the following is encore presentation of emmy award winning program that aired november 19, 2020, "the promised land," a conversation with barack obama. it was a political rise for the ages from senate candidate. >> there is not a liberal america and conservative america, this is the united states of america. >> the presidential cabinet. >> yes, we can. >> to a two term president.

>> every day i have learned from you, you made me a better president and better man. >> now the obama presidential memoir, a look back at what happened and road map for the work that lies ahead. >> i want you to remember what this country can be. but you can't just imagine a better future and wish for it, you've got to fight for it. >> after a divisive four years, why he sees a brighter tomorrow. >> if i remain hopeful it's because i learned to place my faith in my fellow citizens. >> tonight, "a promised land," a conversation with barack obama from washington, d.c.,. >> good evening and welcome, we are in the heart of what was once known as black broadway here in washington, a place during segregation black culture

thrived. on this stage none other than duke ellington, pearl bailey and ella fitzgerald. also president franklin roosevelt would gather friends and family for birthday celebrations. tonight a greater moment of presidential history, president barack obama, much anticipated new memoir is finally available to readers. presidential memoirs take us inside the white house, and tonight want to take the lessons learned and apply them to work that still needs to happen to protect and defend democracy in the united states. joined by members of my brother's keeper, foundation he started more than six years ago to help young men of color fulfill their potential as they strive to live out the american

dream. looking forward to the conversation with these men in a few minutes. two weeks after historic victory, president joe biden received most votes ever for president. 79 million and counting but some in the republican party led by president trump are refusing to accept the win and in some cases trying to overturn the will of the people. victory of senator kamala harris, first black american and indian-american elected to the post of vice president. there is work ahead. i'm honored to say welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks for being here. how are everybody? all under one roof.

how is it working out? >> we love to spend time with them. whether they feel the same is debatable but been wonderful. like i think a lot of families who are lucky enough to be together and not suffer from some of the stresses that a lot of people are suffering from, losing jobs or having to figure out daycare issues and so forth. you know, the first couple months, we had game nights and we would do all kinds of stuff. you know, i think everybody's feeling a little worn down and cooped up and getting cabin fever. but we know that we're blessed not to have some of the strains and stresses that some folks have, including our health care workers, and the girls have responded magnificently. so it's been nice to have them home.

>> let's talk about some news of the day, mr. president. president trump and his allies and the states are doing everything they can it seems to overturn the will of the people. last night, wayne county filed affidavits to reverse their votes to certify vote their votes in michigan, the most populous county. i heard the word coup used to describe these kinds of efforts. is it hyperbolic or are we under a realistic threat to our democracy here? >> look, joe biden will be the next president of the united states. kamala harris will be the next vice president. i have been troubled, like every american, whether you're a democrat, republican or independent should be troubled, when you start having attempts to block, negate, overturn the people's vote when there's no actual evidence that there was

anything illegal or fraudulent taking place. these are just bald assertions, they have been repeatedly rejected by the courts. and i think i'm more -- i'm less surprised by donald trump doing this. you know, he has shown only a flimsy relationship to the truth. i'm more troubled that you're seeing a lot of republican officials go along with it. not because they actually believe it but because they feel intimidated by it, and the degree to which you have seen some news outlets that cater to the right and the conservative viewpoint somehow try to prop up these bogus claims. >> well, given your experience with some of those capitol hill republicans, are you surprised they are going along with this effort? >> look, at each juncture,

you're a little more disappointed that basic fairness and norms and habits that republicans and democrats traditionally observe are not being observed. take, for example, certifying a vote. this a routine process. democratic officials certify when republicans win. it's not as if this election was any closer than the election that originally brought donald trump to office. and he won some votes in places where you had democratic officials who had to certify that donald trump had won. but the basis of our democracy is that there is a fair, impartial referee process. >> right. >> because, otherwise, elections don't mean anything. and, look, at the end of the day, i don't think any of this

