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Obama to Address British Parliament

Aired May 25, 2011 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Suzanne Malveaux at CNN Center in Atlanta. Welcome to our special coverage of President Obama's big address to Britain's parliament.

He's speaking at a 900-year-old Westminster Hall. That is a place with a lot of history, but his focus squarely is going to be on the future.

With us to preview the speech, we have a great group, our Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Richard Quest, he's at 10 Downing Street, London. Zain Verjee also in our London Bureau. This is going to be scheduled to get under way about 30 minutes or. We're going to be keeping an eye on live pictures of course.

We saw these two leaders earlier. This morning in a press conference and we heard President Obama say that since Cameron has taken office last spring and that's pretty recent, they've spoken about two dozen times and a lot has changed since then.

So you're talking about Arab uprisings, the killing of Bin Laden, and our White House correspondent Brianna Keilar told us that the president is going to stress that the U.K. and the U.S. have a responsibility to move the ball forward, to take advantage of this momentum and to bring democracy to the Middle East and around the world to support that.

So the question is, how are the allies, how are they going to do that, how is the president going to convince them that that is the right path and that is the thing to do? Well, I want to bring in our panel.

I'll bring that first question to you, Wolf. What are your expectations of the speech? What do you hope is the take-away from President Obama?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM: Well, you know, Suzanne, you're a former White House correspondent so you have to appreciate as much as the president will be addressing the British parliament, he'll also be addressing the American people.

A lot of Americans will obviously be watching this speech. He'll also have a worldwide audience. So he's got these different audiences he has to be very sensitive to. And there's no doubt, as he is sensitive on the issues, he's got also on top of everything else, he's a politician, he's got his own re-election campaign that is now officially under way.

He's got to worry about that. So he'll stress all the things -- it's not going to be very controversial. He's going to stress the great U.S./British relationship, the key alliance there. Britain is America's number one ally, has been for so many years.

The president is going to go out of his way to stress that. That's not going to be controversial at all. He might get into some sensitive issues. We did see, as you know, Suzanne at that news conference about an hour or so ago, when the president and David Cameron, the British prime minister, answered reporters' questions.

We didn't see I think any daylight on any substantive issue, whether Libya, whether the Middle East, the Israeli/Palestinian peace process, economic issues. I didn't see any significant daylight.

Let me ask Richard Quest who is standing by in London as well. Richard, you were watching that news conference. Was there any daylight between the president of the United States and the prime minister of Britain?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Wolf, you summed it up -- excuse me, you summed it up when you said there was no significant daylight between the two leaders. And that really is the hallmark of the relationship that's being celebrated during this state visit.

And the two -- the two allies, the so-called special relationship that we hear again and again and again. And you know, over the last 48 hours, it's a repeated phrase, but nobody really wants to delve who deeply into what it means.

Ever since Winston Churchill first used it in 1946 in his Fordham Missouri speech, again and again it's been redefined as a close relationship, the very close relationship, the near relationship, the unique relationship and now of course, Cameron and Obama have decided to call it the essential relationship.

That's what you're going to hear in this speech given at Westminster Hall and one of the things of particular note, the honor being bestowed on the president and the American people, no American president has spoken in Westminster Hall before to a joint session of parliament.

There have been plenty, plenty who have addressed parliament. But in Westminster Hall, that so far has been reserved for the likes of the pope and Nelson Mandela, Wolf.

BLITZER: You know, I learned yesterday that there have been eight occasions where British leaders have addressed a joint session or a joint meeting of the United States Congress. That's the number one -- Britain has the number one amount of times that they've had that unique honor in addressing a joint meeting of the United States' Congress.

Zain Verjee is out there in London as well. Zain, a lot of Americans might ask the question, he's going to be addressing parliament, but not in parliament. He's going to be addressing parliament in Westminster Hall. What's going on? Explain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is what is really significant about the speech, Wolf. This is the rare moment because of the venue that the speech is going to be happening at.

Westminster Hall is the oldest part of the parliamentary complex here in this country. Just look at it. It is absolutely majestic. It was built around the 11th Century in like 1097 by William II, he's known as William Rufus.

And much of it was destroyed during the blitz, but it's been rebuilt now. And at its time, it was probably considered the biggest building in all of Europe. These other significance of this, Wolf, is that, you know, kings and queens have had coronation banquets here.

