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How to Write a Great Speech, According to the Obamas’ Speechwriter

By Liam Freeman

It was the summer of 1998, the end of her junior year of college, when Sarah Hurwitz fell in love with the art form of writing the perfect speech, having scored an internship at the White House in Vice President Al Gore’s speechwriting office. “Every day, his staff used words to move, inspire, comfort, and empower people,” she recalls. “I still can’t imagine a better way to spend a career.”

And what an extraordinary career Hurwitz’s has been. After graduating from Harvard Law School, she became the chief speechwriter for Hillary Rodham Clinton on her 2008 presidential campaign. Eventually, she returned to the White House, serving as the head speechwriter for first lady Michelle Obama and as a senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama between 2009 and 2017.

Here, Hurwitz shares 11 nuggets of speechwriting wisdom that she’s garnered along the way so that you can shine at your next public address, whether that be a televised political debate, a work presentation, or a toast at your best friend’s wedding.

1. Channel the person who is speaking

The true art of speechwriting isn’t scripting someone—it’s channeling their voice. My first step when writing a speech for Mrs. Obama would be to sit down with her and ask, “What would you like to say?” She knows who she is, and she always knows what she wants to say. She’s also a naturally gifted speaker and writer, so I’d transcribe as she talked, forming the basis of the first draft.

2. Research and understand your audience

Who are you talking to? What are they concerned about? Why are you speaking to them? How well do they know you? What’s the venue? If Mrs. Obama was speaking at a university, for example, it was important to understand the history and student body of that university. If you’re giving a toast at your best friend’s wedding, you need to know if you can tell a story that’s a bit edgy or if their family will get offended.

3. Know that structure is destiny

If you have a bad structure, you can’t have a good speech. Every paragraph should flow logically from one to the next. When I’m trying to figure out the structure of a speech, I’ll often print it out and cut it up with scissors so I can move parts around. It’s only then that I realize the order is wrong or I see that I’m repeating myself or I notice that certain passages could be combined.

4. Seek multiple opinions  

It’s really important to ask other people to look at your speech—as many as possible, especially if you’re speaking to a community that you don’t know well. You need to find someone from that audience who understands its cultural sensitivities and norms so you speak in a way that inspires people rather than causing offense.

5. Throw the rulebook out of the window

Writing to be read and writing to be heard are two very different skills. Spoken language doesn’t need to conform to grammar and punctuation norms. I often use ellipses instead of commas to indicate pauses because they’re easier to see. It’s fine to space things weirdly on the page or add notations if it helps you—all that matters is how the words sound coming out of your mouth.

With that in mind, you should edit out loud. Don’t just sit looking at your computer screen—print the speech out, practice delivering it, and edit as you go.

6. Listening is the key to great speaking

There were hundreds of occasions when Mrs. Obama gave me feedback that ultimately influenced how I write. My drafts would be covered in her handwritten edits: “Are the transitions seamless? Is the structure logical? Is this language the most vivid and moving that it can be?” And I would learn from those edits.

As I write, I hear her voice in my head saying things like, “This part is getting bogged down in the weeds,“ “we’re missing the beating heart,” “we’re missing the real human side of this issue.” Hone your ability to identify the weakest parts that aren’t working.

7. Speak like you usually do

It’s fine to ask yourself, “What will make me sound smart or powerful or funny?’”or “What does the audience want to hear?” But your first question should really be, “What is the deepest, most important truth that I can tell at this particular moment?” All too often people focus on how they’re going to say something rather than on what they’re actually going to say.

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Then, when they give a speech, they often take on an overly formal and stiff giving-a-speech voice or they slip into their professional jargon and use words that no one understands. If something feels unnatural or awkward when you say it, go back and rewrite it until it sounds like you.

8. Show, don’t tell

This may sound like a basic writing tip, but it’s rare that people execute this well. If you’re bored during a speech, it’s probably because the person is telling not showing. Mrs. Obama didn’t start her 2016 Democratic National Convention speech by saying: “On my daughter’s first day of school at the White House, I was nervous, afraid, and anxious.” She said: “I will never forget that winter morning as I watched our girls, just 7 and 10 years old, pile into those black SUVs with all those big men with guns. And I saw their little faces pressed up against the window, and the only thing I could think was, What have we done?” It’s such a searing image. Anytime you find yourself using a lot of adjectives, stop, step back, and think about painting a picture for people instead.

9. Don’t let technology get in the way

We’re living in the age of Zoom, and many people are delivering speeches virtually, which creates a whole new set of challenges. The audience often has their cameras turned off, or even if they’re on, there’s a disconnect. For this reason, I’d advise against a lecture-style format on Zoom. Instead, opt for interview style—give your host a set of questions to ask you so you can convey your message. This back-and-forth is more engaging via video calls.

10. Watch the clock

People are distracted today and have limited bandwidth to listen to what you are saying, so it’s really important to focus your message. Do you want them to feel reassured, courageous, fired up? Whatever the emotion, really think about that as you’re writing your speech. As for the length, it depends on your venue. If you’re doing a toast at your best friend’s wedding, keep it to five minutes (it’s not your wedding!), and for a keynote speech, no longer than 20 minutes.

11. Consider the format

Unless you have an incredible memory, don’t put yourself under added pressure by trying to learn your speech by heart. That said, what you read from matters. Some speakers are most comfortable with their speech when it’s written out verbatim. For others, reading a speech word for word feels awkward. Try experimenting with different formats, such as bullet points or cue cards. If you’re printing your remarks out on paper, keep the text on the top two-thirds of the page—otherwise, as you get to the bottom of the page, you’ll have to bend your neck to look down, and you’ll end up swallowing your words and breaking eye contact with your audience.  *Sarah Hurwitz ’s debut book, Here All Along (Penguin Random House), is out now.

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Obama’s former speechwriter reflects on time White House.

Imagine being the speechwriter for the most powerful person in the world. That was  Cody Keenan ’s job. He was the chief speech writer for former President Barack Obama during some of the most pivotal times in modern American history.

Keenan looks back on those days in his new book, “Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America.” It takes readers behind the scenes of the Obama administration for ten days in June 2015, after a horrific shooting at a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Keenan about his new book.

Cody Keenan   was the Senior Advisor and Director of Speechwriting for former President Barack Obama. He is the author of the new book “Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America”

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He wrote for a president. What Cody Keenan can teach you about crafting a great speech

• Weinberg College

Northwestern alumnus Cody Keenan ’02 isn’t psychic — and that’s probably for the best.

If, on June 17, 2015, he knew what the next 10 days held in store, he might have been overwhelmed by the pressure. The dramatic week-and-a-half stretch began with a mass shooting in a Charleston, South Carolina, church and ended with two landmark Supreme Court decisions that changed American life forever. As President Barack Obama’s chief speechwriter, Keenan was in charge of writing speeches, statements and a heart-wrenching eulogy, all in response to the deluge of historic events.

“Luckily, I didn’t have the benefit of foresight,” Keenan said. “I wasn’t burdened by the knowledge of what was coming or how the Supreme Court would rule on marriage equality and the Affordable Care Act. We grappled with these events in real time, just like everyone else.”

Keenan shares his memories of those fateful, fleeting days in his new book “Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America.” The gripping account is so engrossing that readers will forget they already know the outcome of these events. Instead, Keenan creates a wholly immersive narrative that pulls readers into the whirlwind, as hours collapse into seconds and intense pressure reaches a fever pitch.

Now a member of the Northwestern faculty, Keenan teaches a course on speechwriting at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He will participate in two upcoming campus events — a virtual talk on Tuesday, Sept. 27 and an in-person appearance Friday, Oct. 7 , during Homecoming and Reunion Weekend — to reflect on his past experience and share stories from the book, which comes out on Oct. 4.

> Related: Learning to write like a president sounds

Keenan talked to Northwestern Now about writing under pressure, the art of penning a great speech and the importance of embracing empathy to reach diverse audiences.

It has been seven years since those events. Why did you write this book now?

I still worked for President Obama until early 2021, so I had ethical concerns over writing a book that was largely about him while still on his payroll. But I posted a Twitter thread on the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality (Obergefell v. Hodges). I wanted to show America at its best and remind people what this country is capable of. My “tweetstorm” sort of took off, and I realized there might be a book in all of this. 

After writing speeches in Obama’s voice for so long, was it difficult to pivot to your own?

After writing for Obama for so many years, I adopted parts of his worldview. But we have very different writing styles. In general, speechwriting is quite different from writing a book. With speechwriting, you’re writing for the ear, so it needs to be more colloquial. The audience isn’t able to read along with you. You want to keep sentences shorter, so they are easier for the speaker. You also have to add tips and tricks to keep your audience’s attention. Even just adding phrases like “Listen up” or “Now, this is important.” It might sound silly or weird to write that way, but it helps grab attention. In my own writing, I’m a little more blunt. But I can afford to be blunt in ways the president could not.

You had to confront the concept of race after the white supremacist attack in Charleston. As a white man, how did you handle that?

On the outside, Obama and I couldn’t be much more different. But we share a worldview, and that made it easier to get into his head and imagine what he would say if he had the time. That’s easier with policy speeches. With topics surrounding race, it was always tough.

The most important thing about speechwriting — besides being able to string sentences together — is having a sense of empathy. You have to understand your audience and try walking in their shoes. But there are limits to empathy, in terms of imagination. I’ve never been racially profiled, asked for my ID or had to have a conversation with my child about what to do when a police officer approaches you. For speeches like that, I needed more time with Obama before I got started. Ultimately, they’re his words — not mine. Speechwriters are never putting their own views into a speech. So, I tried to get as much guidance from him as I could before beginning. That helped a lot.

What was it like having the president as your editor?

He has very high expectations. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to deliver a good draft because he expected it. But then he could always take that draft to a higher place. Whatever we gave him, he made it better. We just didn’t want him to have to do that work, so we went all out to get him a draft that was up to his standards. The reason our relationship worked so well was because I could give him material that might shake loose another thought. If a sentence was good, he would tack on other ideas to make it great. That’s when we were at our best.

What was the most difficult speech or statement that you had to write?

The eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney and the other victims of the Charleston shooting, for sure. We also had to write statements just in case the Supreme Court ruled against Obamacare or marriage equality. Those were difficult and sad to write. How do you speak to a country where people are grieving because they can’t marry the person they love? Or are about to lose their health insurance? But the Charleston speech was the hardest because it had a few third rails: race, the Confederate flag, guns. And, going into it, we knew everyone would be watching with high expectations. It felt like navigating a minefield, and we just wanted to get to the other side.