will be successful. i think you have enough republicans with integrity, including officials in places like georgia that have said we're just going to count and call it the way we see it. and that's what they're supposed to do. that's what we should expect any public official to do. there are things that transcend partisanship. when you take an oath of office, you take an oath to uphold the constitution, and the rules, and laws that govern our democracy, and that transcends whatever party you belong to, who you would prefer winning or losing. i didn't enjoy having to call donald trump and congratulate him for having won the night of his election four years ago, but i did it because that's part of my job. and the same way that george bush called me and invited me

and facilitated my transition. that's part of the continuity of our democracy that allows us to have arguments, have differences, but at the end of the day still be confident that this is a government of, by and for the people. >> let's talk about the next president of the united states, president-elect joe biden. in 2016, you reportedly pressured then vice president joe biden not to run for president. in 2019, you reportedly told your former number two, who was seriously thinking of making a go of it, you don't have to do this, joe. you really don't. today, vice president biden is president-elect joe biden. are you surprised, proud, or both? >> well, i'm proud. i'm thrilled, and those reportedlys are not accurate. >> so that didn't happen? >> that didn't happen. you know, my view has always been that joe biden has the

character, the experience, the connection to the american people that would allow him potentially to be successful. i think in 2016, he had gone through, for the second time, the worst tragedy any of us can go through, which is losing a child to a debilitating disease, happened right before he had to make the decision running and he made his own decision. i was a friend and sounding board to him during that process, but he made the ultimate decision, and the same is true this time out. my assessment was that he had a good chance because you had an open democratic field. i think during the primaries, you know, there were some bumps early on. he came into his own during the general election, ran a magnificent campaign, and deserved to win. i think his choice of kamala

harris as a partner is going to benefit all of us because not only is she obviously breaking a glass ceiling, but she is just a really capable, smart, tough and insightful elected official who is going to put the american people first. >> and on the subject of vice president-elect harris, you have known her for years. what has been your advice to her, as another person of color, about how to contend with the new level of scrutiny and conspiracy theories, and other negative things that she's going to have to deal with on this stage? >> yeah. look, i mean, she's going through a two-fer, right? i think the one thing we've learned over the last several years is that the challenges that women face, as women, are profound, just as race is a profound issue in our society.

and women of color, you know, have to deal with both. the good news is that kamala is accustomed to it. she's been a first before. she's been on the national stage. and my advice to her is actually really similar to my advice to joe. surround yourself with great people. stay open to ideas wherever they come from. reach out to the other side but understand that you may not always get the cooperation you want. but you keep on trying just to make sure you can -- when you go to bed at night, be confident you are doing everything you can to try to unify the country. and then follow your instincts and follow your values. if they do, i think they're going to be fine. they're going to do great. >> let me ask you this one question about something that

jumped out at me in the book. an interesting revelation in the book. you're recalling your riding to the inauguration with president george w. bush in the limousine and you take this turn and you see these protesters with the signs. indict bush and war criminal. you write in the book, i felt quietly angry to protest a man in the final hour of his presidency seemed graceless. unnecessary. more generally, i was troubled by what the protests said about the divisions that were churning across the country and the weakening of whatever boundaries of decorum had once regulated politics. and i can't help wonder, will you be angry on president trump's behalf to those who would show up to protest him? and what will the demonstrations say about where we are as a country? >> i think that 2008 is very different than 2020. the way donald trump's behaving in transition is very different

than what george bush behaved in the final months he was in office. and because we're in the middle of a pandemic, we don't know what inauguration is going to look like, but i think joe biden is right to say that we should all make an effort to do our best to lower the temperature and listen to the other side. but i think when you have a current president whose entire style is to fan division, that is hard while he's on the stage. in some ways, i think it will be useful for us to just get back to the normal arguments between democrats and republicans, and

not the existential ones. to talk about policy more and talk about sort of the warfare between parties less. but that's going to require all of us to cooperate, including the media, which is a hard thing to do because, let's face it, over the last four years, the news of the clash in visions between progressives and the right, between democrats and republicans, has, you know, been continually amped up in ways that we have gotten almost numb to. and it would be good if we can dial it down a little bit. >> well, mr. president, we've got a lot to talk about. coming up, the obama initiative still changing the lives of young, black men across the country. we will talk to some of those impacted by my brother's keeper. stay with us. much more ahead.

