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Obama Projects Hope, Optimism at Presidential Center Opening; Obama Praises Values Upheld by "Every President Here Today" as Well as John McCain, Mitt Romney; Obama: American Spirit will See Nation "Through its Present Trials"; Obama: Center's Exhibits "Meant to Remind Us of Who We Can Be" 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 18, 2026 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stevie Wonder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stevie.

STEVIE WONDER: (INAUDIBLE) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great, man.

(CROSSTALK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: What an extraordinary ending to a really, really powerful, very powerful opening of the Obama Presidential Center, the library, and I think it's fair to say -- I think it's totally fair to say, Jamie, that we've never seen an opening of a presidential library like this one today.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: No -- no question. It's -- you know, it's also a little bit of an alternate universe, a -- a throwback. The speech was a reminder of another time, a call to action. Let's just call it out. He never mentioned Donald Trump by name, but he didn't need to. The message was clear.

He talked about -- President Obama talked about, you know, you shouldn't be a bully. You shouldn't be divvying up spoils. And then, he went on to talk about how he has faith in our country, and that if you didn't, it would be a betrayal of our Founding Fathers, and I'm paraphrasing here, as unsettled as we are, he doesn't believe that people are looking for anchor.

And then, he went on, I thought it was interesting, it was really about passing the mantle. He said, this is not about nostalgia. It's not about Barack and Michelle doing something, or big names, that history is yet to be written by all of us, which is really what this center is supposed to be, a call to action.

BLITZER: He spoke about the importance of democracy. The President -- Van, he said, it's not just to include all of us, but we've got to make sure all of us are involved ...

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

BLITZER: ... in what's going on. And he spoke about the need for fair elections, and to make common cause together, his words.

JONES: Look, it was just extraordinary, and -- look, in some ways it was a throwback, but I think he meant it as a precursor. Hey, look, there's Joe Biden. Joe Biden pulling -- pulling off the sunglasses. Oh, I love it.

JOE BIDEN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She's my granddaughter (ph).

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: There he go. There he goes. Look, you know ...

BLITZER: He still has a sense of humor.

JONES: He still got sense of humor, I kind of love it. But it was -- it was a good thing. I -- I think in some ways it was a throwback, but in some ways, maybe it's a precursor. I think that that's really what he is trying to do. It's good -- you know, Obama, I think, it's so ironic when the -- the Obama phenomenon is about the people who have been most disserved by the flaws and the foibles of America, actually being the ones who are hanging on to that dream, and -- and bolstering, and hanging on to it, and believing, and reassorting this faith in democracy. It's ironic.

Some of the people who have been the most -- the biggest beneficiaries of the system are now the ones turning on it, and want to throw everything in -- in the trash can, and don't want to follow the law, and don't want to follow the Constitution and -- but the people who have been the least of these, the ones who they talk about, they talk about the everyday person, the hard worker, someone sending their kids to school on a secretary salary (ph).

They're defending America for them. They're defending the American dream for them, and speaking to it so powerfully. And so, look, I think that, yes, it is a bit of a throwback, but also maybe a precursor for a resurgence of this view of American democracy.

BLITZER: He did speak a lot, David, about history, American history.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes.

[15:10:02]

BLITZER: He made many references, but he spoke, now we have to deal with common sense, a common cause, fairness, mutual respect. That's what we need to do.

CHALIAN: Yes. It actually was a classic Obama speech, for those that have covered him, because he steeped it in American history. And he did this in the 2004 convention speech that brought him to national fame. He did it as an announcement speech in Springfield, Illinois. He ties his story to the American story, and he reminded here, and this was less about his story, but the American democratic experiment, so he took us back to its foundation and formation in this remarks, and it -- and it just is classic Obama to do so. And -- and I thought he left here a speech realizing he's not in the

arena every day. He'd -- he -- there's no follow-up here from him. So, he wanted to leave this -- this moment as a call to action, as a reminder. I think it was not at all, yes, he mentioned, of course, the healthcare fight or bringing the economy back from the Great Recession and some of -- and his work on the world stage to -- to tout his successes, but that was not the focus of this at all. This was all forward-looking to serve as a challenge to Americans to rededicate themselves.

