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CNN Live Event/Special

Soon: Star-Studded Opening Of Obama Presidential Center. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 18, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. No question. Look, there is a break with tradition here. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were not invited today. That should not be a surprise, considering it's not just a war of words. It's not about policy. It has just been insulting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You mean the way trump attacks?

GANGEL: The way Trump attacks President Obama. I just want to go back to something that David said about that he's more a player. He sees himself more as a player. He, less as a player and more as a coach. I'm told that in this speech we're going to see some of that. There's a line at the exhibit. I'm asking you to believe not in my ability to bring about change, but in yours.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: I see Tom Hanks and Jay Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, out there, a lot of dignitaries are there. Was that Nancy Pelosi --

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, it's Pelosi.

BLITZER: Yeah, we just saw.

JONES: All the big guns.

BLITZER: Yeah, there are a lot of VIPs there. I want to go back to Sara -- Sara Sidner, she's over at the Obama Center in Chicago. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you so much, Wolf. Yeah, a lot of heavy hitters here, not just political heavy hitters, but of course, you've got stars, A-listers all over this place. Gabrielle Union, we just saw her with her husband, Dwyane Wade, obviously of basketball fame, and we saw so many different people, Katt Williams, LL Cool J. There are so many people here, but there are a lot of folks from the South Side also here, people who helped Obama as he was coming up. This is a moment in history.

We are going to go now to presidential historian Doug Brinkley, who is looking at this from a historical perspective. First, just give us your sense. This is the most expensive, the largest, but it is also a presidential center, not just a library, and it is of the first African American president of this nation. Give us some sense of the historical precedent, the historical significance of this moment.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, as you just said, history always remembered Barack Obama breaking the fact that we only had white male presidents, and then boom, Barack Obama. When he won in 2008, he famously gave his victory speech at Grant Park in Chicago, and you know, in his hope message for the whole Chicago South Side is very real.

One thing Barack Obama, I dealt with him on this issue of having the right musicians there. He loves to curate things like that. Remember, the South Side of Chicago is where talent like Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, Dinah Washington, Mahalia Jackson, you know, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Quincy Jones. The list doesn't end from right there on the South Side of Chicago. So, to be having this sort of feast of top musicians of our time works hand in glove with the whole history of Chicago's South Side.

The National Archives, as we think of it, was created by FDR, and he brought Herbert Hoover's legacy into that. This is a departure from just National Archives in the fact that the Obama Presidential Center is a foundation and it has the National Archives working with it in tandem, but it's trying to mainly the center get people to not boo vote, as Barack Obama famously said.

And I was at all these meetings early on with it, and I kept this historian pushing for artifacts. I like tangible things. So, if you visit there, if you're interested, like I am, and not just digital, but there is a replica of the Oval Office, and in the desk drawer is the exact letter George W. Bush wrote to Barack Obama to show the peaceful transfer of power between a Republican and a Democrat. That letters in the drawer as is Barack Obama's Blackberry.

And when school kids come and things, they'll be able to see Michelle Obama's gowns or Sesame Street puppets, or the first marriage birth certificate for gay marriage, meaning there are artifacts there too, as we all want to think of this as the digital age, people still like seeing, you know, items, and it's been masterfully curated.

Barack Obama and Michelle have been part of all of it, particularly President Obama wanted art, he wanted a sky of hope, he wanted a lot of paintings, including modern contemporary artists involved, and he really wanted John Lewis's name involved. So, the music today is the John Lewis Plaza, and the speech that President Obama gravitates to, that he gave that he feels is most significant is the one he did on the anniversary of the march at Selma.

SIDNER: It is incredible, and you can hear the music. This whole program is about music, as well as you mentioned. It is so important to the Obamas, and you've got star after star after star, from Bruce Springsteen to, of course, Stevie Wonder, who has been the soundtrack of President Obama's presidency as well.

[12:05:00]

Just an incredible group of musicians that are here, never mind the stars and the politicians and the people, and they really want this to be for the people, so ultimately inside. Jeff Zeleny was telling us that inside there really is this -- it's not just about looking back on the history of this presidency, but it is looking forward. What more can you do? And there's kind of the challenge to people. Is that pretty apropos for who Barack Obama -- President Barack Obama is, as well as First Lady Michelle Obama?

