President Obama Makes Final Trip On Air Force 1 | NBC News

[Applause] the answers spoken by young and old rich and poor black white Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals for a collection of red states and blue states we are and always will be the United States of America 2008 Grant Park Chicago the night that Barack Obama was elected president now eight years later President Obama is going home we joined him on Air Force One for his last trip to Chicago as president to say farewell to the nation the soundtrack for our day music the president's own Spotify lists tonight you're to talk to the American people right it's just a hard one do you know what you're gonna say I know what I'm gonna say I got to make sure I get through it properly you know when you when you reflect back on eight years for all the highs and the lows the one thing that is a constant is the incredible dedication of the people who got you there and who helped you do your job everybody from the staff at the White House to the folks who make sure there's airplane flies to supporters who would write me notes you know when things weren't going well to the other people who you know would say that the work we did made a difference so I think that that sense of gratitude that I feel for those folks I just hope I'm able to express them you have been a lot of places on this airplane around over 400 missions right we're told what's it like to be on a this is the final flight or not the final trip well this is the final trip we get our last flight after the inauguration but this will be my final trip as president yeah it's a look it's a nice plane but what it also does it brings back a lot of memories about trips that were consequential this speech are giving a lot of presidents have given their farewell speech but often from Washington why come back to Chicago you know we always have reminded ourselves every day that we were in the White House that we weren't we weren't here just for the pomp in the circumstances we were doing the people's business and my own career in public service started in Chicago and that's where I learned the power of ordinary people coming together and bringing about changes that would make a difference in their lives thank you for you on the ground Chicago city he loves that clearly loves him back in the freezing cold people lined up before dawn for free tickets to his last speech but before his public appearance a much more private one he brought us to his favorite Chicago diner Malloy's my first apartment was a block away at 51st and Blackstone so I used to come here for breakfast these guys didn't pay me a lot of attention at the time now we should be guiltless good to see how how you done you don't go absolutely thank you guys so I should answer the presidential discount when I can Vic well I'm about that they can't afford discounts at the but I but the food here is great the people are wonderful and this is real gathering place for folks all around the Hyde Park and all around the Southside so all the years I was organizing you got good food and it was cheap you know you fill yourself up and I didn't cook a lot back then you cooked me out oh I don't cook a lot now either there was like a point in between where I was doing a little cooking testing 1 2 3 you guys got sound we sat down to talk not about the news of the day but about his reflections on the last eight years let's talk about the journey it did begin in Chicago I'm only gonna do this once and then you I promise but I want to I want to show you something you have of course seen it it was Grant Park yeah the victory night I want you to watch this the road ahead will be long our climb will be steep we may not get there in one year or even in one term but America I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there I promise you we as a people will get there [Applause] yes we can yes we can did you yes we did you did look if if you had told me at the beginning of my presidency the day after in fact they went in the presidency that eight years later the economy would be stabilized we would have cut unemployment in half from its peak that the stock market would have recovered that incomes last year went up for everybody of every age group every racial group every demographic if you told me that we had provided 20 million people health insurance that didn't have it before that we had seen this explosion in clean energy and cut down our carbon emissions that high school graduation rates were up at an all-time high I would have said alright we did okay his vision of hope was cemented by the years he spent pounding the pavement and talking with people here in the Windy City I'm curious now eight years later did you draw on that community organizer in your presidency all the time so I was working with churches most of the folks were a lot older than me at the time and I had to win over their trust and and two things I learned one was that you have to develop a relationship and you have to listen to people in order to understand what it is that motivates them and concerns them and the second thing is is that once you listen to people's stories it turns out that people who on the surface seem different actually have common hopes common dreams common aspirations and if you can get them to see each other in that way then potentially you can get some things that kept you grounded as president to some extent always and that was just the beginning of our extraordinary conversation covering eight years that made history but didn't always make the progress he promised can you remember a moment in which it just struck you that they're gonna fight me at every turn well that happened early on evening of hard questions didn't the recovery know uneven as it was I plant the seeds for the election of Donald Trump and stirring reflections you do get emotional at times I do all in all this was a pretty shameful day for Washington my biggest disappointment is president hitting any of us african-americans in prominent roles feel this struggle and my being black enough my two black you know what I'm talking about yeah then it's time for true confession my staff will tell you I can curse like a sailor behind closed course subtext sounds like you'd like to do over well no okay first of all my wife would leave me thanks for checking out our YouTube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching

Channel: NBC News

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Keywords: News, Crime, Murder, Mystery, Lester Holt, Josh Mankiewicz, Keith Morrison, Dennis Murphy, Andrea Canning, President Obama, Barack Obama, Chicago, Obama Chicago, Obama Speech

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Length: 8min 36sec (516 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 14 2017