And again, I will say, I said this about the Bushes before, he really did his best to separate it from partisanship, because that gets confused today. You think it -- like, if you're supportive of a notion of Barack Obama speaking about the democratic ideals, you must be a Democrat or a liberal and you're not -- he --- he's -- no, he brought in Romney and McCain, his two opponents into the speech to say that this is not about partisanship, it's about a value set and values that even his Republican opponents had signed on to. So, sort of separating what we're seeing now at times from -- from not that long ago and -- and making it above the partisanship.

BLITZER: And I was really happy he mentioned the importance of a free and fair press ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BLITZER: ... in his remarks, it was a very personal issue for -- for all of us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

JONES: Yes. We -- we agree. We agree.

BLITZER: A free and fair press is so, so important. I want to go quickly back to Chicago right now. My co-anchor, Sara Sidner, standing by.

Sara, give us your thoughts.

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: Look, being here was electric. It was filled with joy. And the message, though, was really, really clear. That message is, there's more work to do. He made no bones about it. He said, don't treat this like a mausoleum. This is something to get y'all to get up and go out and do the work that still needs to be done. It is not about nostalgia, he said, or a gauzy bygone era. He said the exhibits are meant to remind us of who we can be and to forge ahead for the work that needs to be done.

I got to tell you, it was electric, because one thing that President Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama know how to do is to entertain the people. And boy, did they. Quite a class picture in the end, where you had Jennifer Hudson, you had Stevie Wonder, you had John Legend. You had all these folks standing up there, singing together. And then the Obamas got up and clapped and sang. We even saw Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head, standing up and

jamming out to Bono. It was quite the scene here. Jeff Zeleny joining me, sitting by my side as we are watching this extraordinary moment. And it truly is extraordinary in our history. This is the youngest president, a president who has a lot more work to do. And he made clear, he's like, this isn't about me. My name's on it. But this is about you and what I think that you need to do to make our country the best democracy possible. What did you take away?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It certainly was an imparting lesson from President Obama, sending the crowd forth, many of whom are some of the top political operatives, volunteers and others, home with the lesson, and said, do not give in to cynicism. Do not give in to despair.

But I was really struck by, again, how he wove his own story from the south side of Chicago right here, over a four-decade march of American life to rise to the presidency here. But, again, did not dwell on his story, as most presidents like to do.

Look, his ego is as healthy as any of his successors ...

SIDNER: It has to be when you're president, yes.

ZELENY: ... on stage here, but he really tried to make this, I think, about a broader lesson of what can be possible. And I was struck by this. We always think about what his etched-in-stone line is. I think he says, as unsettled as we are, people are not looking for perpetual anger and division. We will see if that is true. But there is no question here that he was trying to look forward, as his past is celebrated on the cusp of America's 250th birthday. He wove all of that together in a classic Obama speech that I am told he was writing and rewriting until shortly before he took the stage.

SIDNER: And we cannot forget Michelle Obama and her speech ...

ZELENY: Of course.

SIDNER: ... and what she said.

[15:15:05]

And she hit some political points without ever -- neither of them mentioning President Trump's name. But it was a clear message to the -- to the community, not necessarily to him, but to the community, that, you know, this idea of division and calling people names and being rude and being nasty is not who we are. And they really wanted that message to be out there. I also was struck by President Trump talking about immigration the way he did.

He's like, here in Chicago, we all saw the pictures in the freezing cold where you stood up for your neighbors and even for strangers. And clearly, he was talking about the protests when it came to the immigration and the immigrants being sort of come down upon by this federal government here in Chicago and what we all witnessed there as well. And then, I thought it was quite poignant when he said, look, Martin Luther King Jr. used to evoke this all the time, but the arc of the universe bends towards history. And right over your shoulder that you can't quite see right now, there is an arc right outside, right front and center of this center, Obama's presidential center, that is supposed to remind us all that the arc bends towards justice.

ZELENY: For sure. And also, President Obama mentioning John McCain, who he defeated in his first election, and mentioning Mitt Romney by name, who he defeated in his second election. There is no question that President Trump obviously not invited, his name was not invoked, it was a call for the country to turn beyond this Trump era. We shall see if that happens.

But I think you're right on Michelle Obama's words. We do not hear from her in this context very often. She spoke, of course, at the Democratic Convention right here in Chicago. But her words today, talking about cynicism, talking about fighting the temptation, and then praising her husband, she said there are husbands across the country. These aren't Democratic ideals or Republican ideals.

So, look, the question is, what comes of this? We're in the middle of a midterm election ...

SIDNER: Right.

