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CNN Live Event/Special
The Obama Presidential Center Opening Ceremony. Aired 2-2:30p ET
Aired June 18, 2026 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00]
TEMS, NIGERIAN SINGER-SONGWRITER AND RECORD PRODUCER: Thank you so much.
(APPLAUSE)
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome, Latin music superstar, Marc Anthony.
MARC ANTHONY, AMERICAN SINGER AND ACTOR: Performing "Vivir Mi Vida."
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
[14:05:00]
ANNOUNCER: What a beautiful set of iconic legends and global superstars. Here's our last little hoorah here at the midway. We got someone that's incredibly amazing that worked at the --
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: -- monitor and watch this beautiful, beautiful program, the Presidential Center for Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. She spoke beautifully. And I quickly want to get some reaction to what we just heard.
Jamie, let me start with you. You listened so closely to Michelle Obama and her words were very powerful and very significant.
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: So as Van said earlier today, you never want to be the person to follow Michelle Obama.
(LAUGH)
GANGEL: And Barack Obama is about to do that.
BLITZER: He's about to speak.
GANGEL: He's about to speak. And we're going to hear from him shortly. Just to go back to Michelle Obama's speech, you know, it was very personal. At the beginning, she talked about how he said he couldn't promise her the world, but that he promised her an interesting life and how he had given her both. And it was very moving. But she also went on to talk about certain expectations of him. And there was a phrase she used over and over again, how absurd that people thought you might buckle under pressure. And to me, it was very clear subtext. He was the first Black president, first African- American president, and what the expectations were versus look at the man who was president for eight years and the man that she knows.
BLITZER: All right. Beautiful words. I want to listen back into the program. Let's listen.
PUNIHEI LIPE, SELECTED AS OBAMA FOUNDATION LEADER IN 2019: Aloha.
CROWD: Aloha.
LIPE: Where I come from, to introduce someone means we have pilina, a connection. If this man walked into my home, my children would call him uncle because we are both keiki o ka 'aina, children of Hawaii. We have been nourished by her lands, kissed by her rains, and inherited a kuleana, a sacred responsibility to care for those we will never meet.
To introduce him today is not just to talk about who he is, but to share what he invites out of each of us. He invites and we respond. And in our culture, that reciprocal exchange is aloha. His call to build a space of new possibilities invited me to look deep into my own ancestral wisdom, pointing me toward the a'ali'i, a native plant renowned for its versatility and tenacity.
Our people say, [Foreign Language]. I am a wind withstanding a'ali'i, no gale can topple me over. You see, the a'ali'i thrives by being deeply rooted, resilient through storm and drought, and fiercely responsive. That is what "yes, we can" means to my indigenous heart. It's (inaudible) that we remain unshakably rooted in truth, resilient through trial, and so responsive that just as this plant yields its leaves for medicine, its blooms for beauty, and its timber for protection.
We become the healing, the vibrance, and the shelter needed by our communities and by Grandmother Earth. Brothers and sisters, let us rise to honor that collective responsibility. Stand with me, people. And now, from the shores of his youth to the city that rose with him, Chicago, please help me welcome President Barack Obama.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
BARACK OBAMA, (D) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Hello, Chicago. Sweet home, Chicago. Please have a seat. Thank you, Punihei, for that outstanding introduction.
President and Mrs. Bush, President and Secretary Clinton, thank you for being with us today and for your devotion to our country.
(APPLAUSE)
[14:10:00] B. OBAMA: And President and Dr. Biden, thank you for your steadfast partnership for eight years. Joe, we started as running mates and ended as family, and we would not be here without you. And we are grateful.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: To our amazing foundation staff and our amazing board, to Governor Pritzker, Mayor Johnson --
(CROWD CHEERING)
B. OBAMA: -- thank you for making this center possible. To congressional leaders and foreign dignitaries who've made the trip, I cherish our partnership together and all we got accomplished together. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: To Michelle, she did me wrong. She wouldn't let me see her speech. She knew she was going to mess me up, and she did it anyway. But she's always made me better. And I could not be more grateful. And to Sasha and Malia, what can I say? You mean everything to me.