You know, Henry VIII and Ann Berlin had theirs in this very place, Westminster Hall. Also the bodies of kings and queens have lain in state here at Westminster Hall. Guyfolks and the conspirators plot had that trial in this location as well. So it has a lot of really historical symbolism.

In terms of my own expectations, Wolf, based on various people that I've spoken to today, what they say is that President Obama really has a big opportunity here. And the speech could really be an optimistic one because it's coming after the death of Osama Bin Laden.

And it's coming at a time also during the Arab spring. So there's an opportunity here to sound a really positive note and to seize a moment that doesn't come that often in history.

And in some respects creates a new world order, but maintain the critical relationship that exists between the U.S. and the U.K, which, by the way, is bigger than the personal chemistry and personal relationships of the prime minister and the president at the time. Wolf --

BLITZER: You know, Suzanne, I want to bring Suzanne Malveaux back into this conversation. Gloria Borger is here as well. Suzanne, you know, it's interesting. You've covered this president.

It's the same generation, the president of the United States, the prime minister of Britain, David Cameron. You could see that these two men at their news conference earlier today. They appear to have a very strong relationship.

MALVEAUX: It's a relationship, Wolf, I think that's really developed. We saw something between these two. You know, their first meeting, this was right after he took office. They called themselves David and Barack on a first-name basis here.

So, immediately, there was this kind of bond between them, but you know, things have not always been easy for them. You may recall just last year, at the White House. I was covering Cameron's visit to the White House and there were some things that were on the agenda.

People, first of all, were quite upset with the British over the whole BP oil spoil, British Petroleum. It was a leak that could not be plugged up. It was very frustrating for President Obama. You heard Cameron actually talk about it and say, yes, you know what, this is a catastrophe.

On the other hand, you also had President Obama in London when he went and there was a lot of frustration about the global economic crisis that was taking place. I saw protests on the streets. They blamed in part the United States for that global economic crisis. We heard President Obama say since then things have gotten better.

We've gotten out of this recession. So both of these leaders have already had their challenges when it comes to how people see those in another country and who's the blame for some of these problems.

I want to bring in our own Richard Quest because Richard, give us a sense. What do the Brits think? What do they think about President Obama?

QUEST: Well, this is the fascinating part about the special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. In every presidency that's been tied with every prime ministership, there have been these road blocks, these stumbles along the way.

You can go back to Kennedy, McMillan and the nuclear crisis and Soyuz. You look at Polaris. You look at Vietnam. You look at Nixon and Wilson. Right the way through in fact, you can go to the Bush and Blair.

Again and again, the underlying relationship between the prime minister and the president remains pretty firm because of the superstructure of history culture and infrastructure. And it's all buttressed, as Zain was saying, and as you all know very well, it's all buttressed by deep military intelligence and economic links.

And put that into the tapestry. Now, I'll give you one example. There are something like 30 flights a day between London and New York. In fact, the transatlantic traffic between the U.K. and the U.S. is the busiest in the world between two destinations.

London and New York, the two financial institutions, that is the scenario, Suzanne, under which any president and prime minister comes together. And yes, they have these hiccups, but substantially, the indigestion eventually goes away.

MALVEAUX: Indigestion. I want to bring in our Gloria Borger. Gloria, that's a good way to put it there, a little indigestion between these two leaders and the two countries.

We know that it was Blair who really pushed for President Bush to get more involved in the Middle East peace process. And Blair who ultimately had to take the fall for the Iraq war, what do you make of these two leaders and the kind of risks involved? GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, one more thing to keep in mind about their relationship is that the people who got them elected are basically the same people. Lots of Barack Obama's political advisers went over to England and got Cameron elected.

So they share in many ways, the same political team. And that gives you a sense of who they are because the people who worked to get Barack Obama elected say that there are a lot of similarities between these two men.

Each of them see themselves as somebody who can join the right and the left, that may not work out so well for Barack Obama at least at the beginning of his first term, but we'll see. So they do have this sort of politics in common.

But let me raise some other issues here. There have been questions in Europe, there's been a lot of belt-tightening in Europe and in Britain. And there are questions about whether or not the United States has done as much belt-tightening as people over there have done.

Also, questions about the Libya mission. Is the United States keeping as much of a leadership role as it has promised? The United States says, yes, it is still very involved in the command control. Targeting in Libya.

