Obama flies off from DC with blast at his successor Trump

Obama flies off from DC with blast at his successor Trump



Former President Barack Obama got in a final dig at his successor on Friday as he said goodbye to his staff and the nation.

Just moments before boarding the same airplane that served him as Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday, Obama told former staffers that their democracy doesn’t end with the beginning of the new administration.

‘This is just a, this is just a, little pit stop. This is, uh, this is not a period, this is a comma, in the continuing story of building America,’ he said to laughter, searching for the appropriate words.





The Obamas are off to California on Special Air Mission 28000, the military aircraft known as Air Force One when the president’s riding on it.

They pulled away from Joint Base Andrews, located just outside of Washington, this afternoon as the new president and his wife attended a congressional luncheon.

Awaiting them at Andrews were 1,800, mostly former members Obama administration, including Denis McDonough, Obama’s former chief of staff; Valerie Jarrett, a family friend and senior adviser in his administration; Susan Rice, his national security adviser; Neil Eggleston, his White House lawyer; Eric Holder, his first attorney general; Gina McCarthy, the former EPA administrator; Jeff Zients, Obama’s National Economic Council head; Jen Psaki, the departing White House communications director; and Josh Earnest, his final spokesman, accompanied by his two-year-old son.



Obama was welcomed with the chant that defined his 2008 candidacy: ‘Yes we can!’

‘This has never been about us. It has always been about you,’ Obama told his staff in the farewell address. ‘And all the amazing things that happened over these 10 years are really just a testament to you.’

The former president told them, ‘You proved the power of hope.’

His wife, Michelle Obama, became teary-eyed as her husband delivered his parting message to the country and to the people diligently worked to enact his agenda.

Networks cut him off five minutes in, split screening with a video feed of President Donald Trump signing his first set of executive orders.

Before they did, Obama noted that he and Michelle had been ‘milking this goodbye thing.’

‘So it behooves me to be very brief,’ he said. ‘NO!’ his audience shouted in response.



Obama recalled the success of their political movement and how ‘a whole bunch’ of his would-be staffers were ‘really young.’

‘And you decided to believe. And you knocked on doors, and you made phone calls, and you talked to your parents – who didn’t know how to pronounce Barack Obama,’ he said with a grin.

‘And you got to know each other, and you went into communities that maybe you'd never even thought about visiting and met people who, on the surface, seemed completely different than you, didn’t look like you or talk like you or watch the same TV programs as you.'

‘Yet once you started talking to them, it turned out that you had something in common, and it grew, and it built, and people took notice. And throughout, it was infused with a sense of hope,’ he said.

The two-term president who was constitutionally mandated to vacate office at 12 pm today said his supporters didn’t flock to his candidacy for higher office in 2007 because of ‘blind optimism. It wasn’t naivety. It wasn’t willful ignorance to all the challenges that America faces. It was hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty.'

‘You proved the power of hope. And throughout this process, Michelle and I, we’ve just been your front men and women. We have been the face, sometimes the voice out front on the TV screen and the microphone. But this has never been about us.’

The former president said he and Michelle ‘could not be prouder’ of their support staff. ‘I could not be prouder. This has been the privilege of my life, and I know I speak for Michelle, as well,’ he said. ‘And we look forward to continuing this journey with all of you. And I can’t wait to see what you do next. And I promise you I’ll be right there with you.’

He closed his remarks with his signature ‘thank you, everybody,’ one last time. ‘Yes we did. Yes we can. God bless America,’ he said, waving to the crowd with each hand.

Obama walked over to his wife, who was standing on stage behind him, and shook her hand, giving her a kiss on the cheek, too.

They left the stage one after another and walked through the airport hanger, the former president stopping for a few hellos and pictures, to the blue and white aircraft that would take them to their next destination – a family vacation.

They held hands, climbed the stairs and posed together at the top, putting a happy face on their exit and signing off with a wave.

The Obamas came to Andrews from the US Capitol on Executive One, the helicopter that’s called Marine One when it carries the president.