- 3 months ago
The former president and first lady reflect on their lasting love, White House years and happy life now in an exclusive sit-down with PEOPLE to celebrate the opening of the Obama Presidential Center
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PeopleTranscript
00:00You can almost see the South Shore Cultural Center where we had our wedding reception
00:06and where we had the memorial for Michelle's mom just a while back.
00:11That's how much this community means to us.
00:15I mean, every inch of our lives together and my life, period, happened in these...
00:21Sort of a five-mile radius of this place.
00:24Yeah, yeah.
00:27We have been together now for 34 going on 35 years.
00:35I knew almost immediately, and it looks like I made a pretty good bet,
00:39this was a one-of-a-kind woman with the integrity and character and smarts and values
00:47that was going to make me better.
00:49And just being with her made me better.
00:51And she still does and would make our kids have a foundation that would pay off for them
00:59over the long term, and that's, in fact, what's happened.
01:02I don't know if it's been an equal partnership.
01:04I've gotten, I'm sure, more out of it than she has, but it's worked out for me really well.
01:10You know, for her, you know, it's probably more of a mixed bag.
01:14No.
01:15Yeah, it's been all upside down mine.
01:16We are each other's counterbalance.
01:20I mean, the truth is, is that I probably would have been someone who stayed more put, right?
01:29Because I think I grew up with such a grounding here, you know, that sometimes when you're so
01:36grounded, you're sometimes afraid to leave that security and comfort.
01:42Um, and I might've fallen into that, right?
01:46I think I would have had a beautiful life here, but I think it would have been smaller.
01:50I think I wouldn't have had the kind of impact.
01:54I think our girls, they would have thrived, but, you know, because of my husband, because
02:00of who he is, he offered all of us, you know, my mom, my family, just a broader sense of
02:08what's possible in life.
02:10You know, what she's saying is I'm the crazy one.
02:12No, no, I'm not saying that at all.
02:14I'm just saying that you provide the, the forward push that sometimes some of us don't
02:23have.
02:24And I think it's, and I think it's, it's been good for me to be a little shaken a bit,
02:31uh, you know, to, to be pushed to do more than what I thought I could do.
02:38And some of my first uncomfortable steps in my career, you know, leaving a corporate law
02:44firm was because I met him.
02:46I was like, this guy, you're a community organizer.
02:50I was like, what's that?
02:51Never heard of that.
02:52He's organizing in my city, you know?
02:55Um, so he made me think more broadly about what I could do with this Harvard law degree
03:00besides be a lawyer.
03:02And there was just so much.
03:03He gave me the courage.
03:04He was my ballast.
03:06You know, he was like, I got you.
03:08Um, and however hard it's been, the ups and the downs, he's got me, you know, he's like,
03:17try new things, go leap.
03:19Sometimes the stuff I do, he's like, look at you.
03:22But I can do a lot of these things because I know if I slip or fall or trip, he's
03:28got
03:29me.
03:30So yes, it has been an equal partnership.
03:34It's been okay.
03:35It's been aight.
03:38There used to be a road, really a highway that ran right through this park.
03:42I hadn't been to Chicago except for once when I was like 10 or 11.
03:48So I didn't have a lot of memories of it.
03:49So I drove over the skyway and that's how I first came to Chicago, uh, in a janky old
03:56car, um, with all my stuff in the back seat.
04:01And so within this community, these neighborhoods, you have the house where Michelle grew up.
04:09Our wedding reception was less than a mile from here.
04:12You can see the hospital where our daughters were born.
04:14Our first home, 10 minute walk from here.
04:17I taught law school, uh, right down the road.
04:22I announced my first campaign in politics, uh, up at the Ramada Inn on Lake Shore Drive,
04:29uh, and announced my run for the U.S. Senate here.
04:34So, so as I've said before, and I'm, I'm sure I will say again, so much of what is precious
04:39to me is because of this community, uh, these neighborhoods, the people who live here, who embraced me when they
04:51didn't really have to.
04:51I'm some funny kid from Hawaii, driving in, not really knowing anything.
04:56And, and they took me under their wing and they treated me as their own and, uh, and they gave
05:02me a home.