How did you cope with that pressure?

I always write better under pressure and with a deadline bearing down on me because there’s no time to overthink. I also had a great support system. My wife (my fiancée at the time) was, and still is, my ultimate supporter. She gives me my best ideas. Our White House was, I think, unique in that more people stayed through the entire presidency than any other. The presidential primary campaign was so long and contentious that we were really forged into a family. We loved each other. That might sound cheesy, but it’s true.

What tips do you have for Northwestern students who want to become speechwriters? 

Take my class! This is such a tough field to break into because of a Catch-22. You need a portfolio of speeches to get a job, but you don’t have a portfolio because you’re just getting started. In my class, students produce 10 different speeches, so they have a collection when they graduate.

If you can’t take my class, talk to professors and deans who give speeches and ask if you can help. Or write some op-eds, which really are like mini-speeches. Just start writing. As with anything else, the more you do it, the better you get.

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Cody Keenan: How I wrote Barack Obama’s speeches

. . .which he then rewrote. the ex-president’s speechwriter reveals their collaborative art.

US president Barack Obama addressing members of the public at Gollege Green, Dublin, during a ceremony as part of his visit to Ireland in May 2011. Photograph: Alan Betson

My family left Ireland for America seven generations ago. To the best of our knowledge, Patrick Keenan left Cork sometime in the 1770s. He was counted in the first American census. His son, Peter Keenan, was born in America. On my mother’s side, John McThomas left Dublin around the same time, fought for America in the Revolution, and was buried in a national cemetery in Ohio.

As far as I know, I was the first in my family, on either side, to return. My first visit was with my best friend back in 2005. We were broke, relied on the kindness of strangers and camped wherever we could – a town park in Kinsale, a beach outside Galway, a farm in Dingle.

My second visit, in May 2011, was a bit different. Surely, it was something my ancestors could not imagine. I flew over in a highly modified 747, crossing the sea they had sailed, with the first black president of a country they helped settle. Hundreds of people were lined up along Moneygall village’s main street, waving Irish and American flags.

Barack Obama is two generations closer to Ireland than I am. And I know people have a laugh at how Moneygall has made the most of that relationship. But it is not a relationship that should be discounted.

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Much has been made of his Kenyan ancestry. But remember, he only met his father twice. He was raised by his white mother and white grandparents. That side of his family is one he holds just as dear. Moneygall’s favourite great-great-great-grandson really does have a soft spot for Ireland and its people. He revealed as much in his address to the people of Ireland that day, delivered to a throng that had gathered along Dublin’s College Green:

It was remarkable to see the small town where a young shoemaker named Falmouth Kearney, my great-great-great-grandfather, lived his early life. He left during the Great Hunger, as so many Irish did, to seek a new life in the New World. He travelled by ship to New York, where he entered himself into the records as a 'labourer'. He married an American girl from Ohio. They settled in the Midwest. They started a family.

It’s a familiar story, one lived and cherished by Americans of all backgrounds. It’s integral to our national identity. It’s who we are – a nation of immigrants from all over the world…

We call it the American Dream. It is the dream that drew Falmouth Kearney to America from a small village in Ireland. It is the dream that drew my own father to America from a small village in Africa. It is a dream that we have carried forward, sometimes through stormy waters, sometimes at great cost, for more than two centuries.

It’s not something he would have imagined when he was a young Chicago politician, bringing up the rear of the St Patrick’s Day parade, followed only by the sanitation workers picking up the pieces. It is not something that, for my first 26 years or so, I could have imagined, either.

Growing up, I had always taken a keen interest in politics, because my parents argued about it on a regular basis – but I began university with plans of becoming a surgeon. Chemistry class altered those plans pretty quickly. I dedicated myself instead to political science, and after graduation, I moved to Washington DC.

Cody Keenan, who served as director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama. ‘In less than 10 years, I went from mailroom intern in Congress to chief speechwriter in the White House,’ he says. Photograph: Lawrence Jackson/The White House

After a dozen failed interviews, I finally became one of 100 interns under someone for whom I will always be grateful: John F Kennedy’s kid brother, Ted. It remains my best political learning experience.

I was at the Democratic Convention in 2004 when a young state senator from Illinois introduced himself to the country. I must have talked about that speech a lot, because that is when I got my shot. One day, my overworked boss poked his head around the corner and asked, “hey, can you write a speech?”

I had never considered speechwriting. But I lied and said yes. I stayed up all night panicking my way through it. That one led to a few more. And eventually, a colleague connected me with senator Obama's chief speechwriter Jon Favreau. We hit it off, and I became an intern all over again, this time in Chicago, on an upstart presidential campaign; this time the only intern.

And as our poll numbers rose, and our crowds grew, so did my opportunities to write. We won and went to the White House. I moved into a West Wing office with Jon. And I never stopped working my tail off so that when he left, and Obama had to choose a new chief speechwriter, I was the only choice to take his place.

In less than 10 years, I went from mailroom intern in Congress to chief speechwriter in the White House.

What goes into a good speech? Well, the first thing I can tell you is that there’s no alchemy to it; no magic formula. It’s more art than science, and after 3,577 speeches in the White House, I admit a lot of it is not art, either. I have been fortunate, though, to work for someone who views it as a craft; as a way to organise his thoughts into a coherent argument and present them to the world. He takes it seriously. He was anonymous when he walked into that Boston hall in 2004, and a political rock star when he walked out. That is what a speech can do.

To this day, by the way, he reminds me that he wrote that one by himself. All the time.

He’s a frighteningly good writer, which makes my job both harder and easier. Harder because I will stay up all night to get him a draft he will be happy with. Easier because if I do not hit the mark, he is there to back me up. And when it came to any speech of consequence, President Obama was actively involved in the product. We would often begin the process for big speeches by sitting down with him in the Oval Office. We called it “The Download”. He would walk us through what was on his mind, what he wanted to say, and we would type as fast as possible.

He would always begin with the question, “what story are we trying to tell?”

Once we got his download, we would get to work, and get him a draft. He would often work on it himself until well past midnight. And this may sound counter-intuitive, but it was always a good thing to hear that he had a lot of edits. It did not mean he disliked what we put down. It meant we gave him what he needed to do the job.

When I was drafting the Charleston eulogy, for example – the speech in which he sang Amazing Grace – I stayed up for three days straight trying to make it perfect. I handed the draft to him the afternoon before the speech and went home to sleep. Right before I turned in, I got an email from him asking me to come back and meet him at 11 o’clock that night.

He told me he liked the first two pages. But he had rewritten the next two pages in just a few hours. It was annoying. Still, I apologised for what I saw as letting him down. But he stopped me and said, “Brother, we are collaborators. You gave me what I needed. The muse hit. And when you have been thinking about this stuff for 40 years, you will know what you want to say, too.”

Jon was good at building the big case and laying out the big argument. That was not my strength. I went for people’s guts. I wanted to build moral and emotional cases. I wanted to make people feel something. A sense of connection. A sense of belonging. A sense of being heard. That’s a pretty important part of storytelling.

And I think the best story we ever told came in a 2015 speech in Selma, Alabama.

In 1965, a group of mostly black Americans set out to march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery to demand their right to vote. They barely made it across the town bridge before their non-violent protest was met with violent resistance. The images shocked the conscience of the country and pushed President Johnson to call for a Voting Rights Act.

The idea that just 50 years later, a black president would return to commemorate what they did was extraordinary enough. We could have gone with a safe, simple speech commemorating the anniversary. People would have understood the symbolism. It would have been enough.

US president Barack Obama walks alongside Amelia Boynton Robinson (second right), one of the original marchers; first lady Michelle Obama; and US Representative John Lewis (second left), Democrat of Georgia, and also one of the original marchers, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches on March 7th, 2015. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

But the week before, a Republican politician went on television and said this: “I know this is a terrible thing to say . . . ” By the way, if you begin a thought that way, you don’t have to finish it. Free advice. But he continued, “I do not believe that the President loves America . . . He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up, through love of this country.”

I was pissed about it. It was more dog whistle nonsense designed to delegitimise the first African American president – and, I might add, the first president to win more than 51 per cent of the vote twice since Dwight Eisenhower almost 60 years earlier.

“No Drama Obama”, true to form, was not ruffled. He thought it was a comment that merited no response. He did, however, think it was an idea worth taking on. Who gets to decide what it means to love America? Who gets to decide who belongs and who does not? Who gets to decide what patriotism is all about? And we came up with the thesis of that speech:

What could be more American than what happened in this place? What could more profoundly vindicate the idea of America than plain and humble people, the unsung, the downtrodden, the dreamers not of high station, not born to wealth or privilege, not of one religious tradition but many, coming together to shape their country’s course?

What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this, what greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?

The rest of that half hour made up my favourite speech. It was our purest collaboration. At one point, I made a joke that our story is too often told, in political speeches at least, as if the Founding Fathers set everything up, some Irish and Italians came over, we beat the Nazis, and here we are. But there is more to our story than that. This felt more complete, more honest. He said well, let’s include some characters from our story. “Go come up with some America.”

I grabbed my speechwriters, and we came up with: “Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, and entrepreneurs and hucksters. Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, and Susan B Anthony, women who could do as much as any man and then some.” We made it a big open casting call:

Immigrants and Holocaust survivors, Soviet defectors, the Lost Boys of Sudan. Slaves and ranch hands and cowboys and labourers and organisers.

The GIs who liberated a continent and the Tuskeegee Airmen, and Navajo code-talkers, and the Japanese Americans who fought for this country even as their own liberty had been denied. The firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9/11. The volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. The gay Americans whose blood ran in the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down that bridge.

The inventors of gospel and jazz and blues, bluegrass and country, and hip-hop and rock and roll, all our very own sound with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.

That’s what America is. Not stock photos or airbrushed history, or feeble attempts to define some of us as more American than others. We respect the past, but we don’t pine for the past. We don’t fear the future; we grab for it. America is not some fragile thing. We are large, in the words of Whitman, containing multitudes.

If there is one Obama speech I could make people watch, that is it. It was the best, most joyous distillation of the way he sees what this country is and can be. It was the idea that through the hard work of self-government, generations of Americans, often young Americans, often without power or title, often at great risk to themselves, have looked upon our flaws and worked to widen the circle of our founding ideals until they include everybody, and not just some.

