On Tuesday night, President Obama will cap eight years of speeches, as commander-in-chief, as consoler-in-chief, and campaigner-in-chief.
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All eyes will be on Chicago as President Barack Obama returns to where it all started.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that the president will discuss the need to address future challenges.
The president’s address will come a day before Trump is expected to give his first press conference as President-elect.
Obama’s final speech to the public will continue a tradition set in 1796 when George Washington addressed the American people for the last time as president.
And, whether you like it or not, President Barack Obama will be giving his on Tuesday. “Maybe he gives lip service to it, but by and large, he’s been a president, I think it’s safe to say, who has helped pull the country apart to some degree”, said Jeff Anderson, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute.
The speech will harken back to long-running themes for Obama noting “that for all our differences, there’s much more that unites us than that separates us”, Earnest said, pointing to values such as fairness, justice and the ability to succeed with hard work.
First LadyMichelle Obama said her final goodbye at an event honoring the 2017 School Counselor of the Year on January 6.
President Obama will strike an optimistic tone in his farewell address to the nation on Tuesday, calling on the American people to work together as citizens as he prepares to rejoin their ranks. It will air at 8 p.m. CST (9 p.m. EST), as well as livestreamed on the White House’s official Facebook page and website.
Yet Americans remain deeply divided over Mr Obama’s legacy, with fewer than half saying they are better off eight years later – or that Mr Obama brought the country together. Throughout the transition, Obama has attempted to maintain good relations with the incoming president, and to make clear that he respects the electoral process.
Over the weekend, Obama gave a microcosm of what the speech will entail.
The second most famous farewell address was delivered by Dwight Eisenhower in 1961, and it had a similarly cautionary tone.
“This is also why it’s about him helping to mentor and lift up the next generation and not necessarily being able himself to just by pointing a wand get people elected”, Psaki said.
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“Twenty million people or more now have health insurance who didn’t have it before, and this is about taking something away from people who are benefitting from it”, Psaki said.