ZELENY: ... about four months away. There's no doubt that this fires up Democrats, but it's the independents who helped lift him up to a 50 percent approval rating, and that's what we saw on stage today.

SIDNER: Yes, and we also saw the love between this husband and wife, not just the president and the first lady.

ZELENY: And a family that has grown so much ...

SIDNER: Absolutely.

ZELENY: ... over 18 years ago in 2008. Those girls, Sasha and Malia, are now young women.

SIDNER: Yes. It really was. You saw the love of a family there, and they wanted to impart that.

Let's go to Jason Carroll now, and just get some sense of what you are witnessing, what you saw in all this, and what you saw around you.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, you know, the party here is finally starting to wind down, and a party it was. There was dancing out here at the watch party. There was a lot of laughter out here. There were also some tears as well during some of the more emotional moments.

You know, the Obamas made it clear they did not get to where they are without the people, specifically the people on the south side of Chicago, and many of them coming out here today to hear the Obamas. You know, we wanted to speak to some of those to get their impressions about the speeches. First of all, President Obama's speech, how did it resonate with you? What part of it resonated with you? TY SMITH: The part about hope and just building this space in this

city. I came here in 1990, a little girl from Selma, Alabama ...

CARROLL: Okay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... coming here and just being back in this space on this side of town really reignited that hope for me, because I feel like I had found myself in a space where I was losing hope in this time.

CARROLL: Well -- and -- and President Obama did talk about, you know, he warned about losing faith -- losing faith in each other. He talked about democracy as well. It can be slow, it can be frustrating, but it's something that he talked about the importance of. What resonated with you once hearing both of the speeches from the President and the First Lady?

FRANCES KRAFT: I felt like it was a strong call to action, and I love that he tapped back, and his words were really about the organizing model of sharing our stories with each other, because that hope comes from caring about each other and then committing to work together. And it's that power together that leads to change.

CARROLL: And I see your t-shirt here. You started as an organizer, you were telling me, back in the day.

KRAFT: I -- with the first campaign, a friend said, we've got to draft Obama. We all had stickers, draft Obama, and then followed him through the announcement in Springfield and learned organizing through both campaigns here in Chicago.

CARROLL: You know, when he -- when he was talking about the center, he said the center is not so much and solely about the past, but also, I think he said, a reminder about who we can be as a people. What about that? What about some of those thoughts?

KRAFT: Well, that for me meant so much, and even the call back to a pretty famous saying with the arc of justice.

[15:20:05]

It -- it sometimes feels bleak and it feels dark, but today ...

CARROLL: And -- and are you specifically referring to the time that we're living in now is that what you're ...

KRAFT: Exactly. Because I can't help it. I try to curate my social media in just a certain way so that I am not so inundated with some of the things that are going on right now, but the reality is, this is the world we're living in right now.

CARROLL: Okay. All right, thanks very much. I want to thank both of you for joining us. We've got Ty Smith (ph) and Frances Kraft (ph). Thank you very much, you two.

SMITH: Thank you. CARROLL: Again, the party wrapping up here, Sara and Wolf. It was a

lot of emotion out here, but again, the Obamas made it very clear they got to where they are because of the people on the south side of Chicago, and they came out today in force. Back to you.

BLITZER: A lot of emotion indeed, not only there, but indeed people watching here in the United States and around the world. And -- and David Chalian, I think it's fair to say that what we saw today -- and there were millions of people presumably watching, not only in the United States, but around the world -- a lot of them are going to want to come to Chicago and go tour this presidential center and see some of the issues that were discussed today so beautifully.

CHALIAN: Yes, the city of Chicago has now just gotten a major attraction that is going to be global in reach. There's no doubt that this will be on, as many presidential libraries are, but clearly Barack Obama occupies a historic nature in -- in our story. And so, there's no doubt that that will be a big boon to the city, and you will see people come.

You know, it opens tomorrow on Juneteenth. That's not by accident that it's open to the public.

GANGEL: Tickets are sold out through November.

BLITZER: Already.

GANGEL: Or to go inside the public space, you can go into, but it's -- yes, sorry.

CHALIAN: Yes. No, no, I'm -- clearly, it'll -- it will be a major attraction. And by the way, I think you're going to see it play a role in the future of like the Democratic Party. There's going to be a lot of gatherings there. This is going to be a convening place for people who are from the Obama orbit for how they're plotting the future for their political plans.