That is how I see politics. This collective endeavour; the balance between the realism to see the world as it is, and the idealism to fight for the world as it should be anyway.

It was the exhausting, fulfilling work of those 2,922 days in the White House that gave my career meaning. But when I feel the tugging temptation of cynicism, I reach for my proof point that this whole messy endeavour of democracy can work: the 10 most hopeful days I ever saw in politics.

They began in the darkest way imaginable – a mass shooting in the basement of a Charleston church. A black church. It threatened to reopen the kinds of wounds and spark the kinds of recrimination we saw more recently in Charlottesville. But it did not unfold that way. The families of the victims forgave their killer in court. Then, there was a public recognition of the pain that the Confederate flag stirs in so many citizens, and actual introspection and self-examination that we too rarely see in public life, to the point where that flag finally came down from the South Carolina state capitol.

At the same time, it was a week when the supreme court could rule on any case, at any time, with no heads up. So while we worked on the president’s eulogy for Charleston, we were busy drafting several other statements in case he had to speak quickly.

Thursday morning, boom: Obamacare was upheld as constitutional for the second time. Obama spoke. Friday morning, boom: marriage equality becomes a reality in America. Obama spoke. An hour later, we boarded Marine One to fly to Air Force One, which would ferry us to Charleston.

I was still working in his changes to the eulogy for that afternoon. He had added the lyrics to Amazing Grace overnight. And just before he stepped off the helicopter, he turned and said, “you know, if it feels right, I might sing it”. Exhausted, I simply said “okay”. And that night, we returned to a White House that was no longer white – but bathed in the colours of the rainbow. We wrote 10 speeches in those 10 days – plus a few that never had to see the light of day.

Those 10 days were on my mind as I added these words to President Obama’s farewell address:

Ultimately, that's what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there's an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you're tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life. If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and do some organising. If you're disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Persevere. Sometimes you'll win. Sometimes you'll lose. Presuming a reservoir of goodness in others can be a risk, and there will be times when the process disappoints you. But for those of us fortunate enough to have been a part of this work, to see it up close, let me tell you, it can energise and inspire. And more often than not, your faith in America – and in Americans – will be confirmed.

– Cody Keenan is a speechwriter who has worked with former US president Barack Obama for more than a decade. From Whence I Came – The Kennedy Legacy, Ireland and America, is edited by Brian Murphy & Donnacha Ó Beacháin. It is published by Merrion Press and dedicated to the memory of former Irish Times columnist Noel Whelan, 1968-2019

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“If It Feels Right, I Might Sing It”: How Obama’s Most Famous Speech Almost Didn’t Happen

By Cody Keenan

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The day after nine people were slaughtered inside their Charleston, SC church, in June of 2015, would be the fourteenth time President Barack Obama addressed the nation after a mass shooting. The fourteenth time I’d have to find a new way for him to offer some reassurance that the world would keep spinning, even when it was full of holes.

To deliver a statement in the immediate aftermath was a job requirement. To deliver a eulogy or not–that was the question.

I thought back to twenty-six months earlier when Senate Republicans blocked a vote on universal background checks following the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut—with many of the children’s parents looking on—and Obama, as frustrated and cynical as I’d ever seen him, told me, “the next time this happens, I don’t want to speak.” His words could have cracked the planet in half. “What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to say? ‘Well, we tried; we’re just not going to do anything about this anymore?’”

There had been no debate as to whether or not the commander in chief would deliver a eulogy after two subsequent mass shootings on military bases. But after Charleston, I wondered if he’d hold the line he drew that day in 2013.

The circumstances of the massacre at Emanuel AME Church made it a tougher call. Early reports from the scene suggested a racial motivation—a white man murdering nine Black people in a Black church, you didn’t need to be Batman to piece that together. But it had become official when Homeland Security Adviser Lisa Monaco marched into my office the day after the slaughter to relay what cable news didn’t yet know—that the killer had told his victims he had to pull the trigger because they were “taking over our country,” and told police he’d wanted to “start a race war.”

An attack on a place of Black dignity, community, and safety conjured up some of America’s oldest and ugliest demons and echoed the violence visited on Black Americans like Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, four little girls in Birmingham, and untold, unnamed others through centuries of slavery and Jim Crow—violence meant to “keep people in their place,” to instill fear in Americans who posed a “threat” to the established order.

From the television above my desk in the West Wing, I heard a mourner lament, “If we’re not safe in the church, God, you tell us where we are safe.”

By Friday morning, not even two days after that act of terror, whether Obama would travel to Charleston and deliver another eulogy was all anybody wanted to know. Some of the president’s advisors upstairs were pushing for it already.

One of the speechwriters on my team, Sarada Peri , shared my feelings. “I’m with him if he doesn’t want to. It’s not on him alone to fix this every time,” Peri said. “Or you,” she added. “But it’s hard, though. This time is different. This one is way too fucked.”

Even two and a half years into my job as Obama’s chief speechwriter, I agonized over every speech I drafted for him. And this one—this one would be a highwire act that would have to be more than a eulogy, but a balm, a sermon, a way forward. I didn’t know what the right words were yet. Maybe someone smarter did. Maybe someone else should have my job. Neither thought was new to me.

Over the weekend, I received word that Obama didn’t want to go. Everything in my body relaxed. The thought of stressing over another eulogy—especially one as fraught as this could be–had been scaring the shit out of me.

Three days later, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett grabbed my arm as I was walking into Monday morning’s senior advisors meeting in the chief of staff’s office. “I read an interesting piece this weekend on the meaning of the Black church, if POTUS is looking for a different message for the funeral. I’ll send it to you.”

“For the eulogy on Friday.”

My mouth hung open. I couldn’t tell if this meant that it had been decided that Obama would be giving the eulogy and nobody had told me, or if Valerie had decided it without telling anybody.

She filled the silence. “He has to go speak in Charleston. People will expect him to.”

“That’s not a good reason,” I countered. “And before my team starts working on a eulogy that may or may not happen, I need to talk with him.”

“Come on in, people,” Obama’s baritone rang from the Oval Office an hour later.

I led the way and plopped onto the couch opposite the Rose Garden, the fireplace to my left, the Resolute Desk to my right. Communications director Jen Psaki and Jarret took the couch opposite me, Psaki closest to the fireplace, Jarret closest to the Resolute Desk and Obama. Press Secretary Josh Earnest remained on his feet behind them. I avoided their gazes.

The president was standing behind his desk in shirtsleeves, organizing some papers. Were it winter, the sun would be streaming in at a low angle from behind him. But one day after the summer solstice, the sun was bathing from on high the collection of maples, elms, oaks, and magnolia trees that ringed and shaded the lush South Lawn.

“So, look,” he said, “I’ve come around to the idea that I have to go to Reverend Pinckney’s service in Charleston to pay my respects. I want to hug those families. But I don’t really want to talk.”

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Valerie objected. “Mr. President, they’ll expect you to speak.”

Obama raised his arms in an exaggerated shrug. “I have nothing left to say!” He let them fall dramatically until his palms slapped his thighs. Then he looked at me. “Do you?”

I shook my head. “No, sir.”

With his left hand, he pointed at me. “See? Cody doesn’t know what to say either. We have run out of words.” It was, I thought, the first time he’d used me as a human shield. I preferred it to being a punching bag. “I have done this too many times. And it doesn’t have any impact. And I don’t want to perpetrate this notion that, somehow, it’s okay that this is normal.”

“Mr. President,” Earnest said, “I think what the families of the victims did on Friday was pretty extraordinary. That’s something you could talk about if you speak.”

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Obama had seen the powerful video of the Charleston families forgiving their loved ones’ killer, Dylann Roof. The people they loved most had welcomed a stranger into their prayer circle, and it had brought them nothing but horror and death. For the families to forgive that trespass, rather than demand Old Testament justice, was a commitment to faith that I doubted I would be able to summon in my own life.

The president’s shoulders relaxed a bit and he walked around to the front of his desk, sat against it, and crossed his arms.

“Their actions shouldn’t be a surprise,” he said. “I’ve got some experience in the AME Church. Grace and forgiveness are tenets of the AME Church. But I found it very moving. People could learn something from that.” Arms still crossed, he lifted his left forearm to emphasize a point. “But I don’t think people need me to tell them that.”

“You’ll have to say something,” Valerie protested again.

My cheeks were burning. I’d be the one up all night trying to figure out what to say.

But only one person got to vent in the Oval Office. And that was Obama.

“We don’t need to have another ‘conversation about race,’” he said, opening the steam valve a little. “I’m tired of hearing that. We’ve been having that conversation for four hundred years. We talk about race all the time. I gave a whole speech on it in Philadelphia, remember?”

He was referring to the “race speech” he delivered in March of 2008, honestly laying out America’s long racial stalemate in a successful attempt to cool passions in the heat of the presidential campaign.

“We don’t need another race speech,” he continued. “One thing we can do is take down that flag.” By Monday, it was well-known that the killer was a white supremacist obsessed with Confederate iconography.

As he vented, I considered that the public debates around guns, race, even the Confederate flag had been unfolding in a more thoughtful and mature way than usual since Wednesday’s massacre. Maybe the flag’s defenders were quieter than usual after a terror attack was carried out under their banner. The NRA always went silent after a mass shooting. But maybe, just maybe, the grace those families showed with their act of forgiveness had rubbed off on the country in a profound way. It felt as if we were all walking in a different direction than usual, as if their actions had bent history just a little bit, as if maybe they’d opened a brief window in time when we could all be a little better.

A window where maybe, as Obama had said in Selma three months earlier, the South could rise again—not by reasserting the past but by transcending it.

“It wouldn’t hurt to make folks feel good about what those families did,” Obama said. “To show that they ushered in the opposite of what the killer intended.

“If I’m going to do this,” he continued, “that’s what I want to talk about. The concept of grace.

“But let’s use it as a challenge,” Obama continued. “I don’t want to congratulate ourselves too much when we as Americans just allow this shit to keep happening. Talk about guns. Talk about the flag. Talk about the way hundreds of years of racial subjugation and segregation still shape the present. But leave room for the possibility of progress. Leave room for grace.”