05:03So part of what this center is about, us wanting to make sure this is a living, breathing community center,
05:09as well as an exhibit of our administration.
05:12It's because I want to acknowledge that debt.
05:15So there was nothing like this center anywhere in this neighborhood when I was growing up.
05:21This is my neighborhood.
05:22I mean, every piece of me was built in this area.
05:25And as I got older and started having experiences and opportunities that a lot of kids like me didn't get,
05:34you know, I went to a magnet school on the west side.
05:36So I started to be downtown more and to see this wealth of museums and these beautiful stores.
05:44And I grew up with kids who didn't even feel like those places were accessible to them, you know?
05:51Um, and when you start to leave your neighborhood and you realize what's not here, as I got older, you
05:59know, you start to think, wow, why don't, why isn't our park as beautiful as Grant Park?
06:06You know, why do I have to leave my neighborhood to see a wonderful piece of art?
06:11Why doesn't it feel safe to walk through these paths?
06:15Um, none of this was here.
06:17Um, so for me, you know, being one of those kids who didn't feel welcome in other places, the notion
06:24that the kids in the high school across the street, they were witness to this new fantastic building being built
06:33right across the street from the place where they get educated.
06:36I get mesmerized just looking out of the window and seeing the newly built parks where all these neighborhood kids
06:42are playing and running in green grass and standing in vistas and having access to world-class art by many
06:52people of color, that it's right in their backyard.
06:55This just didn't exist for me.
06:57So I get emotional just realizing what this will mean for kids, that this is their view when they walk
07:04to school.
07:05This is what they'll see when they get on the bus and go other places.
07:10They'll, they'll feel people from around the world wanting to come to their neighborhood and not them having to leave
07:16to experience something phenomenal.
07:19So for me, it is incredibly personal.
07:26I do think that Michelle is surprised and proud that we pulled this off and got it done.
07:35She had a chance to go through the whole thing yesterday.
07:38Yeah, for the first time.
07:40And I, you know, I could tell that it meant a lot to her.
07:43He's completely uncomfortable with this thing being about him.
07:49I was like, you know, he was just telling me, I think there should be a little less of me
07:54here.
07:55I was like, well, who should we be talking about?
07:58And he was like, Gandhi.
07:59I was like, no, no, Gandhi will have his own museum.
08:03I think people coming here will want to hear about you.
08:09But the point being is that I think my husband is always thinking about reflecting the light on other people.
08:20And there's something that I'm sure feels a bit odd for him that, you know, that the assignment of having
08:27a presidential center, which focuses on his presidency, is it's too much light on him.
08:35And I know that that's how he's feeling.
08:38I know that he's proud of this accomplishment because it took a team of people.
08:44He made sure to make this about the community, to make this a place that our neighborhood could use and
08:52feel welcome.
08:53And so I hope you're feeling like you've accomplished that, even though our names are on the front door.
09:01I do agree with what Michelle said.
09:05Only in this sense.
09:07I'm very proud of what we accomplished.
09:09I'm proud about what our administration accomplished.
09:11Obviously, we are at the center of a lot of this story.
09:15But there's a reason why we started, for example, the museum exhibits with the Declaration of Independence and with the
09:23history of the Civil Rights Movement,
09:24and the abolition movement and the suffragist movement and the union movement, because part of what I'm hoping people get
09:31when they come here is a sense that I, we were just a very small chapter in this longer running
09:41journey to try to make America as perfect.
09:46It's not as perfect a union as we can make it, understanding that, you know, the world's never perfect.
09:52But we have made progress, and that's because of all these other people who over generations did extraordinarily hard, challenging,
10:01sometimes dangerous, and sometimes frustrating work.
10:04And so what I meant when I said to Michelle that I do want to make sure that people see
10:10all the people whose shoulders we stand on, all the traditions that we draw from.
10:15Because when you see everybody who's been involved in this project, then you realize, oh, this is a group project.
10:21It's not an individual project, which then means, oh, I, as a citizen, have a role to play in this
10:27project.
10:28It means when young kids come through here, they're not just looking at one person and saying, gosh, you know,
10:34look what that person did.