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that's what my brother's keeper is all about. helping more and more young people stay on track. providing the support they need to think more broadly about their future. building on what works, when it works in those critical life-changing moments, and all the time recognizing that my

neighbor's child is my child, that each of us has an obligation to give every child the same change in this country. >> president obama launched my brother's keeper in an effort to bridge the persistent opportunity gaps for young men of color. more than six years later, it's still going strong, proving to be a lasting legacy of the obama administration. and now, joining in the conversation, are people who benefited from and participated in president obama's seminal program. jerron hawkins and a howard university undergrad, a double bison, i'm told, christian r. johnson, member of the class of 2024 at howard university and dr. edwin m. quezada, head of yonkers public school in new york, launching in 2016. welcome, all.

christian, i want to start with you, and ask, what does my brother's keeper mean to you? >> it simply means just having that brotherhood, the family aspect really. my high school was part of your initiative. >> right. >> and we were all brothers in that community. like, the teachers in my school were my play aunts and my play uncles. we didn't think of them as teachers. we really thought of them as family. and my brother's keeper is created a village out of my actual village of my home. i love that. >> jerron, you have the same experience? >> absolutely. just piggybacking off what christian said and what president obama said, my neighbor's child is my child. your brother is my brother. your sister is my sister. and you know, just looking after one another, what i have, you have. and just sharing the resources. you don't have -- mentorship doesn't have to be lateral. it can be horizontal. >> and doctor, how has my brother's keeper affected the student body in yonkers?

what has it meant to the students there? >> thank you. my brother's keeper is a movement. it's an opportunity to truly affect the live experiences of the students that have been left behind. and i have often said that's on behalf of the students that have been intentionally left behind in america. president obama has set the conditions for us to create the initiatives on behalf of the young people to support them, to care for them, and to give them a place in our society. >> president obama, have they met the expectations you set out for my brother's keeper? >> they've exceeded them. these two young guys, when i met them they weren't all fancy and looking sharp, but they're an example of the incredible talent that's out there.

you know, in this first volume of "a promised land," i don't write about trayvon martin. that comes later in the presidency, so that will be in volume two. but, you know, we had continually seen not just the tragedy of young, black men being impacted by racial bias in the criminal justice system or, in the case of trayvon martin, a vigilante who decided that trayvon was suspicious, but what it unveiled was the degree to which attitudes towards black boys, hispanic boys, boys of color, boys on native american reservations, the fear of them, the stereotyping, the dismissal

of them, the pipelining of them not into college, but so often into prison was having an adverse effect, and we had to go beyond government to deal with it. and 0 so what we it was marshal partnerships in a place like yonkers, with school districts, with businesses, with community organizations and groups, trying to find mentorship programs, violence intervention programs, in some cases re-entry programs for those who had gone through the criminal justice system. processes to encourage young people to set their sights higher. and you now have, as the superintendent said, a movement. where it's fallen short just the need always exceeds the number of programs that we have. there's still hundreds of

thousands of young boys and men that would benefit from a mentor, who would benefit from the kind of helping hand that i think all of us need somewhere along the way for us to rise and i'm an example of that. as somebody who grew up in a relatively tranquil place, hawaii, but still had all kinds of issues when i was young. >> and i want to get into this. because if i remember correctly, all of us on this stage, with the exception of christian, we grew up with single moms. and one of your favorite words in "a promised land," i noticed, is foolishness. so i'm wondering if any of your moms put up with any foolishness from y'all growing up. here is what president obama writes about his teen years. as for the world beyond my family, well, what they would