Then he pointed at me. “Write it up. Pour a drink and let it rip. If you need some inspiration, read some James Baldwin. Then give it to me, and I’ll work on it if the muse hits. All right?”

A twenty-minute speech isn’t long on paper. About two thousand words. About five hundred words per page. Four pages.

When you have to, when there’s been a disaster or an attack and the president needs to say something as soon as possible, you’d be surprised how quickly you can bang out a page.

But when you’ve got time —when you’re overthinking a speech, intimidated by it, aware everybody wants to see it, your elbows are on your desk and you’re breathing through your hands while you stare at it—an empty page feels like an eternity. Four pages an infinite void.

Staring into that void, I reminded myself that I knew how to do this, that there was a structure to follow for eulogies, and that I already had pieces written in my head. I knew to begin with something from Scripture. But it had to be something powerfully relevant; there could be no faking it at a reverend’s memorial. I knew to have the president speak to the front row first, to the bereaved who’d lost the most—Reverend Pinckney’s widow and his children. Then to those in the next rows, who felt their own loss—Pinckney’s friends, his congregation, his community, his constituents, the people who knew him personally. And only then to the world beyond the pews, to the battery of unblinking lenses that would be broadcasting live on every channel and to all posterity that might someday read these pages–pages that, by midnight on Wednesday, were still blank and begging to be filled.

My time had been consumed by other speeches that my team and I were working on as part of the daily rhythm of the presidency, but also in case of something extraordinary: the Supreme Court was poised to rule any day on Obamacare and marriage equality, and we had to prepare remarks for all outcomes–win or lose.

But even after midnight, with the eulogy on my screen and the West Wing to myself, it still felt like I was building a bridge as I was walking across it, unable to see safe anchor on the other side. There was too much to cover, a confluence of too many strands in our society to braid into a story. Effortlessly accessible guns. The easy self-radicalization of enraged white supremacists. Injustice rooted throughout our institutions such that we couldn’t look at this massacre in isolation—not after Trayvon Martin, not after Freddie Gray and Baltimore, not after Michael Brown in Ferguson and the slew of constitutional rights violations uncovered under the stone of its police department. People in power too timid to seize the solutions that were right there for the taking. And an angry subset of Americans who didn’t want them to.

I saved drafts at one, three, and five o’clock in the morning. It got better each time, but I knew it was still just . . . fine. Full of platitudes. Fine for someone else. Not for Obama. “This is well-written,” he might say, “but . . .”

It felt like my muscles weren’t working, like my body wasn’t mine. The fear of the half swing—the fear of failing him—was the only reason I was still awake.

I needed coffee. But it was 5:45, and the Mess didn’t open until 6:00. So I went for some fresh air. It was light outside. Birds were chirping. It was always jarring to leave my windowless office to discover that night had fallen without my knowledge; it was even weirder now to see that day had broken before I had even slept.

Over the next thirty-six hours, Obama would speak on the fate of health care and marriage equality, and deliver a eulogy to a worldwide audience. The outcome of the cases wasn’t in our control. The eulogy was entirely in our hands. Everybody assumed I was locked away in my office making magic. And I was terrified that I was going to let them down.

“How’s it going, brother,” Obama boomed on Thursday afternoon, his feet up on his desk, face buried behind his iPad. “I haven’t seen anything yet, so I’m just making sure you’re okay.”

“Sorry, sir. It’s getting there. Good shit on health care.” That morning, the Supreme Court had upheld the Affordable Care Act for the second time.

Obama pursed his lips and cocked his head around the iPad as if to say “ Bitch, please. ” “There was never any question we were going to win this one. It feels good, though,” he said, cracking a huge smile. “Those fuckers.”

It was a relief to see him loose when he still hadn’t seen a draft of the next day’s eulogy. Jesus, I thought. Imagine how this conversation would go if we’d lost.

“What are you stuck on?” he asked. “I just want to make sure I don’t get jammed tonight.”

It was a fair concern. For a speech that the press was on high alert for, I should have gotten him something earlier. I told him where I was struggling. He set the iPad on the desk and wrapped his hands behind his head.

“Well,” he said, “here’s what I think you say,” and proceeded to dictate something pretty close to what I already had.

Son of a bitch , I thought, Maybe I got it right after all! I told him we were in good shape, then, and he’d have something before he went home.

Just as I was drifting off that night, my phone rang. It was just after nine o’clock. On the television, the Chicago Cubs were losing, 1-0. I answered and a woman’s voice said, as matter-of-factly as possible, “Please hold for the president.”

“Okay.” Five long seconds of silence passed.

“I’m done working, but it might take you some time to make my edits, so why don’t you come by at ten and I’ll walk you through them.”

“I’ll be there.”

I didn’t bother putting a suit on, just a collared shirt and blazer, and drove back down 14th Street to the White House.

I walked from the West Wing onto the Colonnade, along the Rose Garden still in full bloom, past the point where I’d watched Obama speak on the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision just ten hours before, and through the double doors of the Residence.

Walking down the red carpet of the center hall, I showed my badge to the Secret Service and walked up a hidden stairwell to the private residence. Rather than continue up to Obama’s quarters, I stopped on the first floor. He almost always came down to meet me in the office that the White House ushers used, nestled between the old family dining room and the central foyer where presidents and First Ladies would make their grand entrance for state dinners.

Obama never snuck up on me. I could hear the flip-flop of the leather sandals he wore when off duty coming down the marble stairs for a good ten seconds before he appeared.

“Hey, brother.” He was wearing gray jeans and a white polo shirt, and carrying the gray folder in which I’d put his remarks. His briefing folders were color-coded; speech drafts went into gray manila folders emblazoned with “presidential statement” across the front. “Have a seat.”

He pulled out a stack of papers. He’d edited the first two pages of my four-page draft by hand, a little heavier than usual, with a few deletions and several additions. Pages three and four were untouched—save for a giant line through each, from the lower left corner to upper right.

He’d deleted both pages in their entirety. He’d never done that to me before. Ever.

In their place, he handed me three yellow legal pages filled with his handwriting. The muse had hit, and hard. He’d erased an all-nighter’s worth of work in two seconds and rewritten it in two hours.

Over fifteen minutes, he walked me through his edits and his writing, his long finger tracing each line from his neat cursive addition to its new home in the text. That wasn’t novel—the most powerful man in the world always took the time to explain his thoughts to his speechwriters, and we always appreciated it.

He asked me to have a new version incorporating his edits and his guidance ready for him by nine in the morning and stood up to leave. He didn’t seem the least bit disappointed. He almost never did, but it felt strange that he didn’t this time, after I’d had a whole four days to write.

I followed him out toward the Cross Hall and stopped him when he was about three steps up the stairs.

“Hey. I’m sorry I couldn’t get this right.” I felt I’d failed him, more than I had in a long while. He turned and looked at me, walked back down the steps, and did something rare: He rested a hand on my shoulder.

“Brother, we’re collaborators. You gave me the scaffolding I needed to build something here. You’ll recognize your work in what I wrote. And trust me, when you’ve been thinking about this stuff for forty years, you’ll know what you want to say too. All right?”

“All right.”

Grace, it appeared, was contagious.

I poured a bourbon and opened the gray manila folder of edits.

What he’d done to the speech was extraordinary. And he’d said he had nothing to say.

It took me three hours to make his changes.

On Friday morning, Obama spoke in a jubilant Rose Garden after the Supreme Court found a right to marriage equality. Minutes later, we were on board Marine One en route to the memorial service in Charleston. As the helicopter taxied to a stop about fifty yards from the nose of Air Force One, Obama snapped the cap back on his pen, stacked the pages of the fresh draft he’d been editing in his lap, and handed them to me.

“Do one more version and let me see it one last time.” I hated it when he did that. It meant more stress—spending an entire flight frantically inputting the insertions; printing and delivering that new draft to him, then waiting for a final version that would arrive as we were landing; pecking in his edits at an awkward angle while sitting between two other staffers in a van; and praying the cellular coverage was good enough to email a final version of the speech to advance staff onsite who would load it into the teleprompter and print a copy for the podium before it was time for him to hit the stage. It was a multi-act play.

He stood up, ducking under the ceiling as he buttoned his coat, and looked down at me. “You know, if it feels right, I might sing it.”

Obama started speaking at 2:49 p.m., a little over an hour behind schedule.

“Giving all praise and honor to God,” he adlibbed.

He didn’t wait—he immediately adopted his preacher voice and cadence, drawing out the vowels, emphasizing the first syllable of certain words.

The Reverend Obama began to preach, and the eulogy became less a speech than a collective endeavor, the president and the faithful feeding off each other.

“Ohhhhhhhh”—Obama drew out the word with a tinge of knowing laughter—“but God works in mysterious ways, doesn’t He?

“As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us, for he has allowed us to see where we’ve been blind…blind to the pain that the Confederate flag stirred in too many of our citizens…blind to the way past injustices continue to shape the present…blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation…we see that now.”

Parked at my laptop for days, I’d done what I could. Armed with a pen over hours, he’d done what I couldn’t. It was less him taking the baton to finish the race—that would imply we ran equally impressive legs—than it was me setting up base camp while he climbed the mountain.

He’d turned the text into a script, a sheet of music, a piece of American art on display in a striking scene: a Black president, backed by Black bishops, eulogizing a Black victim to a crowd of mostly Black mourners. A Black church service on national television. How often did America see something like this? How often was something like this a quintessentially American event?

Over thirty-nine minutes, Obama delivered a stirring vision of progressive change, religious faith, and American exceptionalism, joined and made indelible through the stately bearing of a president who had the unapologetic cadence of a preacher until they were all one and the same.

He’d long since grown into being president. We were watching him make the presidency bigger in real time. And there was one act left.

“That’s what I’ve felt this week—an open heart. That, more than any particular policy or analysis, is what’s called upon right now, I think, what a friend of mine, the writer Marilynne Robinson, calls ‘that reservoir of goodness, beyond, and of another kind, that we are able to do each other in the ordinary cause of things.’

“That reservoir of goodness.”

“Mmm hmm,” added one of the bishops behind him.

“If we can find that grace . . .”

“Uh huh . . .”

“. . . anything is possible.”

“If we can tap that grace, everything can change.”

Fewer than a dozen people in the world knew what was about to happen.

“Amazing grace.”

He paused, then repeated the words for good measure. “Amazing grace.”

Obama looked into the distance, looked down at the text, and shook his head.