10:36They're all like, oh, look, look what we did.
10:38And now that means I can be a part of it.
10:43There are a lot of cool nooks and crannies here.
10:47Outside of the Oval Office, the replica, there is an exhibit about the 10 letters a day that I used
10:53to get from people.
10:54That's as meaningful an exhibit for me as anything here, because it does remind me, partly because I think they
11:01didn't even imagine that the president would actually read their letter,
11:04how honest and open and heartfelt people would be about the struggles they had, the frustrations, the hopes, you know,
11:13what was happening in their families,
11:14men and women in uniform writing about what it was like to come back here and trying to figure out
11:20how to process having lost some folks in their units.
11:24And so when I look at that, it takes me back to what was always the most powerful part of
11:31my presidency, which is just getting to know the American people,
11:36how much they inspired me and kind of kept me going a lot of times.
11:40The floor that I love is the life in the White House.
11:44There's music and there's joy and there's laughter.
11:48And once you come out of some of the somberness of the many accomplishments and challenges, I mean, on the
11:57fifth floor, because that's where, you know, the tissues come out.
12:01It's that floor that reminds us that the work that we're trying to do should be hard and challenging.
12:08But the only way we get through it is if we find the joy in it.
12:12And our White House was a joyful White House.
12:15I mean, it really was.
12:16I mean, every day we had groups of kids there.
12:20A lot of kids.
12:20Dancing and playing and showing off their science projects and the smiles.
12:26At the time, the country was still coming out of a deep recession.
12:31You know, the war was still going on.
12:34I mean, sadly, we were going to Walter Reed and visiting too many wounded warriors.
12:39And I spent too wonderful time, but too much time with Gold Star families grieving their losses.
12:48So, you know, it wasn't some, you know, Eden time.
12:53You know, these were tough times.
12:55But in the work, you know, at least the East Wing, we wanted to provide that joy.
13:02And we thought that the balance of the house, that East and West Wing needed to be there.
13:09You know, we needed puppies and laughter and fruit and vegetables and jumping jacks and smiles just to get through
13:17those tough times.
13:19So that floor is an important one to me because it's a reminder of, you know, the power of positivity
13:29and joy and hope and music and laughter and being together.
13:34You know, I hope that floor reminds our visitors that we should not settle for trying to do this work,
13:42live this life on our own.
13:44And that we have to have community, that that lifts us out of our depression as much as some app
13:51on your phone.
13:52You know, that that's really the truth of us coming together is that we have to actually be together in
14:01spaces where we're breathing and together and living together and doing activities together.
14:10Because I, I hope and pray that we're going to move more towards that.
14:15And I hope that the Presidential Center, at least for the South Side of Chicago and those that come, will
14:22inspire people to come out again.
14:25You know, to not be afraid to be in community with one another in beautiful spaces.
14:31Yeah.
14:31Talk to people you might not otherwise meet.
14:33Will some of those young people be able to play you in a game of pickup over there?
14:38No.
14:40And now we, I will take folks on for a game of horse.
14:44We can have some shooting contests.
14:47I am not running up and down that court because I want to protect my knees and my Achilles.
14:53I don't want to be in a boot.
14:55So, I'm in good shape if I'm just running north-south.
15:00You start getting me sideways and I start worrying about something, kind of going, hmm.
15:05But Michelle, this has been a, obviously she looks spectacular.
15:11But she is way ahead of me on the whole stretching and flexibility tip.
15:18And that is the next stage of my, that's where I'm going, is I'm going to try to, I've got
15:27to do a little more stretching and flexibility.
15:29But luckily, in the, at home court, in the gym, there are all these multi-purpose rooms.
15:34Yeah, there are all these rooms.
15:35Where hopefully community people will do yoga.
15:37Put our, put our yoga mats down and all that.
15:38Or ballet.
15:40Namaste.
15:41Congratulations, Mr. President.
15:43We had a fun White House.
15:45It was just, there was a good spirit there.
15:47And an energy.
15:48A joyful spirit of kind of going in there and doing battle.
15:52But every day, people were hanging in there and looking out for each other.
15:56And there was a level of integrity.
15:59People were there for the right reasons.