More than 40 years ago, on a late summer afternoon in 1985, I arrived here in Chicago, entering the city through the very spot where this center now stands. I can still picture myself heading down what was then Cornell Drive in a janky used car that I'd bought in New York, with all my worldly possessions stuffed in the trunk and backseat, so I really couldn't see out of the rearview mirror, and I was a safety hazard.
And I was 23-years-old. I'd just been hired by a group of churches on the South Side to help organize a part of the city that had been battered by steel plant closings and chronic neglect. And I didn't have much organizing experience. Didn't know anybody in Chicago.
But I had been inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, and I knew I wanted to make a difference. And although I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to do that, I was possessed with this abiding faith that if we could give people more of a say in the forces that govern their lives, if we could bridge some of the differences that drove us apart, then we could build an America where everyone counts and everyone has a fair shot, and everyone belongs, even a mixed-race kid with a weird back story and a name nobody could pronounce.
And it was here, in this city, a city of broad shoulders, that I found what I was looking for. Day by day, block by block, I got to know the people who lived here, their hopes, their dreams, their tragedies, and their triumphs. I witnessed their resilience in the face of hardship, and the quiet heroism of a single mom raising her kids and sending them to college on a secretary's salary.
Or the priest electing to stay in the city and open his doors to at- risk youths, even as most of his flock had fled to the suburbs.
[14:15:00]
I learned that leadership has less to do with titles or rank or chasing attention than with helping others find their voice, reaching their potential. And sitting around people's kitchen tables or on their back porches, spending time in church basements, in barber shops, I was reminded that everyone has a story to tell, if you just care to listen.
Sacred stories, full of courage, and humor, and grace, and that each of those stories in some way connected to my own. In other words, I found my purpose here, and I fortified my faith here, and I found my community here, friendships that would last a lifetime. And I found a girl from the South Side who has been my greatest blessing.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: Michelle and I, our wedding reception was over at South Shore Cultural Center. You could walk from here. Our daughters were born right down the street. This is where we bought our first home. This is where our kids took their first steps. This is where I launched my candidacy for the Illinois State Senate, over at The Ramada Inn on Lakeshore Drive, serving pretzels and soda, embarking on the path that ultimately and improbably led to this day.
So for me, this center could not be anyplace else. It's an expression of thanks, an acknowledgement that so much of what I hold most dear, I owe to the people of this city, and the people of these surrounding neighborhoods.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: And it's why we designed the center not to be some lifeless mausoleum. I am too young for that.
(LAUGH)
B. OBAMA: Not just a place to see Michelle's dresses, although I understand that will be the top attraction.
(LAUGH)
B. OBAMA: We wanted it to be a vibrant, living celebration of community, where we can learn together and share the joys of art and music and sport and play. Because it's in those moments that we're reminded of our common humanity, and strengthen the bonds of trust that not only make our lives richer, but make our democracy stronger.
Now, we also wanted this center to be a celebration of the extraordinary public servants, many of whom are here today, that made this journey possible. Some of you helped get me elected. Some of you I had to talk into joining my administration. Some of you were seasoned veterans who helped show a rookie president the ropes. But a lot of you were younger than I was when I first drove into this city.
We're all a bit older now. Many of you have children of your own, even grandchildren. But the passage of time has only deepened my admiration for your talent and your dedication and your skill. It's only deepened my gratitude for how much you and your families sacrificed to make this country better.
So when you visit this center today or in days to come, I hope you see yourselves and your hard work reflected in every exhibit, and I hope you take pride in what we accomplished together. You made that happen.
(APPLAUSE)
[14:20:00]
B. OBAMA: Now, of course, we did not accomplish everything we set out to do. No administration does. Some of the exhibits reflect unfinished business, in some cases, my own shortcomings and mistakes, in some cases because, as a sign I kept on the Resolute Desk read, hard things are hard. And that's especially true in a big, raucous, diverse, argumentative democracy like the United States of America.