Eleven seconds went by. It was a moment of genuine drama. Was he making up his mind? Was he going to take the leap of faith?

I wondered what people who were watching must be thinking:

Had he lost his place?

Then he began to sing.

After the first two syllables, “Ah-maaaay,” one of the bishops laughed in astonishment. But it was too early for most of the world to know for sure what Obama was doing.

Obama leaned into the next two syllables—“ZIIII-iiii-iiiing graaaaaaace”—to make damn sure they knew.

The choir leaped to its feet, then the entire congregation.

By the time Obama hit “how sweet the sound,” the whole arena was singing with him. The organist jumped in at “a wretch like me.” The drummer tapped his cymbals with a light touch, but so fast his sticks became a blur, creating a sustained swell of “tsssssssssss.” The horn section began to blow. The guitarist uncorked a blues riff. Obama’s bet, that he wouldn’t be left alone, had paid off.

My White House colleagues, checking their email in the makeshift office under the bleachers, unaware of the plan Obama had revealed on Marine One, shouted at each other, “Is he singing ?” then ran to the entrance to the arena floor.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind but now I see.

Obama was someone practiced in precision, from the food he consumed to the speeches he delivered. He was a self-proclaimed better speechwriter than his speechwriters; he self-diagnosed as having great comedic timing; he once boasted “I’m LeBron, baby,” about his political skill.

But to sing this song, on this occasion, was something different altogether. Women may have fawned over him once when he crooned the opening bars of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” at a fundraiser. B.B. King and Mick Jagger may have coerced him once to howl “Sweet Home Chicago” at a White House concert broadcast on PBS. But this was a much bigger stage. Millions in a divided country and around the world would be watching.

It was a much bigger leap of faith.

From Grace by Cody Keenan. Copyright © 2022 by Cody Keenan. Reprinted by permission of Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

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Former Obama Speechwriter Recounts the Real Story Behind 'Amazing Grace' Speech: 'Then He Began to Sing'

Speechwriter Cody Keenan writes in his new book that the now-iconic eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney — delivered after a 2015 church massacre — was straight from the president's heart

While Barack Obama had a seasoned group of speechwriters helping him come up with the words to mark both celebratory and solemn occasions, the former president has well-known oratorial skills of his own. One of his most iconic speeches as president, in fact, was apparently all him.

That's according to Obama speechwriter Cody Keenan, who writes in his new book, Grac e, that the now-iconic eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney — delivered in the wake of the 2015 massacre that killed nine at the Emanuel AME Church — was straight from the president's heart.

As Keenan writes in his book, which was excerpted in Vanity Fair , the eulogy marked the 14th time President Obama would address the nation following a mass shooting. As such, the president and his staff weren't sure how much they could offer a grieving community.

"The next time this happens, I don't want to speak," Keenan recalls Obama telling him after Senate Republicans blocked a vote on universal background checks following the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

So Keenan had his work cut out for him when it came to delivering a eulogy for a beloved South Carolina reverend — also a state senator — who was gunned down in an allegedly racially motivated spree.

In a meeting ahead of the speech, Keenan writes that Obama determined he wanted to focus on "the concept of grace."

"But let's use it as a challenge," Obama continued, Keenan writes. "I don't want to congratulate ourselves too much when we as Americans just allow this s--- to keep happening. Talk about guns. Talk about the flag. Talk about the way hundreds of years of racial subjugation and segregation still shape the present. But leave room for the possibility of progress. Leave room for grace."

Keenan got to work, writing a roughly 2,000-word, four-page speech overnight. The next day, he heard from the president.

Obama, Keenan writes, had heavier edits than usual. Two of the four pages had been entirely stricken, with the other two full of handwritten notes.

"You gave me the scaffolding I needed to build something here," Obama told him. "You'll recognize your work in what I wrote."

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The next day, the team was en route to Charleston for Obama to deliver the eulogy. After one more round of edits aboard Air Force One, the final version of speech was emailed to staff onsite, loaded onto a teleprompter and printed for the podium.

But there would be more revisions — these, however, would come from the president himself, while speaking onstage.

"You know, if it feels right, I might sing it," Keenan recounts Obama saying as he made his way off the plane that day.

What happened next was moving and historic.

Onstage at Charleston's TD Arena, Obama simultaneously memorialized the fallen pastor and called for Americans to examine race relations and gun control laws, using the concept of grace as a thread throughout the lengthy speech.

Near the end of the 39-minute speech, he got to the heart of the text.

"If we can tap that grace, everything can change," Obama said.

"Amazing grace," he continued, repeating the words once more for emphasis: "Amazing grace."

And then, he launched into the hymn, singing the opening lines of "Amazing Grace" before the entire congregation joined in.

"By the time Obama hit 'how sweet the sound,' the whole arena was singing with him," Keenan writes. "The organist jumped in at 'a wretch like me.' The drummer tapped his cymbals with a light touch, but so fast his sticks became a blur, creating a sustained swell of 'tsssssssssss.' The horn section began to blow. The guitarist uncorked a blues riff. Obama's bet, that he wouldn't be left alone, had paid off."

As Keenan recounts, the unrehearsed and unplanned moment was met with shock by White House staffers, who, "unaware of the plan Obama had revealed on Marine One, shouted at each other, 'Is he singing ?' then ran to the entrance to the arena floor."

It wasn't Obama's first time singing onstage, as the former president made headlines when singing the opening bars of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" at a fundraiser.

"But to sing this song, on this occasion, was something different altogether ... this was a much bigger stage," Keenan writes.

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Jon Favreau, President Obama’s head speechwriter, is departing

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WASHINGTON — Jon Favreau’s career took off when, at age 23, he interrupted U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama during a speech rehearsal to offer some suggestions for improvement.

That cheeky move led to a seven-year tour as Obama’s lead speechwriter, an assignment that ends March 1 as Favreau considers trying his hand at another form of drama — as a screenwriter, perhaps in Los Angeles.

The departure subtracts a vivid personality from the president’s operation, defined since the beginning by Obama’s spoken words and the team that wrote them.

After Favreau landed in the White House four years ago, he became the most recognizable in a coterie of young staffers. Sporting aviator sunglasses and a buzz cut, he occasionally lit up social media with his antics.

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People magazine named him one of the world’s most beautiful people. He went out with actress Rashida Jones, best known for her role in “The Office.” One night, as he and some friends played a shirtless game of beer pong in Georgetown, someone snapped a photo that ended up on the blog FamousDC, with the headline: “White House Gone Wild.”

But about the writing, Favreau was always serious, telling peers it was a solemn responsibility to remain in sync with the president’s thinking.

“When they’re working together, it’s like watching two musicians riff,” said David Axelrod, Obama’s longtime advisor. “Jon’s stamp is on all of the great speeches, from 2005 until now.”

Favreau will turn over his seat to Cody Keenan, a Chicago native who is taking the lead on writing the State of the Union address. Keenan is an original member of the team of twentysomethings that Favreau assembled for a tough assignment: writing for a writer with exacting standards.

Favreau declined Monday to discuss his departure.

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In a statement, Obama said, “He has become a friend and a collaborator on virtually every major speech I’ve given in the Senate, on the campaign trail and in the White House.”

They didn’t start off as collaborators. Obama was an Illinois state senator running for the U.S. Senate when they met in 2004. He was preparing to deliver the Democratic National Convention speech that would launch his national career. Favreau was working as a junior speechwriter for the party’s presidential nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who is from Favreau’s home state.

Kerry’s staff had spotted an overlap between Obama’s speech and the one their boss planned to deliver, and they sent Favreau to tell Obama to trim his text.

“It was an unbelievably cruel thing to do, to send the 23-year-old in to do that job,” Axelrod joked.

After Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate, he hired Favreau. Favreau then moved to Obama’s 2008 campaign and into the White House, where he earned a reputation as someone who could write speeches and parry with senior officials and Cabinet secretaries who wanted to put their fingerprints on the work.

If there were any doubts about him, Favreau quickly dispelled them when he wrote the first inaugural address and the president’s healthcare speech to Congress, said David Plouffe, a longtime Obama advisor.

PHOTOS: President Obama’s second inauguration

“Jon wasn’t going to come in with a draft that was not Barack Obama-like,” Plouffe said. “The president never has to worry that he’s going to get something and have to say, ‘This isn’t my voice.’”

Keenan is known for his handling of heartbreak and sadness. He was the lead writer on Obama’s speech at the Tucson memorial after the shooting of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

Favreau plans to stay in Washington for a while, but he has often told friends that he wants to pursue screenwriting, as did former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett, the co-creator of the new comedy “1600 Penn.”

His time in the White House should serve Favreau well, Plouffe said.

“He can write comedy, history, drama, suspense,” he said. “He’s got the whole range.”

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Jon Favreau on Speechwriting, Life After D.C. ... and Melania Trump

By David Hochman

• July 21, 2016

LOS ANGELES — Stretched out on his living-room couch here, Jon Favreau watched Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention on Monday night with little more than a passing interest, since he was already thinking of bed and an early flight the next morning.

At that point, as a former speechwriter for the Obama White House, he was still marveling at the parade of speakers who had passed earlier on his TV screen, including Antonio Sabato Jr. and Scott Baio, with Donald J. Trump emerging W.W.E.-style in a bright fog to the sounds of Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”

It could not get any more surreal, he remembers thinking at the time.

And then it did.

About 8:30, around a half-hour after Ms. Trump’s speech ended, Mr. Favreau noticed on his Twitter feed that someone had retweeted a post from the journalist Jarrett Hill stating that there were striking similarities between the speech that had just been given and the one that Michelle Obama had delivered in Denver at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

That prompted him to rewatch Mrs. Obama’s speech. “When I saw ‘word is your bond’ from Melania’s speech, I instantly recognized the phrase from Michelle’s,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. Mr. Favreau had already tweeted his own reaction to his 121,000 followers, starting with an expletive and adding: “They’re nearly identical. Someone is seriously fired.”

Mr. Favreau certainly had reason to be interested. As the chief speechwriter for the 2008 Obama campaign, Mr. Favreau had hired the woman who wrote Mrs. Obama’s address. But the incongruity did not stop there.

As he tweeted a few minutes later: “Sarah Hurwitz, Michelle’s head speechwriter, used to be Hillary’s. So the Trump campaign plagiarized from a Hillary speechwriter.”