16:02So, when I, when I see some of the exhibits, I'm just reminded, these are folks who typically gave up
16:09a lot of financial security and family time and other stuff.
16:15Just because they wanted to make the country better.
16:17There is a bond that comes from being in the foxhole with folks like that every day.
16:24That's really powerful.
16:26And, and, and, and that I, I, I miss.
16:29And it was our home.
16:30I mean, the truth is, is that, um, for our girls, they've lived in the White House longer than they
16:37lived in any of the houses because they were so young.
16:40And they were seven and 10, you know.
16:42So, we had just moved to our home that we call home in, uh, on the south side here in
16:49Hyde Park.
16:49Uh, I think we had only lived there.
16:51A year and a half.
16:52A year and a half.
16:53And then it's like, woo, our lives have changed.
16:55We live in the White House.
16:56So, a lot of the memories of us raising our kids happened in the White House.
17:03Fourth of July is Malia's birthday.
17:05And so, that whole celebration in the backyard, which we usually devoted to military families, that was also her birthday
17:12party.
17:12With fireworks and a yard full of people and a lot of friends and families coming through.
17:19So, we have a lot of memories of the kids sneaking hors d'oeuvres before a state dinner or, you
17:25know, the girls rolling their eyes for the turkey pardon because they were kind of forced to be.
17:32It's like, first, when they were young, they loved it.
17:35And then, like, all kids, it was just like, oh, dad, do we have to do this again?
17:40And then, and then we subbed out my nephews who were younger and appreciated it.
17:44You know, so, you know, we, we watched our kids grow up.
17:49Prom happened there, you know, graduation parties.
17:53And those are our memories in, in the White House.
17:56One of the reasons why we, we still live in D.C., our primary, primary residence is there is because
18:03that's where the kids' friends are.
18:05You know, when kids come home from being away, they want to be with their friends.
18:09And while we have great community here, you know, so there's a lot about Washington, D.C., about the White
18:15House that, you know, is, is our, our life.
18:20Obviously, there's a symbolism to the day I got elected.
18:24I hoped that if I did get elected, that that would change how kids thought about themselves.
18:30Not just black kids, but all kids.
18:34I, I, I hoped suddenly girls started feeling like, okay, whatever limits people seem to have set, whatever the precedents
18:44are, I think I can do something.
18:45I wanted Asian American kids, Hispanic American kids, disabled kids to feel that same way, that we didn't have barriers.
18:53And I think that we did accomplish that.
18:55It was never realistic to think that because of one election, one president, that somehow 400 years of history suddenly
19:08goes away.
19:08It was never realistic to think that issues that are facing these neighborhoods in the South Side in terms of
19:17disinvestment and lack of economic opportunity and crumbling infrastructure, that, that all that was going to suddenly be solved.
19:25But I do think, as it's true every time you see something you hadn't seen before, it moves the line
19:32of what kids imagine themselves being able to do.
19:35I think there are kids who, growing up under my presidency, said, yeah, of course there's, you can have a
19:42black president.
19:42Why not?
19:43I'm confident that when we get a female president, which we will get sometime soon in my lifetime, I expect,
19:51it won't be remarkable.
19:52And then they'll talk about female president just like they talk about the black president.
19:57They'll be more interested in, like, what's happening with the price of gas and, you know, why haven't we fixed
20:03that and why haven't we done that?
20:05And that's good.
20:06That's a good thing, right?
20:07It becomes normalized.
20:09And that's, I think, what we want.
20:10I will say that when I go through the museum and see the reactions to his presidency, I'm also reminded
20:20that the reactions weren't just coming from the black community.
20:24And I think that what we all need to be reminded of is the symbolism of his presidency.
20:31It wasn't just about race.
20:34It was also about the way you show up as a leader.
20:38You know, it's not just the color of our leaders, but the character of our leaders and how they show
20:44up in the world and the responsibility that they take to use their platforms in a mature, wise way.
20:52I think that what Barack offered this country was a mature president, you know, was a highly intelligent president, was
21:03a selfless president.
21:04And I think that the hope and the joy that people felt during that election and during our administration had
21:13as much to do with the character of this leader.