JONES: I -- I agree. I think it's going to wind up being like -- like a launch pad for a lot of stuff. And I just want to say, this is a good day. This is a good day. It's a good day for America. The Knicks at their parade, that went good. And then, you know, Chicago's got all these great people there and all kinds of stuff is happening there.

I saw three African-American female senators taking a selfie with Kamala Harris. What a remarkable country that we have three black female senators. It's not even a big deal because we've been able to break the, again, Barack Obama's power as president, second only to his power as president. There are -- we are still reaping the benefits from the 2008 breakthrough.

BLITZER: Let me get some more reaction. We're joined now by former Obama White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and former senior advisor to President Obama, David Axelrod.

David, we were talking earlier today, before all of this started, about the emotions you felt walking through the museum there in Chicago for the first time.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

BLITZER: How are you feeling now and -- and having just heard from the former president and the former first lady?

AXELROD: Well, look, those speeches were, for everybody sitting here, and I suspect for millions of other people, deeply, deeply emotional because it wasn't just -- it wasn't idolatry that bound people to the Obamas. It was this idea that we're all knitted together, that democracy is a sacred thing, that we all have a role to play, and however bleak things seem, that we have the power to grab the wheel of history and turn it.

And people have begun to lose some faith in that proposition, and this was like a rekindling of that spirit in a way that was very, very powerful. So, for me, it was a very, very emotional morning and afternoon.

BLITZER: And I'm sure it was very emotional, Rahm, for you as well. You know the Obama family well. You saw his daughters there, Sasha and Malia. You knew them when they were little kids. Now, they're grown women. The president announced a lot of important issues today, didn't specifically mention Trump by name, but certainly that was in the background. What were your thoughts?

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, Wolf, you know, it's interesting because the President and Michelle's children, similar in age to our kids, and when we always talk or reconnect, the first thing we talk about is how the kids are doing, where they are in their life. It's important.

Look, I think this -- I want to go back, you know, what launches the president, besides the South Side's speech at the '04 convention, he says, no, I don't see a red America or a blue America. I see red, white, and blue. And that does contrast to this moment where there's never an opportunity not lost to pit one American against the other and put salt in the wounds of division. And the President here today, I think, reminded us that our diversity not only is a strength, but that's where we draw strength from.

[15:25:03]

And so, I think that's a relevant thing now, strolling through some of the tension moments that David and I lived through from whether it was health care, saving the auto industry, pulling the economy back from going over the precipice. Those were intense moments where literally you are hanging by your fingernails to pull -- you know, to hold this thing together, stop the slide, turn it around, and then start to have the plane lift back up.

And so, when you go through it, it's like going through a wind chair. Now that you look back, but again, I think to the president's words, it's not about looking back, it's about drawing inspiration and -- and placing it forward.

BLITZER: Yes.

AXELROD: And I -- I think -- Wolf, I think a lot -- a lot of that has to do with just basic character. And what both Obamas spoke to was the fundamental character that we all practice and value in our own lives. And, you know, years and years and years ago, a half a century ago, Jimmy Carter talked about a government as good as our people. The American people are good. The American people believe in fundamental values and -- and what the Obamas are saying is, don't be fooled into thinking that venality and greed and selfishness are the values that -- that characterize our country. And they don't have to characterize our leadership either.

EMANUEL: Wolf, if I could add one thing, you know, I remember -- you know, the first Thursday of every month, you get the unemployment numbers. And for the first five months, we were getting numbers, 800,000 lost jobs, 790,000 lost jobs. And to go through that, to stop that, to turn it around, and then again, start to produce jobs and have the economy come back, all of that was about believing that we could do better, see better, and work together, regardless of how we may have been different.

And you know, I want to be honest and do a call, shout out to President Bush. He helped us on the auto industry by tapping and keeping GM and Chrysler alive long enough for us to get our sea legs. So, that's when you walk -- you don't think about red or blue, you think about America and you think about building together, and most importantly, working together. And I think that not -- shouldn't be lost at all.

And I will tell you around the country, it's not lost. We're waiting for Washington to catch up.

BLITZER: We'll see what the impact of this special day is going to be in the days and weeks and indeed months to come. We'll watch it all closely with all you guys. Thank you very, very much.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us. You've been watching CNN's very special coverage of the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The former President Barack Obama today sharing a very familiar message of hope and projecting optimism in America's future. That's what he has done for a long time. The news continues after a quick break right here on CNN.

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