But there is some sense that perhaps the U.S. isn't stepping up as much as it should or as much as it did, at the outset of the mission. So I think these are issues that perhaps we'll hear the president talk about a little bit.

BLITZER: You know, Gloria, as we take a look at the motorcade moving the president and his entourage towards the parliament. I'm very impressed by British punctuality. We were told at 10 minutes after the hour, the motorcade would start moving.

And you know what, at exactly 10 minutes after the top of the hour, the motorcade started moving. At the bottom of the hour, the president is supposed to start addressing parliament. We expect he will be speaking for 40 or 45 minutes. We'll continue our special coverage of this historic day in London right after this.

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BLITZER: I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Welcome back to our coverage, our special coverage of President Obama's address to the British parliament. We'll be getting started shortly.

In a few minutes, he'll be speaking. We're previewing what's going on, we're likely to expect. Suzanne, this relationship between the United States and Britain is extraordinary. I've covered the relationship for many years.

And I know you have as well, but one thing I should say, even on the intelligence cooperation level, the U.S. shares intelligence with Britain and vice versa that they don't share with other countries. It's pretty dramatic.

MALVEAUX: It's very dramatic and this is one of those things, Wolf, as you know happens from one administration to the other. There really is an amazing consistency with these two allies.

We heard earlier today David Cameron and President Obama describing their relationship in different ways. It was special, essential, unique, but you know, we took a look and wanted to ask, what does it mean? Who comes up winning? Who comes up losing? What do these close ties actually cost each other or their countries. So we took a closer look.

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QUEEN ELIZABETH II: We are here to celebrate the tried, tested and, yes, special relationship between our two countries.

MALVEAUX (voice-over): And it's that special relationship that has defined U.S. foreign policy for generations, Margaret Thatcher and President Reagan.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Prime minister, the entire nation salutes you and your gallant people and gallant nation.

MALVEAUX: Or remember former Prime Minister Tony Blair sometimes criticized for being a little too friendly with President Bush.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, we both use Colgate toothpaste.

MALVEAUX: Their chumminess got Blair in political trouble at home. The support for the Iraq war won him more friends in the U.S. Congress than across the pond.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will be with you in this fight for liberty. And if our spirit is right, and our courage firm, the world will be with us.

MALVEAUX: And now, the U.S. and U.K. have come together on two other wars, in Afghanistan and Libya. Beyond the battlefield, there are real economic ties that bind. Each country invests over $400 billion in the other's economy. And nearly 200,000 U.S. citizens live and work in the U.K. So for Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama, this relationship is not something either leader takes for granted.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: As Winston Churchill said on a visit to the United States, above all, among the English-speaking peoples, there must be the union of hearts, based upon convictions and common ideals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: And, of course, we saw some of that history with Bush and Blair. Bush who was, critics say, was a cowboy for pursuing the Iraq war and critics calling Blair, the poodle, Bush's poodle for being so loyal in that effort. Both of them ultimately linked, inextricably linked by the Iraq war. I want to bring in Richard Quest. Richard, I'm curious if there's anything that you think that links Obama and Cameron?

Is it too early, I mean, we mentioned the Arab uprisings and the killing of Bin Laden? Is it too early to think that there is something that ultimately is going to link these two and their legacies?

As we take a look at these live picture, we see the beast as it is known, President Obama, his limousine, especially crafted limousine, security arriving to address the British parliament. Richard?

QUEST: What will link these two presidents ultimately prime minister is their reaction to the economic crisis and how they are perceived to have put each of their nations on sound financial footings for the rest of the decade and beyond.

The geopolitical positions will be crucial. But as a famous House speaker said once, all politics is local, which is also refined as being in the Clinton administration, it's the economy, stupid.

Take those two factors together, and you realize President Obama will be defined with how the U.S. economy forecasts and performs in the next few years and Prime Minister Cameron most definitely on what happens in his austerity packages.

And they will converge over the next three or four year, particularly as the U.S. introduces its own version of austerity and budget deficit cutting.

MALVEAUX: And I want to bring in Zain because, Zain, there are a lot of questions. The world is watching as these two leaders meet and as President Obama lays out what their joint vision is. Is there a sense among the Brits that perhaps what is really important is the relationship with India, with China, that they're competing allies here? And perhaps this is not the strongest relationship or even the most important one?

VERJEE: Yes, there really is that worry, but that's what this trip is all about to say, no, you guys are important to us. Britain is completely central and special and important to the United States.