For Mr. Favreau (not to be confused with the actor of the same name ), it was an unexpected moment back in the political fray, one he thought he had largely left behind. In March 2013, feeling burned out, he left the president’s inner circle after eight years of hope, change and writing cheesy jokes for the turkey pardons .

He and some fellow D.C. exiles now run a communications consulting firm in Los Angeles, Fenway Strategies , and he has been emerging from the ghostwriter shadows with opinions of his own.

In many ways, Los Angeles is the un-Washington for Mr. Favreau. “It’s an industry town, but it’s not really my industry,” he said, although he occasionally toys with the idea of screenwriting. “People here talk about things other than government policy, like technology, sports and, you know, ‘The Bachelor.’”

Mr. Favreau, 35, still eats and breathes politics. He has a weekly podcast on The Ringer, a digital venture started last month by Bill Simmons, the sports columnist who was editor in chief of the website Grantland , which shut down last fall. Mr. Favreau pops up to talk politics on MSNBC or with Chelsea Handler on Netflix , looking tanned and relaxed (“Your girlfriend told me not to sleep with you,” Ms. Handler said as they hugged goodbye).

“ Keepin’ It 1600 ,” the podcast Mr. Favreau hosts with Dan Pfeiffer, another former Obama adviser , is a combination wonkfest on election minutia and uncensored forum. Expletives fly freely, and “insane” is perhaps the most frequent word used to characterize Mr. Trump.

“Jon can talk like an actual person rather than one of those tightly wound D.C. dudes in pleated khakis and a blue shirt,” said Jon Lovett, who has been a guest on the show. Mr. Lovett, a writer and producer for TV shows like “1600 Penn” and “The Newsroom,” also worked as a speechwriter under President Obama.

It was 2004 when Mr. Favreau first encountered his future boss at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Having gotten his start in Washington in Senator John Kerry’s press office through an internship at the College of the Holy Cross, Mr. Favreau, at 22, was suddenly charged with the excruciating task of informing the senatorial candidate from Illinois that he had to remove a rousing line from his keynote address that Senator Kerry wanted to use. Mr. Obama was not pleased, but he made the change.

Mr. Favreau joined Mr. Obama’s team a year later, and in 2009, he became the second-youngest chief White House speechwriter in history.

With his Ben Affleck smile and smidgen of a Mass Pike accent to match (he grew up just outside Boston, in Winchester), Mr. Favreau made the gossip pages with uncomfortable regularity.

He and the actress Rashida Jones were spotted dashing into his Dupont Circle apartment building. During the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, a photo surfaced of him , shirtless and with a buzz cut, playing a drinking game at a Georgetown bar.

More notorious was the Facebook shot someone posted of Mr. Favreau groping a cardboard cutout of the incoming secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Her office let him off gracefully, but Mr. Favreau learned an important policy lesson. “Don’t act like a moron,” he said.

Over old-fashioneds at Soho House West Hollywood, the private members’ club down the block from his apartment (“This is sort of my second office,” he said), Mr. Favreau appeared fit and happy in a gray T-shirt, jeans and crisp maroon Vans.

The go-go life that had him on call 24/8 in Washington has given way to staring at his phone while in gym clothes yelling about Trump University. “I decided to write for The Ringer partly because it gives me a platform, but also because people come dressed to work, and it’s not just my goldendoodle I’m talking to,” he said.

His circle in general is tighter than it once was. Mr. Favreau’s brother, Andy, an actor, lives across the street. Mr. Lovett, also a neighbor, said he lives close enough “to access Jon’s Sonos system from my couch to play my entrance music.”

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Mr. Favreau became engaged to his live-in girlfriend of four years, Emily Black , who works on nonprofits for Sunshine Sachs, the public relations consultancy. “The culture of L.A. has mellowed Jon a little, but he’ll still wake me up at 6 a.m. to tell me whatever ridiculous thing Trump just said,” she said.

He was on a trip to Los Angeles for a 2009 fund-raising dinner with President Obama at George Clooney’s house when it struck Mr. Favreau that there was more to life than drafting floor statements on Patriot Act reauthorization. As Mr. Favreau put it, “It was hard to have a real relationship, I didn’t sleep a lot, and there was the Christmas I told my parents, ‘Let’s hurry up and open presents because I have an inaugural address to write.’”

Cody Keenan , the director of speechwriting since Mr. Favreau’s departure, said, “This job is great but exhausting, and I completely understand why he needed to step away.” Mr. Keenan said he still texts with Mr. Favreau nearly every day and consults with him on speeches and the perspective that comes with living outside the Beltway.

Even without a political post (Mr. Favreau said he had no plans to return to Washington), he believes he plays an important role in supporting the Democrats this campaign season. Although he came to “despise” Mrs. Clinton in 2008, he learned to appreciate how well informed and hard-working she was as secretary of state. Today he says he is a fan.

“I believe, with Hillary, that we are stronger together,” he said, “and that this country is a better place when you expand the opportunities to every single person: rich, poor, Muslim, Mexican, gay, woman.”

Mr. Favreau caught himself slipping into speechmaking mode and laughed.

“Whatever I do in life, I end up in the same place,” he said. “Writing about politics, talking about politics. I tried to quit. I can’t quit.”

An article last Sunday about the former White House speechwriter Jon Favreau referred incorrectly to the political office held by Barack Obama when he spoke at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He was a candidate that year for the United States Senate seat from Illinois; he had not yet been elected to that post.

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Revisiting Obama's Historic 'Race Speech' 12 Years Later

Sam Sanders

Anjuli Sastry Krbechek

Kitty Eisele

Hafsa Fathima

Then Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama delivers his speech 'A More Perfect Union,' in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008. Matt Rourke/ASSOCIATED PRESS hide caption

Then Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama delivers his speech 'A More Perfect Union,' in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008.

In 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama delivered a speech that many say saved his presidential campaign. Titled "A More Perfect Union," it addressed his thoughts about how Americans experience race and racism, and about how he understands both, as the son of black and white parents with relatives of many ethnicities. Obama gave the speech in response to the release of videotaped comments from his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in which the minister lambasted America's foreign policies and treatment of minorities, especially African-Americans.

But it was also an urgent call for racial harmony. Candidate Obama emphasized that both white and black communities had valid arguments about their place in America.

On the speech's 12-year anniversary, Sam investigates whether its message holds up. He talks to Jon Favreau, host of Pod Save America and Obama's former speechwriter, about the process of writing the speech.

Then, Professor Tracey Sharpley Whiting, who edited a book about the speech, talks about its impact today. Also featured is Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and principal at Black Futures Lab, discussing why Obama's words do not fully address the depth of racial discrimination. Sam also talks to his former classmate, Jasmine Beach Ferrara, who remembers watching the speech live in class with Sam.

Obama speechwriter recounts 10 monumental days in new book "Grace"

A white supremacist shooting and an astonishing act of forgiveness. A national reckoning with race and the Confederate flag. The fate of marriage equality and the Affordable Care Act. "Grace" is the propulsive story of ten days in June 2015, when Obama and his chief speechwriter Cody Keenan composed a series of high-stakes speeches to meet a succession of stunning developments.

Cody Keenan rose from a campaign intern in Chicago to become chief speechwriter at the White House and Barack Obama’s post-presidential collaborator. A sought-after expert on politics, messaging, and current affairs, he is a partner at leading speechwriting firm Fenway Strategies and teaches a popular course on political speechwriting at his alma mater Northwestern University.

3 presidents, celebrity performances and protester interruptions at Biden campaign's $26M fundraiser

President Joe Biden was joined Thursday by two of his Democratic predecessors for a star-studded fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall that his campaign said brought in more than $26 million.

Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton participated in the event in New York with more than 5,000 supporters in attendance — including several protesters who interrupted the program when the three presidents were speaking.

Actor and comedian Mindy Kaling hosted the program, which ended at around 10 p.m., and late night host Stephen Colbert moderated a conversation with Biden, Clinton and Obama. Special guests include celebrities like Queen Latifah, Lizzo , Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele.

During the nearly hourlong moderated conversation, Colbert joked that the moment was historic because “three presidents have come to New York, and not one of them to appear in court,” taking a jab at former President Donald Trump’s criminal indictments and civil trials.

Clinton also took a swipe at Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, arguing that he "had a good couple of years because he stole them from Barack Obama.”

But the discussion was interrupted at least five times by protesters. Colbert acknowledged one protester and asked Biden about the U.S. role in ensuring a peaceful and prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Biden said more needed to be done to get relief into Gaza but added that Israel's very existence was at stake.

"There has to be a train for a two-state solution," Biden said. "It doesn’t have to carry today. There has to be a progression. And I think we can do that."

His response was met with a standing ovation and chants of "four more years."

Obama sternly addressed a protester when he was interrupted, saying, "You can’t just talk and not listen."

"That’s part of democracy," Obama added. "Part of democracy is not just talking. It’s listening. That’s what the other side does, and it is important for us to understand that it is possible to have moral clarity and have deeply held beliefs but still recognize that the world is complicated and it is hard to solve these problems."

The crowd erupted in applause.

Biden’s team has taken steps to minimize disruptions , including making events smaller and withholding exact locations longer than usual, after a speech in January when pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted him about a dozen times.

Outside the New York venue Thursday, more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters chanted slogans like “Biden, Biden, you’re a liar,” and waved Palestinian flags and signs with anti-war messages.

The group Abandon Biden encouraged people to protest the president during his visit over the White House’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

“We cannot idly sit by as our president aides and abets genocide in Gaza,” the group’s New York co-chair Mosaab Sadia said in a statement. “The movement to Abandon Biden is only just beginning.”

Inside Radio City Music Hall, the novelty of having three presidents in the same room was not lost on attendees.

Earlier in the program, Kaling joked about having Biden, Obama and Clinton in the same room, saying that when someone shouts “Mr. President,” three people turn around.

Ticket prices started at $250, but the largest contributions shot up to half a million dollars. Some of the biggest donors were to have their pictures taken with all three presidents by photographer Annie Leibovitz.

First lady Jill Biden called the program “the fundraiser to end all fundraisers.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also delivered remarks.

For the three presidents, the fundraiser capped off a day of mobilization efforts that included sitting for an interview with the podcast "SmartLess," which the White House said would be available at a later, unspecified date.

