that from the start he's gotten the appropriate amount of coverage befitting the seriousness of his candidacy i hope you all are proud of yourselves the guy wanted to give this hotel business a boost and now we're praying that cleveland makes it through july as for me and michelle we've decided to stay in d.c for a couple more years thank you this way our youngest daughter can finish up high school michelle can stay closer to her plot of carrots she's already making plans to see them every day take a look but our decision has actually presented a bit of a dilemma because traditionally presidents don't stick around after they're done and it's something that i've been brooding about a little bit take a look the obamas are staying in d.c for two years after the president leaves office he's about to go from commander in chief to couch commander do you check todd what am i going to do in d.c for two you've years a real dilemma mr president i can't go every day can i i wish you liked better these were these joe they're the same they captured different moves joe i need some focus here comes in there during aviator time things everything i'm sorry what's that i i said mr president you had to be practical and look you can drive again you're going to need a license you love sports why don't you volunteer to work one of the teams around here is this the washington wizards i understand you're looking for some coaching help let's just say i coached my daughter's team a few times hello hello finally so i'm gonna be in dc for a while and i thought i'd take up driving again what's the name barack hussein obama thanks well since you don't have a driver's license you're going to need a birth certificate really really it's real isn't it it's real but it is oh michelle left her phone she's got snapchat obamacare is great and it's really working sign up now breaking news michelle obama in hot water after posting this video earlier today obamacare is great and it's really working no no did it get a lot of views honey enough enough why don't you just talk to somebody who's been through this i gotta go to soul cycle she's right i know who i need to talk to hey it's barack listen can we get together now that is a great move yeah so you got any advice for me so now you want my advice first stop sending me all these linkedin requests and second here's the beauty of this whole thing you've got all the time in the world to figure this out you can just be you for a while if you know how to do that again so i can just be me and i can wear my mom jeans and peaks i hate these tight jeans yesterday i had a beer at 11 30 in the morning and you know mcdonald's now serves breakfast all day long you know michelle's going to be at spin class so she'll never know all right let it go and it won't be long you'll be able to walk right out of the oval office singing yeah you got plenty of time to work on your tent and you know what i finally got the grand bargain on a sweet chevy tahoe look here look here on his 347th round of golf for the year and it's totally great and gloria not a problem for anybody i can't think of a reason to care a wolf and believe me i've tried there you go i am still waiting for all of you to respond to my invitation to connect to linkedin but i know you have jobs to do which is what really brings us here tonight i know that there are times that we've had differences and that's inherent in our institutional roles it's true of every president and his press corps but we've always shared the same goal to root our public discourse in the truth to open the doors of this democracy to do whatever we can to make our country and our world more free and more just and i've always appreciated the role that you have all played as equal partners in reaching these goals our free press is why we once again recognize the real journalists who uncover the horrifying scandal and brought some measure of justice for thousands of victims throughout the world they are here with us tonight sasha pfeiffer mike resendez walter robinson matt carroll and ben brandley jr please give them a big round of applause our free press is why once again we honor jason rezaian as carol noted last time this year we spoke of jason's courage as he endured the isolation of an iranian prison this year we see that courage in the flesh and it's a living testament to the very idea of a free press and a reminder of the rising level of danger and political intimidation and physical threats faced by reporters overseas and i can make this commitment that as long as i hold this office my administration will continue to fight for the release of american journalists held against their will and we will not stop until we they see the same freedom as jason had at home and abroad journalists like all of you engage in the dogged pursuit of informing citizens and holding leaders accountable and making our government of the people possible and it's an enormous responsibility and i realize it's an enormous challenge at a time when the economics of the business sometimes incentivize speed over depth and when controversy and conflict are what most immediately attract readers and viewers the good news is there's so many of you that are pushing against those trends and as a citizen of this great democracy i am grateful for that for this is also a time around the world when some of the fundamental ideals of liberal democracies are under attack and when notions of objectivity and of a free press and of facts and of evidence are trying to be undermined or in some cases ignored entirely and in such a climate it's not enough just to give people a megaphone and that's why your power and your responsibility to dig and to question and to counter distortions and untruths is more important than ever taking a stand on behalf of what is true does not require you shedding your objectivity in fact it is the essence of good journalism it affirms the idea that the only way we can build consensus the only way that we can move forward as a country the only way we can help the world mend itself is by agreeing on a baseline of facts when it comes to the challenges that confront us all so this night is a testament to all of you who've devoted your lives to that idea who push to shine a light on the truth every single day so i want to close my final white house correspondence dinner by just saying thank you i'm very proud of what you've done it has been an honor and a privilege to work side by side with you to strengthen our democracy and with that i just have two more words to say obama out

Channel: C-SPAN

Views: 4,067,546

Keywords: President Obama, Barack Obama, POTUS, Obama, White House Correspondents Dinner, WHCD, WHCD2016, Correspondents Dinner, C-SPAN, CSPAN, Trump, Cruz, Sanders, Clinton, Wilmore, White House

Id: hA5ezR0Kh80

Length: 33min 9sec (1989 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 30 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/RobTheProspect]

Thank you Joe Biden for never shooting anyone in the face.

[u/classyd24]

But can Obama drop 60 points on his last day???

[u/TwoHeadedBoyTwo]

The steak, fish or Paul Ryan joke was genius.

[u/[deleted]]

That montage with Boehner was the funniest thing I've seen all week.

[u/helpmeredditimbored]

Jake Tapper left journalism to join CNN

Loved that line

[u/AnimusHerb240]

@15:20 -- "We've got the bright new face of the Democratic Party here tonight, Mr. Bernie Sanders." *applause* "Bernie, you look like a million bucks! Or, to put it in terms you'll understand, you look like 37,000 donations of $27 each."

[u/[deleted]]

"The last time I was this high, I was trying to decide on my major." I'll drink to that.

[u/AccordionORama]

My favorite (6:16): "For months now, Congressional Republicans have been saying there are things I can't do in my final year. Unfortunately, this dinner wasn't one of them."

[u/Kentucky_Bluegrass]

"'Bama out"