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CNN Live Event/Special
The Obama Presidential Center Opening Ceremony. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired June 18, 2026 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence, your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage, your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency, your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber.
And to do it all as a first, and the higher standard that comes with all that, the claims that a U.S. Senator and constitutional law expert wasn't qualified for the job, the lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism, the outrage when you stated the biological fact that if you'd had a son, that he too would be black, yet you were unflappable at every turn, always focused, always calm, always looking at the long view.
How absurd it is to even imagine that you might have buckled under the pressure even once, lashed out in frustration, lost your temper, how absurd it is to imagine that you might have done anything but make our family and this entire country proud.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
M. OBAMA: No, you were too busy.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
M. OBAMA: I'm not done, you all, not done. So much to say. You were doing the people's work, rescuing our economy, expanding health care, ending a war, ordering the Bin Laden raid, saving an auto industry, winning a Peace Prize --
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
M. OBAMA: -- keeping us safe from Ebola, regulating the banks, standing up for marriage equality --
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
M. OBAMA: -- listening to science, and comforting an entire nation in the face of unspeakable tragedies.
And you did it all with such grace and class and cool that you made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park. Your mother, two gramps, you are a tribute to their love. They are up there grinning and hugging today because you never forgot who you are and where you came from.
Single mother, working hard to get by and get an education and show her son the world. Grandparents who didn't have much, but they had the perfect recipe to nurture your flame. You never forgot the folks in the union halls, in church basements here in Chicago where you first put your ideals to this test.
You never forgot all of the voters you registered and students you taught and neighbors you organized. You never fell for the temptation of a quick fix or an easy payday. You never changed from that idealistic summer associate who showed up on that rainy day when we first met without an umbrella.
(LAUGH)
M. OBAMA: You always gave us the very best within you and in doing so, you reminded the rest of us that we could too. Barack, there are no words to express how proud I am of the way you showed up and continue to show up every single day. It has been an honor to be by your side.
You have made me a better person and have given us all an example that we should strive to emulate. And I hope you know there is truly no higher calling than that. All right, to all of you joining us today, our invited guests, and everyone listening and watching from afar, the Obama Presidential Center was created as a beacon of hope, a monument to our unshakable values, the ones my husband has exemplified his entire life -- Equality, empathy, honesty, inclusion, fairness.
[13:35:00]
And especially during these anxious and divisive times, it is so important that we remember that those values are not unique to my husband. They are the same ones that your husbands and wives, your parents and children, your friends and neighbors exhibit and pass on. Every single day, millions of people in this country wake up doing their very best to live decent and purposeful lives.
Yet, we're all tested in one way or another. And there are plenty of times we all fall short. But deep down in our hearts and souls, we all know right from wrong. We know selflessness from greed, righteousness from injustice. We understand that we all rise and fall together, that every last one of us is an invaluable contributor to the greatness of America.
And I'm talking about the workers living paycheck to paycheck hoping to give their kids a better future. The teachers using their own money to take their students on field trips. The business owners struggling to meet payroll but refusing to close their doors. All those folks sweating over stoves to provide meals for their communities.
Folks shivering in the freezing cold to deliver our packages, picking up trash to keep our parks clean, volunteers dedicating their weekends to coaching tee ball or directing the church choir or mentoring a child, that's where the truth of this country lies. Not in grabbing as much as we can get for ourselves, or knocking folks down to prop ourselves up, but in the overwhelming goodness, the relentless striving, the quiet dignity that is inside all of us.
Our greatest hope is that this center can reflect back just a fraction of that light, that it can capture the beauty of who we all are, no matter what we look like, or where we come from, or how much money we earn, or how we pray, or vote, or speak, or love. It's why, during our administration, we threw open the White House doors to all sorts of folks who don't usually get to meet the president or first lady.
The families pinching pennies to send their first child to college, the teenagers who know that a hot afternoon means the bullets start flying, the military spouses and children serving and sacrificing just like their loved ones in uniform, the native kids showing us that resilience and pride can never be stolen, the 4-H'ers and FFA members with calluses on their hands from feeding livestock, the immigrants proving what it truly means to be a dreamer, these folks --
(APPLAUSE)
M. OBAMA: These folks are Americans too. They are America. They are the beating heart of this country. They are us, and we are them. And to ignore this simple truth, to refuse to respect the contributions and experiences of people who aren't exactly like us, you all, puts us all at risk. Failing to see the humanity in all people puts us all on a slippery slope.
And once that slide starts, there's no telling where it stops. A dangerous precedent that flies in the very face of our faith and of the founding promise of this democracy, that all of us, all of us, are created equal. That each of us is a child of God with inherent value.
(APPLAUSE)
M. OBAMA: And no one, and I mean no one, has the right to sit in judgment of who's American enough.
[13:40:00]
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
M. OBAMA: And that's why, folks, we simply don't have the luxury or time to be cynical or complacent, to wring our hands in despair, to wait for someone else to fix the problem. You all hope is all we have because hope is the essential spark that lights the fire change. But hope is a choice, whether or not we use our voices to speak up is a choice, voting is a choice, being a decent human being is a choice, believing that we still hold the power to build a country that reflects us all is a choice.
The Obama Presidential Center is a living testament to the power of choice, you all, the historic example that millions of you gave the world about what this imperfect democracy has strived for and achieved, and an urgent call to go out there and do it again. So I hope that when you walk through this campus and bring your children here, you're reminded of the power of choice and the steady work of change, the arduous, unglamorous march up that mountain one foot after another, day after day, generation after generation.