They also sat for a discussion with Biden's campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, which was streamed to grassroots donors. The presidents talked about re-election efforts — both Clinton and Obama served two terms — as well as lighter topics, like favorite ice cream favors.

"You're all part of an incredible team we're building, and we're just getting started," Biden said in his closing message during the discussion. "So let's keep going. Let's win this November."

The trio arrived at Radio City Music Hall together in "The Beast" — the president’s car in the motorcade.

Biden also invited Obama to ride in The Beast after he landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where they enjoyed catching up on their personal and professional lives, an aide to Obama told NBC News.

The show of unity among Biden, Clinton and Obama stands in stark contrast to Trump, who faces opposition from members of his own administration , including former Vice President Mike Pence , as he seeks a return to the White House in November.

Former President George W. Bush — the only other Republican former president — declined to support Trump in 2020.

The Trump campaign has not held a major event since March 16. Earlier Thursday, Trump attended the wake for a New York police officer who was shot and killed in Queens on Monday.

Biden and Trump are polling neck-and-neck, with 46% of voters supporting Trump and 45% supporting Biden, according to a March poll by CNBC . That poll, however, had Trump leading Biden by 30 percentage points when respondents were asked which candidate was the best on economic issues.

During Thursday's moderated discussion, Colbert asked Clinton what he would say to voters who do not feel like the economy is strong. Clinton answered that the 2008 recession and Covid are still affecting voters and that Trump did not sustain economic growth spurred by Obama. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have methodically "put Humpty Dumpty back together again," Clinton said.

"We should not make 2016's mistake again," he added, referring to when Trump defeated his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Mike Memoli is an NBC News correspondent. 

Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.

‘A positive story to tell’: Obama and Clinton rip Trump, boost Biden at $26M NYC campaign fundraiser

Barack Obama and Bill Clinton joined President Joe Biden Thursday night in New York at the most lucrative fundraiser of the 2024 campaign, warning fellow Democrats that Donald Trump must be defeated while making forceful cases for Biden's reelection.

Appearing on stage together at Radio City Music Hall , the former presidents defended Biden's record in a push to rally Democrats around not just beating Trump but allowing Biden to continue his agenda.

"Joe is absolutely right that we've got not just a nominee, but frankly a party and an entire infrastructure that increasingly seems unconcerned with the essence of America," Obama said of Trump and Republicans, "the idea of self-governance and the possibilities of us all fully operating and bridging our differences and moving forward.

"But we also have a positive story to tell about the future."

The three presidents took turns taking questions during an "armchair conversation" moderated by Stephen Colbert, host of CBS' "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Obama: 'Sometimes we forget where we started'

The Biden campaign fundraiser , which attracted a sold-out crowd of more than 5,000 donors , raised more than $26 million, the most ever for a single fundraiser in U.S. political history, according to the campaign.

"It's not just the negative case against the presumptive nominee on the other side. It's the positive case for somebody who's done an outstanding job," Obama said . "Sometimes we forget where we started, and where we are now. You've got record-breaking job growth. You've got an unemployment rate that is as low as it has been."

The rare showing of three Democratic presidents presented a united front to help Biden bring together a Democratic coalition that has shown signs of splintering.

Most polls show Biden trailing Trump, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee, in a head-to-head contest, in part because Biden is underperforming among Black, Latino, and young voters − three crucial constituencies of the Democratic base.

"I think our democracy is at stake − not a joke. I think democracy is literally at stake," Biden said. "Think about the things (Trump) has said, think about the things he wants to do."

Biden added: "We’re at a real inflection point in history. Things are changing. This guy denies there is global warming. This guy wants to get rid of not only Roe v. Wade − by the way which he brags about having done − he wants to get rid of the ability of anyone anywhere in America to have the right to choose. All the things he's doing are so old."

Clinton said voters should put aside their differences given the stakes of the race. "Talking about the defense of democracy not only begs support for President Biden but also begs the question of: Why are we even arguing about some of this stuff?"

Clinton on Biden: He 'deserves another term'

Clinton made an economic pitch for Biden, who has struggled to get credit for an improving economy. Clinton accused Trump while in office of taking credit for an economy that had started improving under Obama and said Biden later inherited "a mess" left by Trump.

"All of a sudden, Joe Biden comes along and creates roughly twice as many jobs," Clinton said. "So I believe in keeping score. Not in a vindictive way but in a positive way. He's been good for America and he deserves another term."

The fundraiser was limited to the president's traveling pool press and not open to all reporters. No television cameras were allowed, consistent with the policy of all Biden fundraisers.

"This is an especially exciting and rare occasion. Three presidents have all come to New York, and not one of them is here to appear in court," Colbert said in a jab at Trump.

Biden closed out the fundraiser by embracing a meme that mocks a favorite attack line of Trump supporters. "By the way, Dark Brandon is real," Biden said as all three presidents and Colbert each put on aviator sunglasses.

Gaza protesters interrupt fundraiser

Ahead of the show, supporters lined barricades along the streets as the motorcade with the three presidents arrived. A large group of pro-Palestinian protesters also gathered outside Radio City Music Hall, a visible reminder of the pressure from the left that Biden faces in his reelection bid.

Multiple protesters interrupted the presidents as they talked about the war in Gaza with Colbert. "Blood on your hands," some yelled. "You can’t just talk and not listen,” Obama snapped back to one of the protesters. "That’s what the other side does."

Addressing Israel's war against Hamas, Biden said the U.S. must work to get more food, medicine and supplies to Palestinians. He said it's "understandable Israel has such a profound anger" after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. "They weren't killed. They were massacred," Biden, said, but added that Israel must do more to limit civilian causalities in its response.

"We must, in fact, stop the effort that is resulting in significant deaths of innocent civilians, particularly children," Biden said.

Star-studded lineup

Obama traveled with Biden on Air Force One from Washington to New York earlier in the day. They joined Clinton in the afternoon for a recording of the podcast SmartLess, hosted by actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett.

The fundraiser was a star-studded affair. In addition to Colbert, actress Mindy Kaling, star of "The Office" and "The Mindy Project," hosted the program, which featured musical guests Lizzo, Queen Latifah, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and first lady Jill Biden also delivered remarks.

Lizzo performed her hit song "About Damn Time." Queen Latifah sang "U.N.I.T.Y." Kaling joked that she is getting older, but compared to Biden, Obama and Clinton, she looks like a “cast member on 'Euphoria,'" referring to the HBO series.

"The reason we are here is to reelect President Joe Biden," Kaling said.

"We got three presidents in the house. That sounds like a p-p-p-party to me!" Lizzo said .

Trump, who was also in New York Thursday, attended a wake in the afternoon for Jonathan Diller, a New York City police officer, who was shot and killed during a traffic stop Monday.

In a fundraising email before the event, Trump wrote, "Tonight all hell breaks loose! In a few short hours, the FIRST EVER Democrat fundraiser with Obama, Bill Clinton, and Crooked Joe Biden will begin. Hundreds of deranged Hollywood liberals will be in attendance, and they will open their wallets to fund the DESTRUCTION OF OUR COUNTRY!"

Protesters interrupt Biden, Obama, Clinton at $25 million New York fundraiser

LIZZO, $500,000 TICKETS

Trump in long island.

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Reporting by Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons, Leslie Adler, Jonathan Oatis and Lincoln Feast.

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Thomson Reuters

Jeff Mason is a White House Correspondent for Reuters. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the presidential campaigns of Biden, Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. He served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2016-2017, leading the press corps in advocating for press freedom in the early days of the Trump administration. His and the WHCA's work was recognized with Deutsche Welle's "Freedom of Speech Award." Jeff has asked pointed questions of domestic and foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. He is a winner of the WHCA's “Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure" award and co-winner of the Association for Business Journalists' "Breaking News" award. Jeff began his career in Frankfurt, Germany as a business reporter before being posted to Brussels, Belgium, where he covered the European Union. Jeff appears regularly on television and radio and teaches political journalism at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar.

Turkey local election: Erdogan battles key rival 

Turks voted on Sunday in municipal elections focused on President Tayyip Erdogan's bid to reclaim control of Istanbul from rival Ekrem Imamoglu, who aims to reassert the opposition as a political force after bitter election defeats last year.

Watch CBS News

Biden holds record-breaking New York City fundraiser with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton

By Aaron Navarro , Jordan Freiman

Updated on: March 29, 2024 / 6:54 AM EDT / CBS News

President Biden participated in a star-studded fundraiser with former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton on Thursday in New York City in an event expected to raise more than $25 million for the president's re-election campaign.

Thursday's New York City fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall was hosted by actress Mindy Kaling and featured performances by several musical guests and artists, including Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele. The event was capped off with a nearly hourlong discussion between Mr. Biden, Obama and Clinton moderated by "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert. 

Obama accompanied Mr. Biden on the Air Force One flight from Washington, D.C., to New York earlier in the day.  

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and first lady Jill Biden also delivered remarks during the event. 

Schumer touted several of Mr. Biden's accomplishments and spoke of the potential for not just the president's re-election, but for Democrats to control all three branches of government with key wins in the 2024 election.

"Re-elect Joe Biden as president, put Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker, keep me as Majority Leader, and the next four years will be better than this. You ain't seen nothing yet," the Senate majority leader said.

The first lady, joined by several other members of the Biden family, recalled that after she agreed to marry Mr. Biden, "He said, 'Jill, I promise you, your life will never change.' Well that, of course, turned out to be wildly untrue."

She also spoke of the large sum raised for her husband's campaign.

"This is the biggest fundraiser the DNC has ever held – the fundraiser to end all fundraisers – and we've raised a record amount," Jill Biden said.

Mr. Biden, Obama and Clinton discussed a wide variety of topics, from the economy to the border to the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, which Mr. Biden bluntly referred to as an insurrection. 

"I was supposed to make a speech on the economy, and I decided I couldn't remain silent," Mr. Biden said. "So what I did was I made a speech about January the sixth, what was happening. And I said it was an insurrection underway, and it must be dealt with and I plead with the president to stop and do his job, call these people off. He sat there in the dining room off the Oval Office for several hours and watched, didn't do a damn thing. That's why I felt obliged even though I wasn't sworn in yet. I was president-elect."

The fundraiser was interrupted by demonstrators protesting against the war in Gaza multiple times, and one who appeared to be yelling something about nuclear with Russia, throughout the night. One interruption came while Obama was discussing Gaza, to which he replied "You can't just talk and not listen," leading the audience to give him a standing ovation.