see for most of my teenage years was not a budding leader, but rather a lackadaisical student, a passionate basketball player of limited talent and an incessant, dedicated partier. no student government for me, no eagle scouts or interning at the local congressman's office. through high school, my friends and i didn't discuss much beyond sports, girls, music and plans for getting loaded. president obama, i want to know what did getting loaded look like? and what moved to you be a little more forthcoming? misspent youth? >> i actually go in detail in first book about -- >> you weren't president then the. >> but it's the truth. and part of the reason is -- i talked about this in conversations i had with jerron and christian and others as part of my brother's keeper, and one of the goals of my book in

tracing my path early on to end up being in the presidency is, you know, we don't start off -- at least a lot of us don't start off thinking about the world around us. we kind of take for granted what cards are dealt to us. and for a lot of black and brown boys and girls, you know, often times, those cards are a little bit stacked against us. and part of what i wanted to show is that the issue is not where you start. it's what you overcome and where you end up. and i was lucky, not only because i was living in a place where despite my bad attitude sometimes, it wasn't dangerous, the way it can be if you're growing up in d.c. or philly or chicago or l.a. but also what i wanted to portray was the process whereby

you had adults who saw potential in me, even if i didn't see it in myself, and were willing to question what i was doing, and get me thinking about how i could tie my wagon -- hitch my wagon to something bigger than myself. and it's through that process of mentoring, questioning, believing in that a lot of young people start to saying, okay, well, maybe there is something in me that i can contribute, and maybe i should take on more responsibility and change in ways that are not always easy but are possible, and i wanted young people who maybe right now are looking at the world and seeing pandemic, and george floyd's killing, and so much

that seems out of whack, and maybe are feeling discouraged. i want them to see in themselves the possibility that they can bring about change. they can be agents of making things better in the same way that i did in fits and starts. it took me a long time to learn what i was capable of. but that is part of the process. >> i know, jerron and christian, you know president obama. you know his story. but i'm just wondering if it surprised you to read in the book that he didn't get his act together until the tenth grade. i mean, we look -- >> probably later than that. i started thinking about getting my act together in the tenth grade. >> but i mean, a lot of people, you look at president obama and he's on top of the world, but to know and realize that he didn't

pull it together -- start thinking about pulling it together until tenth grade, did that demystify the man for you? >> it absolutely did. you know, mr. president, you're mr. president. a lot of people are like, wow, that's the president. but being part of the personal white house mentorship program, you met us where you work. a lot of people talk at young people. i'm a firm believer that the people that have the most power to solve the problem meet you at your work. and absolutely to your point, it demystified it, and humanized him. like, i want to listen to him. and i see that you have a lot of wisdom to give us. >> and, christian, sure, it demystified the president, but did it make his accomplishments seem attainable for you? >> definitely did. i mean, just to hear that he put his act together until maybe after the tenth grade, it helped me out because coming in to ninth grade, i wasn't as perfect as i thought i was.

i was a know-it-all. all this other stuff and just getting my act together over the course of four years i was there really did help me. so knowing he didn't get his act together until his high school years really did help with that. >> and dr. quezada, with the students there in yonkers, do you see in the student body in yonkers little barack obamas, kids who are not quite there yet but could be if they have the right motivation? >> thank you, and i see them from kinder all the way through grade 12. many president obamas, i see in yonkers, and what the president is speaking about, we have given language to in yonkers. the mayor, mayor spano, dr. bostic. we lead the movement, and the idea is to create real social capital for these young people. let's not write them off in the tenth grade if they're not on the right path.

let's instead align them to individuals, to businesses, to friends that are willing to provide the needed social capital for them to be successful. >> you know, i have one more question before we have to take this break. the president has written and talked about his struggles with racial identity. and you write through the people you met and worked with in chicago, you say i resolved the lingering questions of my racial identity, for it turned out there was no single way to be black, just trying to be a good man was enough. we don't have a lot of time, so i'm going to go to you on this, jerron. have you gone through this same journey, coming to terms with what it means to be a black man in america? >> i absolutely have. and being a second year law school student, it's never been more affirmed in my life. graduated high school, i'm still a black man. and i made it through undergrad, it's like, we don't care, you're still black. and in law school, when i don't