BRINKLEY: Well, I can't tell you how much for Barack Obama, it was all about the future forward. You know, he was a grassroots organizer in Chicago. He did meet Michelle Robinson there, not far from where you're at is a the ice cream store, Baskin-Robbins. People don't realize Barack Obama's first real job in Hawaii was scooping Baskin- Robbins' ice cream. You say a guy, my wrists were so sore from it.

And on his first real date, he took her to the ice cream store, Baskin-Robbins. And there's now in Chicago what's called the Kissing Rock, but there's just rock in like a strip mall where Baskin-Robbins was, where they, they first really went out together, famously. Afterwards, their official date in Chicago was seeing Spike Lee's movie Do the Right Thing, but President Obama did.

It was hard on him, you know, saying, you want me to go dig into my closet and get my BlackBerry, or get old -- my, you know, old Bible or school books, and I would say yes, yes, yes, tangible items, as well as digitalization. And it's -- I think it's accomplished both magnificently, and you get the great views from the top of the center of Lake Michigan and the entire architectural forest of skyscrapers of downtown Chicago.

SIDNER: Yeah. The architecture here is quite stunning, but also what Michelle Obama brought to this, which was the garden where you can actually go pick fruits and vegetables, and then they teach you how to make healthy meals. That's been very much a part of the center as well for the people around South Side, for the children as well. This is just an incredible celebration, and they've been lucky enough to not have it rain out, because they have been threatening, as Chicago does.

But Wolf, it is quite a feeling here of love and hope and togetherness. I've heard that over and over and over again from everyone that has come to this celebration, Wolf.

BLITZER: Certainly, it brings back a lot of memories. Just watching all of these elements of the Obama presidency, for those of us who spent a lot of time covering his presidency, brings back certainly a lot of memories for all of us. And I think it's fair to say, Jamie, that when we hear all these things that are being displayed now at the Obama Center in Chicago, for those of us who live through that area, reported on it, it will really be special.

GANGEL: No question. And there are traditional exhibits, there's -- you know, the Oval Office. There's an exhibit on American social progress, civil rights, women's suffrage. There's an exhibit that shows his Nobel Peace Prize. There's a yes, we can exhibit. And as he said, what he thinks his most significant accomplishment about the Affordable Care Act, Paris Climate Accord, and the raid on Osama bin Laden. So, there are more traditional exhibits that show the course of his presidency. I just want to say, Van Jones, do you want to be there right now?

JONES: Listen, I was been here, and look, I would love to be there, but also --

SIDNER: No offense taken.

JONES: No offense taken. I've seen all my old friends, I'm seeing everybody here, but you know what, most people are going to watch it the way we're watching it right now. And I think what people have to understand is Barack Obama was powerful as president. He was more powerful as president. I'm here because of him.

So many of us are here because I was working in Oakland, California. I was a grassroots actress, and I turned on my radio. He didn't have a television, and I heard him talk in 2004. And 17 minutes later, I realized I could do more with my life. He wasn't even president, he was just a guy on stage, dreaming about being a senator, but he lifted the ceiling off of my dream and all of my friends, and so, like, most people don't get a chance to be there. I'd love to be there. If you guys want to find me out there, I'll be out there.

But you don't understand the nuclear weapon this guy was to eliminate self-doubt, to eliminate the idea that the things that we can't do, places we can't go, things that we can't dream about. He lifted the ceiling off a whole generation. It wasn't his power as president, it's his power as president that anything is possible in this country, and he proved it.

[12:10:00]

And so, that's why you see all these people standing outside, people watching all around the world. This guy did something way beyond the presidency. He gave -- he gave me my life, my path, my opportunity. And I can tell -- I can talk to a thousand people on my phone to tell you the same thing.

BLITZER: You know, it's interesting, because when he was elected president that night at 11 pm Eastern. I went on CNN and said, CNN now projects Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States, and you see the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.

BRINKLEY: The former, yes. These are the foreign leaders he worked with.

BLITZER: Yeah. A lot of foreign leaders are there as well to celebrate.

JONES: And you saying that is in every documentary about Barack Obama, every single one. When you called it, that's what made it real.