"It is also possible for us to have our hearts broken watching innocent people being killed and try to manage through that in a way that ultimately leads to both people being able to live in peace side by side," Obama said. "That is not an easy thing."

"It is important for us to understand that it is possible to have moral clarity and have deeply held beliefs, but still recognize that the world is complicated and it is hard to solve these problems," the former president added.

There were also Pro-Palestinian protests outside the music hall, CBS News New York reported . The New York Police Department told CBS News one person was detained. There was no word on why.

The demonstrators were chanting and screaming their messages, directing their anger toward Mr. Biden and, at times, at police officers.

Mr. Biden reiterated his support for Israel and its right to self defense, but said there were "too many innocent victims" and that more aid needs to get into Gaza. Mr. Biden also expressed support for a two-state solution.

"It's understandable there's such a profound anger, and Hamas is still there, but we must in fact, stop the effort resulting in significant deaths of innocent civilians, particularly children," Mr. Biden said.

The campaign has billed the event as the "most successful political fundraiser in American history." 

During a swing through Texas earlier this month, the Biden campaign raised a combined $7 million from three separate fundraisers. A fundraiser for Mr. Biden in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday raised $2.3 million. 

Mr. Biden's largest single-day haul prior to Thursday came in the 24 hours after his  State of the Union address earlier in March, when he raised $10 million, according to his campaign.

But Thursday's staggering sum is a new record for the campaign, and it further illustrates the growing cash gap between Mr. Biden and his presumptive general election opponent, former President Donald Trump. 

Trump raised $20 million in the whole month of February and $8.8 million in January. He's also been dogged by legal bills and payments , with his campaign and the political action committees supporting him spending over $10 million in legal fees this year.

Mr. Biden's campaign committees have more than double the cash on hand of Trump's equivalent groups, $155 million for Mr. Biden and $74 million for Trump as of late March.

"Unlike our opponent, every dollar we're raising is going to reach the voters who will decide this election — communicating the President's historic record, his vision for the future and laying plain the stakes of this election," said Biden-Harris campaign co-chair and Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg. 

Trump's campaign sent out two fundraising emails Wednesday mentioning Mr. Biden's Thursday fundraiser, with one calling on "one million Trump supporters to donate to beat the "Obama-Clinton cartel" and the other reading, "We can't lose to Obama!"

• Democratic Party

Aaron Navarro is a CBS News digital reporter covering Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign and the 2024 election. He was previously an associate producer for the CBS News political unit in the 2021 and 2022 election cycles.

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Joe Biden Fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall to Feature Barack Obama, Lizzo, Cynthia Erivo, Queen Latifah and More

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On March 28, the Biden-Harris campaign is hosting a fundraiser at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, featuring former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in addition to prominent figures from the entertainment industry. Described by Biden’s campaign as “historic” and the “most successful political fundraiser in American history,” the event is set to raise more than $25 million.

Mindy Kaling will host the event, which includes musical performances by Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele. More than 5,000 people are anticipated to show up at the iconic venue, with donations ranging from $225 to $500,000.

The fundraiser was put together by Biden-Harris campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg, Biden-Harris campaign finance chair Rufus Gifford, Biden Victory Fund finance chair Chris Korge and Anna Wintour. Jordan Roth and Alex Timbers are the producers of the event.

Katzenberg spoke of the campaign’s fundraising efforts in a statement: “This historic raise is a show of strong enthusiasm for President Biden and Vice President Harris and a testament to the unprecedented fundraising machine we’ve built,” he said. “Unlike our opponent, every dollar we’re raising is going to reach the voters who will decide this election — communicating the president’s historic record, his vision for the future and laying plain the stakes of this election.”

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Easter 2024

Obama, Clinton and big-name entertainers help Biden raise a record $26 million for his reelection

President Joe Biden, right, and former presidents Barack Obama, left, and Bill Clinton participate in a fundraising event with Stephen Colbert at Radio City Music Hall, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Joe Biden, center, and former presidents Barack Obama, left, and Bill Clinton, right, participate in a fundraising event with Stephen Colbert at Radio City Music Hall, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Joe Biden, left center, and former presidents Barack Obama, right center, and Bill Clinton participate in a fundraising event with Stephen Colbert, left, at Radio City Music Hall, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Former President Bill Clinton participates in a fundraising event for President Joe Biden with former president Barack Obama and Stephen Colbert at Radio City Music Hall, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Joe Biden stands with former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton participate in a fundraising event with Stephen Colbert at Radio City Music Hall, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Stephen Colbert speaks during a fundraising event of President Joe Biden with former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at Radio City Music Hall, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Joe Biden, left, and former President Barack Obama arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Joe Biden, left, and former President Barack Obama exit Air Force One upon arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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NEW YORK (AP) — Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and some big names from the entertainment world teamed up Thursday night to deliver a rousing New York embrace of President Joe Biden that hauled in a record-setting $26 million-plus for his reelection campaign.

The mood at Radio City Music Hall was electric as Obama praised Biden’s willingness to look for common ground and said, “That’s the kind of president I want.” Clinton said simply of the choices facing voters in 2024: “Stay with what works.”

Biden himself went straight at Donald Trump, saying his expected GOP rival’s ideas were “a little old and out of shape.”

Moderator Stephen Colbert, in an armchair conversation with the trio, called them “champion talkers” and joked that the three presidents had come to town “and not one of them is here to appear in court,” a dig at Trump’s many legal troubles.

The eye-popping fundraising haul was a major show of Democratic support for Biden at a time of persistently low poll numbers. The president will test the power of his campaign cash as he faces off with Trump, who proved with his 2016 win over Democrat Hillary Clinton that he didn’t need to raise the most money to seize the presidency.

During the nearly hourlong conversation, Obama and Clinton explained just how hard Biden’s job is. They spoke of loneliness and frustration over policies that work but aren’t immediately felt by the public. They gave an insider’s view of the office as they sought to explain why Biden was best for the job.

“It is a lonely seat,” said Obama, who had hitched a ride to New York on Air Force One with Biden.

The talk was by turns humorous and serious, ending with all three donning sunglasses in the mostly dark music hall, a nod to the trademark Ray-Ban sunglasses that Biden often wears.

The sold-out Radio City Music Hall event was a gilded exclamation mark on a recent burst of campaign travel by Biden, who has visited several political battlegrounds in the three weeks since his State of the Union address served as a rallying cry for his reelection bid . Thursday’s event also brought together more than three decades of Democratic leadership .

The music hall’s marquee advertised the big-dollar night as “An Evening with Joe Biden Barack Obama Bill Clinton.” NYPD officers lined surrounding streets as part of a heavy security presence.

Protesters angry at Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza and strong support of Israel briefly disrupted the show, drawing a pledge from Biden to keep working to stop civilian deaths, particularly of children. But he added, “Israel’s existence is at stake.” Hundreds more protested outside in the drizzling rain, many demanding a cease-fire and waving Palestinian flags.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was up first to warm up the crowd of about 5,000 supporters. Entertainers, too, lined up to make the case for Biden. Lizzo belted out her hit “About Damn Time” and emcee Mindy Kaling joked that it was nice to be in a room with “so many rich people,” adding that she loved that they were supporting a president who openly promises to “raise your taxes.”

Obama laid out the choice for the audience, saying that “at the end of the day, you do have to make a choice about who sees you and cares about you. I’m pretty confident the other guy doesn’t.”

At one point, Colbert said he suspected some Americans had forgotten some of the more concerning aspects of Trump’s presidency, including Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Biden said concerns over the riot reverberated outside the U.S., with foreign leaders questioning the stability of the U.S. democracy. That democracy is still fragile, he said.

The fundraiser had different tiers of access depending on a donor’s generosity. Other participating celebrities included Queen Latifah, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele. Tickets sold for as low as $225.

More money got donors more intimate time with the presidents. A photo with all three was $100,000. A donation of $250,000 earned donors access to one reception, and $500,000 got them into an even more exclusive gathering. First lady Jill Biden and DJ D-Nice hosted an afterparty at the music hall with 500 guests, the campaign said.

Obama and Clinton were helping Biden expand his already significant cash advantage over Trump. Biden had $155 million in cash on hand through the end of February, compared with $37 million for Trump and his Save America political action committee.

AP AUDIO: Biden fundraiser with Obama and Clinton nets a record high $25 million, the campaign says.

AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports a glitzy Biden campaign fundraiser tonight in New York is set to smash a record.

The more than $26 million tally for the New York City event includes money from supporters who handed over cash in the weeks before the fundraiser for a chance to attend. It raised $6 million more than Trump raised during February.

“This historic raise is a show of strong enthusiasm for President Biden and Vice President Harris and a testament to the unprecedented fundraising machine we’ve built,” said campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg. “Unlike our opponent, every dollar we’re raising is going to reach the voters who will decide this election — communicating the president’s historic record, his vision for the future and laying plain the stakes of this election.”

Trump’s campaign is expecting to bring in $33 million at a big fundraiser next week in Palm Beach, Florida, according to a person familiar with the details who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm a number first reported by the Financial Times.

Trump has kept a low profile in recent weeks, partially because of courtroom appearances for various legal cases , the bills for which he’s paying with funds from donors. His next political rallies are scheduled for Tuesday in Michigan and Wisconsin. Some Republican leaders have become concerned that his campaign doesn’t have the infrastructure ready for a general election battle with Biden.

Trump was in the New York area on Thursday, attending the Long Island wake of a New York City police officer who was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Queens.

Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley tried to framed the two candidates’ whereabouts on Thursday as a demonstration of a “contrast in leadership.”

“On the same day President Trump attended the wake of slain New York Police Department officer Jonathan Diller, Joe Biden wines and dines with celebrities at a fundraiser with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton,” he said in a statement.

The facts, said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, show that violent crime rose during Trump’s tenure while Biden’s administration has “done the polar opposite, taking decisive action from the very beginning to fund the police and achieving a historic reduction in crime.”

The setting was an unusual opportunity for the two past presidents to talk frankly about how they did the job, helping explain Biden and his presidency.

As the three men closed out the night by donning Biden’s trademark sunglasses, the president quipped, “Dark Brandon is real,” a nod to a meme featuring Biden with lasers for eyes.

Megerian reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Darlene Superville in Kissimmee, Fla., contributed to this report.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024 .