You know, the U.K has been totally obsessed with taking the temperature constantly of the kind of relationship it has with the United States. Let's just take a look at some of these live pictures of the U.S. president now. He entered parliament through what's known as the sovereign entrance.

This is the palace of Westminster. Just look at all the history. It is an absolutely beautiful place to be. He is being taken in by the gentleman usher of the Black Guard and the Lord Great Chamberlain.

As he goes through, he's going to take a tour of parliament. And we're not going to see him for about 10 minutes or so, before he emerges to give the speech in Westminster Hall, which again, is so rare. No American president has ever addressed both houses of parliament in this location, in Westminster Hall.

It's usually was up for a monarch. Mandela did it in '96, Pope Benedict is 2010, Sean Lagore in 1960. President Obama is so popular here in this country. You know, he's really been treated like a rock star. People have been so excited that he's here.

He's inspired so many people after his election. And I'll just give you one -- one quick example. A friend of mine went to Buckingham Palace. And there were huge crowds and William and Kate were actually leaving.

This woman she met was screaming, I saw him, I saw him, he's beautiful. Everyone thought she was referring to Prince William. I said, who? She said President Obama, he's absolutely amazing. That gives you a sense of how he's regarded in this country.

We're going to continue to follow these live pictures and bring you the president's speech when it happens. This is Westminster Hall. It's the combined House of Commons and House of Lords, a rare event. We will bring it to you live shortly.

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MALVEAUX: The United States and U.K. engaged in three wars now, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. I want to bring in our Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon to explain to us, give us a sense of the kind of assets on the ground, intelligence, even the boots on the ground, the shared vision that we have with Great Britain, how important this partnership is?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Suzanne. Really, I mean, the partnership between the U.S. and Great Britain has been extensive, especially over the last 10 years, in which we've been fighting two wars together, both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just take a look at the number of boots on the ground in Afghanistan. The U.S. right now has about 100,000 troops on the ground. The U.K. has about 10,000 troops. It's got the second most number of troops than any country, you know, except for the United States.

And that relationship is even more played out when you look at the cost of this war in human lives. Look at the deaths in Afghanistan. "Operation Evenduring Freedom," the United States has lost about 1,500 troops in Afghanistan. The British people have lost 360 troops, but again, when you look at the total number of troops that have been allocated.

In Afghanistan, the British have actually lost a higher percentage of their troops than the Americans have. Right now, in Iraq, the Brits have pulled out their troops. The U.S. still has 48,000 troops left there.

But again, we just heard yesterday from Defense Secretary Gates that he would like to see the Iraqis ask for a continued U.S. presence in Iraq. He says the United States would be more than willing to say yes. Suzanne. Wolf.

MALVEAUX: And Chris, if you would, give us a sense of what we are seeing in Libya. Obviously, with the Arab uprisings and this united effort, this international effort to go after, to protect the people, the Libyan people but still maintain that Gadhafi has to go, is there any daylight that you see between President Obama and the prime minister?

LAWRENCE: Well, I think if you look at their comments today, both are saying there will no letup on the attacks on Moammar Gadhafi. And again, there needs to be persistence and patience in dealing with the problem. But they don't expect a letup on this attack on Gadhafi's forces, Wolf --

BLITZER: Chris Lawrence is our man at the Pentagon, taking a very close look at this unique U.S./British relationship. We're told the president of the United States is wrapping up his little private tour of parliament right now.

He'll be walking into Westminster Hall shortly. There will be protocol, introductions about 1,400 people, members of parliaments, peers, others, invited guests are inside. You can see some of the guests are there right now.

So as we watch and wait, I want to bring in Gloria Borger, our chief political analyst. Gloria, I mentioned earlier, the president, when he addresses parliament --

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: -- also has to worry about how it will play back here in the United States as he gears up for his campaign re-election. What goes through his mind?

BORGER: Well clearly, the president understands that he's speaking on a broader stage and I think that in terms of controversy, this is pretty little. Everybody in this country understands the shared values and the shared history with Britain.

The interesting thing to me, Wolf, is you had his deputy National Security adviser announcing earlier this week that we are going to have a National Security Task Force, with Britain, which speaks to what you were talking about earlier, sharing intelligence, talking about nuclear non-proliferation, talking about Afghanistan.