have a howard law shirt on it, it's like, you're a black man. i don't know you're in law school. and i can feel that. i can't cut the skin off my body, it's something i have to live with for the rest of my life. >> we are going to get more into this conversation about identity when we come back. coming up, one of the most controversial moments of president obama's first term and what it tells us about race, then and now. my conversation with our 44th president continues after this break. with relapsing forms of ms... there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses. all these other things too. it can all add up. kesimpta is a once-monthly at-home injection... that may help you put these rms challenges in their place. kesimpta was proven superior at reducing the rate of relapses, active lesions, and slowing disability progression vs aubagio. don't take kesimpta if you have hepatitis b, and tell your doctor if you have had it,

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recently professor henry louis gates jr. was arrested at his home in cambridge. what does it say to you and what does it say about race relations in america? >> i don't know, not having been there, and not knowing the fact s, what role race played in that. but i think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry. number two, that the cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. >> president obama's reaction to

the 2009 arrest of harvard professor henry louis gates in his own home sparked a heated debate on race and policing. the president eventually invited the arresting officer and professor gates to the white house for the now famous beer summit. and the president writes about that incident in his memoir. mr. president, here's what you write. it seemed to tap into some of the deepest undercurrents of our nation's psyche, touching on the rawest of nerves, perhaps because it reminded all of us, black and white alike, that the basis of our nation's social order had never been about consent. because of this, black families for generations have had the talk, with their children, how to behave in public, especially with law enforcement. mr. president, since your mom and grandparents were both white, i'm curious, when did you have the talk? >> the truth is, again, growing

up in hawaii, did you not have that day-to-day set of tensions, but what i saw and i have written about this in my first book, the -- you start noticing that when you're crossing the street suddenly door locks go down or folks are clutching their purses a little tighter when you get on the elevator. that kind of experience tells you that you're being seen differently. and i don't think anybody, any african-american male hasn't gone through that at some point. but, you know, what the episode with skip gates revealed was just how sensitive we are in even talking about these issues. one of the reasons i was encouraged this year, during a year where obviously there was a lot of discouraging stuff, was

the reaction to the george floyd killing and the fact that, unlike some of these previous incidents involving the black community and the hispanic community and the police, this was one where you saw outrage, concern, distress and activism across the board, including in a large section of the white community and in towns where there are barely any black people. but they understood, okay, you know what? this is an ongoing problem. we have to do something about it. and that signals the possibility for change, as long as we translate it then into changes in institutional practices and changes in laws and policies. >> you know, christian, you told us, we talked about this before. you had the talk with your father. and it was so intense, tell everyone what you haven't done

since you had the talk with your father. >> i still haven't gotten my license. i refuse to drive as of right now. it's frightening for me. so i just never went out to do it. >> frightening -- i mean, your father, putting the fear of god into you. but how -- how specific, how real did the talk get? >> i mean, you can tell he was scared for me. and that is a different type of fear that puts -- just gets into you, just hearing your father, the man that's the strong guy in the house, just hearing him and hearing his fear for your life is -- it shakes you. >> you know, jerron, both of you, jerron and christian, and also dr. quezada, you all participated in black lives demonstrations that the president was talking about. and, jerron, you participated in

a demonstration in los angeles. >> yes, sir. >> the protest itself was fine. >> uh-huh. >> what happened after you left? >> so, just a little bit of backstory, because i don't want to paint the picture that me and my friends were completely in the right, but one of my friends, in order to protect her privacy, she put a piece of black tape over her license plate, because a lot of people were recording throughout the protest. so, immediately following the protest, we get pulled over by two squad cars, three officers in total. they're calling for backup, and another four squad cars and about nine more officers pull up. and there's five black children sitting on the sidewalk, with six squad cars, 12 police officers and what concerned me was there was a crowd gathering in the street, about 30 people. to make a long story short, after all the police officers ended up leaving, the people were running up to us, hey, we just had a rally today. we don't need any more hash tags. and that struck me to my core. i was five seconds away from possibly being another hash tag. >> how are the students in