21:17I think we need to be reminded of that.
21:19And I think all of us, as we vote and we think about, you know, how we want to engage
21:24in this democracy, that it isn't just an us or them.
21:28It's not about color or religion.
21:32You know, it's about the core of the people who live in that house because it's a powerful position.
21:39And I am so proud of how my husband showed up in that role, how he shows up every day.
21:49And I think he made this country proud in a very unique way.
21:53So hopefully we're reminded of that, not because of him, but who we want to see occupy that seat in
22:01the years to come.
22:02What kind of person we want to see in that role.
22:06Thanks.
22:10Over the last 10 years, we have been working with young leaders through the foundation's programs, not just here in
22:20Chicago, not just here in the U.S., but around the world.
22:23And so we've got thousands of folks who are going through our leadership programs.
22:30Some of them are very young through Michelle's primary focus, the Girls Opportunity Alliance, girls as young as 10 or
22:3712, you know, who are participating, gaining confidence and learning what it means to speak out and dream big.
22:43And through our My Brother's Keeper program, we've got young men of color who are working with us to make
22:48sure they understand their possibilities.
22:50But we're also working with young members of parliament and in Europe and chiefs of staff of major nonprofits and
23:02climate change activists and folks who are working on reentry programs and college students who plan public service careers.
23:11And so that has been, I think, the thing that's given me the most satisfaction over the last several years
23:16is just seeing how our programs are developing this next generation of leaders to carry on.
23:24The same fights, the same struggles, the same insistence that if we work together and we bridge our divisions, we
23:33can solve a lot of the issues that make life tougher on people than it should.
23:38And we can open up more possibilities and more opportunity for people.
23:41So I've enjoyed that.
23:43We've got all kinds of talent out there that are ready to remake the world.
23:48And they're also, to Michelle's point earlier, good people, you know, who treat people with kindness and care and consideration.
23:58We are fed through the algorithms and just the nature of our information ecosystem.
24:09We're told a lot about what's wrong with people.
24:17And I spend a lot of time with a lot of different kinds of people, and especially young people.
24:24And they're solid.
24:25They have good instincts about what they want to see the country be and the kind of world they want
24:31to live in.
24:31And I think if we give them the room, if old folks get out of the way, if we are
24:40willing to step back and serve as their coach and have their backs and advise them,
24:47rather than feeling like we are the ones who have to stay on center stage all the time, I think
24:54we're going to be okay.
24:56Is that how it is with your young people, with your daughters?
24:58Oh, yeah.
24:59I mean, let me tell you.
25:02Don't get him started.
25:03Malia and Sasha are all that.
25:04I can barely keep up with them at the dinner table now.
25:08As my mom would say about us, I have to say this about Malia and Sasha, as wonderful as they
25:14are, they are just, they just reflect back what their generation has to offer.
25:20You know, there are millions of amazing young people like our girls, and we see them every day.
25:27And I think this home that we call hope is a reminder that however we feel in any given moment,
25:34we have a responsibility to retain that hope for the next generation that hasn't had a time, hasn't had an
25:42opportunity to have a say.
25:43You know, so you imagine you were about to inherit something that people are giving up on, you know, I
25:50don't want to do that to my kids or their kids.
25:53So we've got to get our acts together so that we hand to the next generation.
26:00And I'm not talking about our girls.
26:02I'm talking about the three and four-year-olds coming up, how they see the world, what that feels like.
26:10It can't be a hopeless place.
26:12It can't be a cynical place.
26:14It can't be a cynical place.
26:16It can't be a...
26:16They haven't even had a chance to formulate an opinion on who they are and who they want to be.
26:22We don't have the right to hand them something less than magnificent, right?
26:29And so we have to operate like that, even when we're feeling at our worst, right?
26:35We just have to show up for them.
26:38And so that's what gives me hope.
26:41You know, whenever I get a little cynical, especially around here, you can look out the window and see kids
26:49sliding on a slide and running with such abandon, you know, that you think, get up.
26:56You know, get over yourself.
26:59Just roll your sleeves up.
27:01Do the work for them.
27:03Yeah.
27:04So.
27:06That's something to love.
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