That the United States and Britain share so many issues before the U.N., for example, in the Security Council that they have is decided to set up a bilateral task force so they can deal with each other on a regular basis when it comes to issues like sharing intelligence, et cetera. That speaks to the relationship between the two countries. BLITZER: It looks like they're getting ready for the formal presentation of the president. Richard Quest is in London. Protocol always very much on the minds of the British, Richard. Walk us through what's about to happen.

QUEST: What's about to happen, of course, he will enter Westminster hall. There will be an introduction, a very short introduction of just a couple minutes from the speaker. Then, of course, it is the speech of the president of the United States.

And then it will be the Lord speaker who will give the vote of thanks afterwards, keeping it again very short and to the point. Don't expect any fireworks. Don't expect any magnificent shifts and changes in policy, Wolf. This is going to be a reaffirmation of the special relationship.

It's going to set out the strengths for the future and it is going to define how President Obama will view these issues in the months and years ahead.

BLITZER: And I know that everyone is very sensitive to that protocol. Zain Verjee is in london as well. Zain, I'm sure the president has been thoroughly briefed on what he can say -- what he can say, what he can't say, before Congress -- as we hear the music getting ready to welcome the president.

VERJEE: Absolutely. And this speech is really being billed as a cornerstone speech to his entire European trip. So, this is going to be a very symbolic one.

Just on the issue, too, of the military concerns that Chris was raising. You know, we're hearing a lot of words about everyone is in total agreement. And, yes, on the bigger foreign policy goals and strategic goals, yes, they are. But when it comes to the details, things like Libya, for example, the U.S. wants to take a back seat. Britain has been pressuring the U.S. to take a much more active role because they're really militarily stretched. When it comes to Afghanistan, for example, yes, they all want to draw down and leave Afghanistan, but Britain wants to do it faster, and the U.S. is a little bit worried about that and kind of wants to link it to the capability of Afghan troops.

The other issue to remember here when we talk about wars is that Britain is really trying to balance its financial problems along with its desire to be influential in the world today. And what that has meant lately is that Prime Minister David Cameron has been pushing for military cuts. Cut down on civil defense. Cut down on troops. They're already stretched militarily enough as it is.

So, the important question for Washington is going to be, can Washington rely militarily on Britain in the future as it has in the past? That is something that the U.S. has been concerned about. What will the defense spending cuts actually mean?

As we take a look at these live pictures, we can see people beginning to file in here. And you can see -- this is the brass. The political establishment of this country. The combination of the House of Commons, they're the elected members of Parliament. And the House of Lords. Most of them are appointed. Think of it kind of like the House and Senate in a joint session of Congress, and that's what this is.

It is totally packed. Everyone is here, taking their seat, standing room only. This really gives you a sense of the history or so of the occasion.

And Suzanne, I'm just wondering, how is this speech being perceived by the American people in the U.S.? It's a big deal in this country. Is it just as big a deal in the U.S.?

MALVEAUX: You know, I think people are paying close attention to the trip in Europe in general. I think a lot of people were really quite surprised when they saw how President Obama was greeted in Ireland, really, as a son of Ireland. And you saw the thousands and thousands of people who gathered there, who cheered him on, who took him as one of their own.

And that is something that really is in direct contrast with some of the things that we've seen here. I mean, a lot of people who have been criticizing the president over his stand when it comes to Israeli and Palestinian peace, whether or not the United States is actually doing enough. We've heard from both Democrats and Republicans taking various swipes at the president. And you have this -- this comes on the heels of a lot of controversy over the birther issue and the president producing a long-form birth certificate.

And he set that up to contrast with what we saw in Ireland. A lot of people looked up and thought, oh, my goodness, this is the campaign all over again. And perhaps, we are taking a look at the kind of excitement we saw years ago, but quite frankly, does not necessarily exist here in the United States. And it always leads you to believe what is 2012 going to look like?

So, I think it's an important trip for the president as we see him being greeted very well. Treated very well. Received very well in light of a lot of criticism. Domestic policy, domestic criticism. Unemployment. These kinds of frustrations that Americans have. And they turn to the president. They want answers. They want solutions. Some people are kind of frustrated by that.

Richard, what's your take on this?

QUEST: Look, in 1962, the then-secretary of state Dean Acheson said in a famous speech at West Point said that the British had overplayed the special relationship. Dean Acheson said it was over. Britain was trying to play on a world stage in which it never could hope to do so in the future.