yonkers dealing with this, dr. quezada? >> this is what my brother's keeper is all about. you know, during the demonstration, many of my students led demonstration in the city of yonkers. and every elected official and the superintendent were part of those demonstrations, because we wanted to show our young people that we were in this together. i think is what the president tries to do with his book, actually what he does with his book, which is telling us all that my brother's keeper is an opportunity to ensure that our young people realize that they do have a place in our society, whether to demonstration or getting an education. >> you know, president obama, the other thing about the skip gates incident is that it highlighted what black people, especially black professionals, have to go through in terms of navigating their way through the

dual existence that we're in. >> the key is not to overhype or be ultra sensitive about every single miscommunication that's taken place between the races. the key is to be, a, open, to listen, to recognize that all of us have bias. you know, and it's by the way not unique to white folks. black folks make assumptions, too, about others. and we have to always guard against that. you know, one of the great things about being president, you know, i travel and go to these very rural communities, and there are no black people involved. and when i was running for the u.s. senate, driving down in southern illinois and, you know, these were stereotypically white, conservative, rural communities.

i'm walking in, black civil rights lawyer from chicago named barack obama. and, you know, you would go to a store or a county fair, and people couldn't have been nicer. and people are asking you about your family, and you could find things in common if you're not making assumptions. so, it goes both ways, right? and i think one of the dangers in our current climate is making a lot of assumptions about people just based on the surface and not taking the time to listen to people's stories. but at the end of the day, though, when it comes to the criminal justice system, all the understanding in the world is not going to solve the problem if when a police officer does something wrong, he is not held accountable. it's not going to solve the problem if you have a situation where the police union rules had

set things up such that the -- if it's a controversy, the benefit of the doubt is always going to go to the police officer even when there is film showing something happened. so we're still going to have to change laws, change rules. and often times when you set up smart rules and smart laws and you enforce them, then behavior changes as well. >> we're going to keep this conversation going. coming up, much more with president obama and members of my brother's keeper. oh! are you using liberty mutual's coverage customizer tool? so you only pay for what you need. sorry? limu, you're an animal! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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we're back with president obama and members of my brother's keeper. so mr. president, this is the hope. you write, if i remain hopeful, it's because i learned to place my faith in my fellow citizens, especially those in the next generation whose conviction in the equal worth of all people seems to come as a second nature and who insist on making it

real, those principles that their parents and teachers told them were true but perhaps never fully believed themselves. jerron and christian, i'll start with you. the president, in that statement, and even through my brother's keeper, is putting a lot on your shoulders. this is a long-term preposition. are you ready for it? >> yeah. i mean, just focusing on my friends and school and always helping them, and always having their back is more important and just keeping faith in my people, my family, keeping faith in my friends. >> and jerron, do you think -- well, one, i know you're ready for the long-term proposition. what about your friends who may not be on the journey with you, what do you say to them? >> you know, for one, it's never too late to start a journey. you can always join me whenever you want to, and also me being a repository of information, i

have a duty to share that information. whatever i'm getting and receiving, it's up to me as my brother's keeper to make sure that my brother is well. >> there is something we said when we talked earlier about the fact that what was terrific, i think it was you, dr. quezada, what is unique about my brother's keeper, what the students told you there are programs geared to the gifted students and hyper smart students and my brother's keeper is geared to everyone. talk a little bit about that, and also about the leadership demands of my brother's keeper. >> so, jonathan, here is what we know. young men of color are more likely to be suspended in school, less likely to graduate. okay? that is that type of data we need to change. we need to address the needs of every young man, every student in our schools. and in yonkers, the president's program, the former president's

program has served as the umbrella, the vehicle to change the mind-set. if we want to change america, we have to change the mind-set of individuals and that these young men know that they are important, that they count, and that we have to ensure that they important, that they count, and that we have to ensure that they are in charge. >> you've been superintendent of the yonkers schools for six years? >> give or take. >> give or take. so pre-mbk and post-mbk, my brother's keeper, have you noticed a change in those young man? >> absolutely. when i became superintendent, the graduation rate was 76%. the graduation rate in the yonkers school is close to 90% right now. you know why that's happening?