Everybody's got an opinion, and that means getting stuff done involves reconciling the demands of a couple of hundred million people. Democracy can be frustrating, it can be slow, it can be inefficient, and yet more than anything, I hope this center will serve as an affirmation of just how special, how precious our democracy truly is, and remind us what we can achieve when we embrace our shared responsibilities as citizens.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: And since we're a few weeks away from America's 250th birthday, it is worth remembering just how radical the whole idea of self-government really was back in 1776. To that point, human history was a tale of conquest and caste and rigid hierarchies, a world where the strong dominated the weak, where power and wealth and status flowed through lineage, and the many were ruled by the few. But out of the fire and steel of a revolution, a different story took flight.
On this continent, a declaration that we are all created equal, endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, and that in the newly independent United States there will be no kings or lords, no serfs or subjects, but only citizens --
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: -- each of us free to pursue our own version of happiness, and able to determine our collective fate through an elected representative government. It had not been done.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: And because it hadn't been done before, the success of this experiment was never a given. In forming our union, the founders fell terribly short of the declaration's promise, leaving slavery intact, allowing states to restrict the franchise to white men who owned property. But in drafting a constitution and a bill of rights, they did have the foresight, the genius, to provide us with a framework that allows each generation to make our union more perfect. And over more than two centuries, through petitions and protests, marches and strikes, moral appeals from the pulpit, and conversations at the family dinner table, men and women from all walks of life, of every color, every faith, every region, took up the cause of democracy and made it their own, until we the people came to include not just some of us, but all of us.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: And that's why the story we tell in this building begins not with Michelle's origins or my origins, but with our nation's. With a founding-era print of the Declaration of Independence, and a pen and ink stand used by Frederick Douglass, Lincoln's Bible, and a pamphlet by Ida B. Wells, suffragist buttons, and a hard hat worn by FDR's Labor Secretary, Frances Perkins. And it's why the exhibits here focus not just on policies, but on the shared values that make democracy possible.
[14:25:00]
A belief in the intrinsic dignity and worth of all people, and that no one is above the law or beneath its protection. A belief in checks and balances in our government, and an accountability that comes with it, an independent judiciary and a robust free press.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: A belief that our military and law enforcement owe allegiance not to any president or political party but to the people and our constitution.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: A belief in the peaceful transfer of power after the people have spoken in fair and free elections, recognizing that in a large complicated society like ours, no group or faction gets its way a hundred percent of the time. And a belief that qualities of character -- honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, a sense of duty and honor -- those things matter in our public dealings, just as they do in our private lives. These are not --
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: These are the values and traditions I believe in, and they are not Republican or Democratic values. They're American values we can all share, regardless of party, values every president here today, as different as we are, has tried our best to uphold, values that John McCain and Mitt Romney believed in no less than I did.
It is our greatest inheritance, the story of America at its best, because it reflects a basic faith in the decency of our fellow citizens and the possibility that, despite all of our differences, we can see each other and understand one another and make common cause together. That's what I hope every visitor to this center takes away from their experience. And that's why, if you come for a day and you don't have time to see everything, I would urge you to skip the clips of my speeches -- you have heard them all before -- in favor of the stories of those ordinary citizens who helped make that change happen. The cancer survivor who feared rising premiums would force her out of her home, and was brave enough to speak out about it, she's why we pushed so hard for health care reform.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: The small business owner trying to keep the lights on. The teenage girl who told me she was worried her dad might lose his job in the auto crisis. They're why we focused so relentlessly on pulling our economy back from the Great Recession. The wounded warrior overcoming debilitating injuries. The gay Air Force major serving her country even when forced to hide who she was. They're why we worked to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and care for those who've worn our country's uniform and do right by our military families.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: It's their voices that led to our successes. And while going through the exhibits, I'd also ask you to listen to the voices of people around the world who've been inspired by American ideas. Yes, America has made its share of foreign policy mistakes. Our actions have not always matched our rhetoric. We've learned that we can't solve every conflict or stop every atrocity around the globe.
But at our best, the United States has been an undeniable force for good in the world.
(APPLAUSE)
B. OBAMA: And what I heard on every continent as president is that when America, when American foreign policy lives up to our highest ideals, when we champion human rights and democracy and the sound stewardship of our planet, when we take the lead in eradicating disease and feeding the hungry and educating children, when we encourage cooperation between nations, instead of trying to dominate and bully and squeeze every advantage just because we can --