Guess what? Forty-nine years later, they're still saying exactly the same things. And what you're going to hear in today's speech by the president of the United States is this reaffirmation that the relationship has ups and downs. But infrastructurally, the superstructure of the relationship is there because it works. Every U.S. president comes into office believing they don't need the special relationship. Within three years, they realize that the UK is the best and sometimes the only ally they've got on many of the issues.

And it's the same with the occupant behind. They'd like to break the tie to some extent because it is a supplicant relationship. And eventually, both White House and Number 10 find they need each other.

BLITZER: That's David Cameron, I should say, Richard. David Cameron, the prime minister of Britain. He's there. He's a member of Parliament, obviously. Parliamentary system. That's why he's there. I think I saw Gordon Brown, former prime minister sitting there as well.

There's William Daley, the White House chief of staff who is there. We saw Valerie Jarrett. We saw some of Tom Donald and the president's national security adviser. He's got his full entourage along with him. I saw Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, walking in as well.

Richard, explain why - I mean, there's only been so few world leaders -- a pope, a queen. Mandela invited to address Parliament along these lines. Why the president of the United States? Was this controversial? Why is he worthy of this great honor in London?

QUEST: There are two honors being bestowed today. The first is the addressing of a joint session of Parliament. A joint -- the two houses. Now, that happens not infrequently, but it normally takes place in the royal gallery.

The honor that's truly being bestowed is that it's happening in Westminster Hall. And this is a firm -- well, first of all, we know the queen and Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have a warm relationship. Secondly, the prime minister and the British government want to re-emphasize the importance of the special relationship.

And there's no better way, not just to invite him to -- even Ronald Reagan -- even Ronald Reagan on his official visit in the 1980s didn't get to address from Westminster Hall. He spoke from the royal gallery. So, this shows you the importance being placed, the honor being bestowed. And I think you're going to recognize this by what Barack Obama says in a few moments' time.

BLITZER: Yes. He's I'm sure he's greatly, greatly honored by this opportunity go forward. Gloria Borger is here with us as well.

Gloria, as we look at the president's aides who are there. We look at this whole trip. He started in Ireland. Now Britain. Going to France. Then going Poland. Let's not forget there's a crisis here in the United States, a humanitarian crisis underway.

I'll be interested if the president says anything at all about the death, the devastation of these tornadoes in Missouri and Oklahoma. I don't even know if that would be appropriate, how the British would react to that. But that's upper most on the minds of Americans right now. BORGER: Well, you know, it's always a balancing act, as you know, Wolf, when a president travels abroad and something happens at home. We know the president on Sunday is going to go to Missouri and going to visit families who have been affected by these terrible tornadoes. And the president has spoken about it from over there.

So, when a president travels abroad, he cannot forget what is occurring at home. And that's first and foremost. And we saw in the statements from his press secretary, as well as from the president himself, that his thoughts are always with the people here.

But, again, he comes back from his European trip, and he goes to Missouri.

BLITZER: Goes right to Missouri. Yes. Suzanne, this is always a very, very sensitive issue for a president who travels abroad at a time of domestic, serious crisis. It's something -- it's a balancing act. It's never great to be out of the country when things are -- when a lot of people are dying.

MALVEAUX: And it's very difficult, Wolf. I mean, as you know, because he's got this press, the communications team, and they really do -- they're keeping a close eye. And they really get kind of caught up, if you will, in what is taking place. The pomp and circumstance. You know, you see these pictures. President Obama enjoying a barbecue with the prime minister and with veterans. You see them playing paddle ball. I mean, these are the kind of images that really don't sit well when they're juxtaposed with people who have seen everything -- their homes, their lives, ravaged by these tornadoes. And it always is a difficult thing.

But most likely what happens -- a lot of times what happens -- they'll put out a paper statement essentially letting the American people know that the president is paying close attention, that he realizes there is pain and suffering at home. But these are the kinds of trips that have to be done. This kind of diplomacy has to occur. And this is just one of those occasions.

We're going to have more as we wait for President Obama to deliver his historic speech right after this quick break.

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VERJEE: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. And we are bringing you special coverage of a special day. And a special moment that is happening right now in Westminster Hall. I'm joined by my colleagues, Suzanne Malveaux, Wolf Blitzer, Richard Quest. Let's watch this.

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