BLITZER: Yeah. And we see Angela Merkel. We see a lot of former leaders there, as well. You know, it's interesting, because after I reported that Barack Obama was now projected to become the next president of the United States. So many people came up to me and hugged me, as if I made it happen. They thought, we never thought in our lives, we would see a black president and now we're going to see one.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR & WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: And there -- right there, is the first black vice president, the Kamala Harris, who -- and her husband, Doug Emhoff, who obviously, to your point, Van, of what you're saying, you know, talk about being somewhere because of precedent that he set, you know, obviously the last presidential election didn't turn out the way everyone gathered there in Chicago wished it would have. But her candidacy, as totally unfathomable as it was, is we lived through Joe Biden dropping out of the race, and like, is a direct descendant of what Barack Obama done. And now you're seeing the president's club arrive.

And I just want to say this is a rare thing in America, it's presidential funerals, it's inaugurations, and its presidential library openings, where this very exclusive club, very few people understand the pressures of that office. What it is to lead, the Bush is coming out now. This is a convening of people who have sort of lived in that rarefied air that only -- they truly understand the pressures of what it is to be in the first animal (Ph).

GANGEL: And Donald Trump really would like to be a part of that club, and the fact that he was not invited there says something about his position. There are the Bidens. I also just --

BRINKLEY: The Clintons too.

GANGEL: The Clintons, the Bidens. I also just want to remind people how old Barack Obama is, or how young he is, he's only 64 years.

JONES: But we got another 40 years of this guy. Thank goodness, thank goodness.

CHALIAN: But to that point, it's a contrast with these other folks, right? I mean, this is the year Donald Trump just turned on the daughter. Remember, now look at this. Remember when they came out 2008, these little bitty --

BLITZER: Let's listen into the program for a minute.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For our invocation, please welcome Pastor Joel Hunter and Joshua Dubois.

JOEL HUNTER, FORMER SPIRITUAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Sorry. If you're a praying person, would you pray with us? Gracious God, we bow our heads in gratitude on this holy ground. We thank you for the long arc of justice you have bent toward freedom, for the founders who confess that all are created equal, for the abolitionists and the marchers, for the women who claimed the vote and for the saints who crossed the bridge at Selma, trusting that you walked beside them, generation after generation, you have widened the circle of belonging.

And so, we come to give thanks for the man whose name this center bears, a son of many places, who answered your call to serve, who stood where no black American had stood before, and who reminded a weary nation that hope is not a platitude but a call to action. And who was not just concerned with nations, but with neighborhoods.

[12:15:00]

We thank you for his deeper wisdom, that our differences are not a threat to be feared, but a gift to be welcomed, a source of strength and of greater understanding. Neighbor to neighbor, stranger to friend, he showed us the quiet power of listening, of showing up in believing one -- and of believing in one another.

[12:20:00]

We thank you too for how he loves, a husband devoted to his wife, a father tender with his daughters. In him we see that a life of service begins at home with the people we cherish, and we also see a faithful friend who would call on two old teammates to help launch this center with a blessing.

JOSHUA DUBOIS, FORMER ADVISER TO PRES. OBAMA OF FAITH & RACE: Now God, we ask you to move, move about this center. Let it be an epicenter of innovation, a balm of restoration, and a hotbed of hope. Move in the hearts and minds of all who pass through these grounds and walk these halls. Let inspiration creep up when they least expect it.

Let them feel the same fire that a young man and young woman on the South Side of Chicago felt not too far from here and not too many years ago, and for those who may arrive here weary and heavy laden. Let this be a place where peace quiets their souls.

Finally, God, move in our futures. Let a strange mixture of what happens here at the Obama Presidential Center, plus the work of human hands, plus your divine work unleash justice where it is lacking. Loosen democracy from those who would tie it up, and unfurl the type of change that sets captives free, and let that work create ripples in eternity, smiles in heaven, smiles that stretch across the divine faces of Fannie Lou Hamer and Joseph Lowery.

C.T. Vivian and John Lewis Frazier and Marion and Barack, thank you, God, for all that you have done, all that you are doing, and all that you will do in this hallowed place. Let it be so, and let the people of God say, amen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Please stand for our presentation of colors by the Illinois Color Guard, followed by the national anthem.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Performing our national anthem, born and raised right here on Chicago's South Side, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award-winning legend Jennifer Hudson.

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[12:25:00]

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