because our young men are also graduating on time. let's move them into a place of success and let's do it together. >> so we've been through a lot, particularly in 2020 economic calamity, the pandemic. even education in the pandemic, but humans always find hope in the heart ache. are the students in yonkers hopeful? >> i firmly believe that they are. our students understand that a promiseland is possible. it's about adults realizing we need to set the conditions for them to be successful. if we do that, then guaranteed success will occur. >> christian, what gives you hope? >> what gives me hope? >> i would honestly say just my family and my mother most of all. and just knowing that i want to

create a better place for my little sister so that she can -- she can live without having to worry about like politics and she can live without just the fear of making mistakes and not being forgiven for these mistakes that she's making. >> jerron, what gives you hope? >> from a spiritual lens i definitely am a man of faith, of god, first and foremost. but i can echo christian sentiments of my mom. living in the shelter, she got pregnant with me when she was 17, dropped out of high school, she could have aborted me. but she took the shelter situation. and my brother is serving with d.c. national guard and i'm a second year law student. even before the interview i had her prayer and i was like thank you. 22-odd years ago, i could not be here and made a different decision. >> i saw on your instagram feed

i don't are mom is very, very proud of you and you are very, very proud of her. it is very, very clear. mr. president, i want to end with you. and i'm going to put this question a little differently to you. we are at the virtual thanksgiving table, turkey's carved, the yams are hot, the tin can cranberry still has its shape, and you are asked to give the blessing. you are asked to say grace. what do you say? >> well, that's not a tough question because that's exactly actually what i've had to do every year, including because we used to have our family to the white house for thanksgiving and with all michelle's brothers and cousins and uncles, it was always a pretty big crowd. and i would say grace.

and i'd express thanks not just obviously for the food and the shelter and all the blessings that we've received, but i'd give thanks for my children and all the children that were part of that who are now growing up and have become amazing young people like jerron and kristin. you know, when i say that i have faith in the coming generation, it's not because they don't make mistakes. it's not because they're perfect. i really like what christian talked about when he was talking about his younger sister and then part of the reason in my book i tried to be honest about the mistakes i made is we all make mistakes. the question is do we set up a society in which young people through those mistakes can grow,

can learn, can have faith and confidence that the adults around them care about them and, you know, when we do that, our children will succeed. and i've said this before. this upcoming generation, it's smarter, it is more sophisticated, it is more open to differences and has absorbed the food and the culture and the music of each other in ways that are uniquely american. america is exceptional not because of, you know, our military or our economy. more than anything it's exceptional because we have people from all these different walks of life that have gone through all these different experiences and if we can come together as one, if we can get

past some of vestiges of our history, that gives hope not just to future generations of america but to the world. and i've seen that in the younger generation. and the question is now do we have a politics that looks backward and tries to, you know, tamp down this blossoming of amazing, you know, but different young people or do we look forward and give them an opportunity to create the kind of america i think we can have. and i'm banking on the future and i'm banking on young men like this. and that's what will deliver us to the promiseland that i write about in the book. >> president barack obama, thank you so much for your time. >> it's been great. and thank you for having these great young people with us. >> right. and also thank you to jerron

hawkins and thanks to our hosts here at the lincoln theater. i'm jonathan capehart. good night. >> that was great.

♪ bougie like natty in the styrofoam ♪ ♪ squeak-squeakin' in the truck bed all the way home ♪ ♪ some alabama-jamma, she my dixieland delight ♪ ♪ ayy, that's how we do, ♪ ♪ how we do, fancy like, oh ♪ good evening, everybody. we have a lot to get to on this labor day monday. with the unofficial end of summer upon us, i know it's depressing, congress is coming back to session and looking into the maga riots. and news from the