But I hope -- also hope you fully absorb the elation of achieving something together. You know that feeling when you clear the tree line and see a vista that takes your breath away, a feeling that can never be erased, and I know that can be hard to grasp right now when everything feels so upside down, when fact and fiction run together, when folks seek to stifle speech, limit access to education, devalue diversity, erase the inconvenient parts of our history, when our phones constantly buzz with the latest outrage.
So I hope that this place can offer a respite from all that, at least for a little while. I hope it can reignite the optimism and empathy and ambition that has always powered this country's greatest change. So we want you to come here and put away your phones, and talk and laugh and cry, because you won't cry, and make new friends, get your hands dirty in my garden, push your baby on a swing in the playground, have a romantic picnic on the great lawn because that's the work of democracy too, being neighborly, taking care of public spaces, having some fun, enjoying each other, shaking out of the isolation and division that have crept too deeply into our lives.
And to my fellow South Siders --
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(LAUGH)
M. OBAMA: -- I want you all to make this campus a part of your lives, be inspired by the world-class art, check out the books from our beautiful public library and bring them back on time --
(LAUGH)
M. OBAMA: -- drop some beats in the recording studio, hit some corner 3s at home court, hold birthday parties, jumpstart clothing drives, host citywide cleanup dates, here. Use this campus to show off this place we call home, this joyful place where Marion and Fraser Robinson taught their two kids to dream big, this hopeful place where an unknown guy with an unknown name took flight, this stubbornly optimistic place where family after family scrapes and claws and laughs and dances their way to a better tomorrow.
[13:45:00]
That's what this has always been about. Barack and I have always said that this center is grounded in our stories, but it has never been about us. It's never been for us. And it's going to be here long after we're gone. So what it becomes and how it is preserved, that work has to be done by all of us, just like our democracy.
And thankfully, you have shown the world what we are capable of. You've proven that a lasting legacy isn't an award or a name on a building or a number of zeros in a bank account, but the difference we make in one another's lives. It's about seeing each other and showing up for each other and carrying each other when we're weary or faltering or losing faith.
That's how you build something that endures. And that's what you all have done at every twist and turn of this extraordinary journey. You have protected and proclaimed the hope that beats within the heart of this campus. You've rekindled and renewed this untameable, unpredictable, and unbreakable democracy.
And I know that you all are going to astonish us even more in the months and years ahead, because you all have proven beyond shadow of a doubt that when we truly see each other, when we strive to bring out the best in ourselves and one another, oh, there is no limit to how high we can go.
Thank you all. I love you all. God bless you.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD CHEERING)
M. OBAMA: And God bless this country we love.
(APPLAUSE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Really very, very strong, moving, very powerful speech by the former First Lady, Michelle Obama, speaking at great length about her husband and his record as president of the United States. It was very moving, brought back a lot of memories.
But also, Van, I'm anxious to get your thoughts. She didn't mention Trump by name, but she was clearly trying to differentiate between what Barack Obama as president stood for and what he stands for.
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, and we'll get to that. But I just want to say, I miss Obama and her husband.
(LAUGH)
JONES: I mean, she's just an extraordinary human being. And I think there's some wish fulfillment for people watching how she honored her husband. I think every man would love to feel that they had done something worthy of their partner, having seen them behind the scenes. She was speaking to some pain there. She's speaking to some things that maybe were difficult for him.
And she was honoring his strength. And she was honoring his achievement. And she was speaking -- and Obama was wiping away tears. Obama couldn't even look at her.
BLITZER: He got emotional.
JONES: He got emotional. Obama was looking down. He couldn't even look up. To feel the love and the embrace and the admiration of the mother of your children is something I think every man would want. And I think she started with that. And I think that was -- to watch how -- listen, I don't care how tough you are. The woman in your life, if she likes you, you can take on the world.
If she don't like you, you're in trouble.
(LAUGH)
JONES: And so I think she honored him. I thought that was beautiful. And she also described the America that I think a lot of us still believe in. She's talking about people who don't have much. But she's not trying to get them to hate anybody. She's not trying to get them to look down on anybody. She's showing the dignity in everyday people's work.
And I think, she's pouring water on some parched earth in our country right now. I just think that Michelle Obama may well be the best spokesperson for the America that most of us were taught to believe in, where everybody counts and everybody matters and everybody has a shot if they work hard. I thought she did an extraordinary job.
BLITZER: All right. I want to listen in. We're going to see some excellent musical performance coming up right now.
U2, coming up, and Bono. I want to listen in.
BONO, IRISH SINGER-SONGWRITER AND ACTIVIST: There's love in the house. What a house? What a wonder? We're calling it the Obama (inaudible) Home, just so you know.
We're here representing the Irish in Chicago.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
BONO: Hello, local birds. And yeah, thank you for the loan of your country.
[13:50:00]
Some of us might not be -- some of us are not giving it back. So here we go.
Performing "City Of Blinding Lights."
[13:56:10]
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome, Nigerian music sensation, Tems.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
TEMS, NIGERIAN SINGER-SONGWRITER AND RECORD PRODUCER: Thank you. I'm so blessed and honored to be here. This one is to you, everyone in this room, to Mr. and Mrs. Obama, and to Sandra and all the family.
You ready?
Performing "Me & U."
TEMS: Thank you so much.
(APPLAUSE)
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome, Latin music superstar, Marc Anthony. --
