He may be gone, but no one on CBS has forgotten “teacher” Barack Obama and his ability to “make people understand.” On Thursday, the journalists at CBS This Morning and liberal actor Jesse Williams previewed a Smithsonian documentary on the former President, complete with the excessive fawning over the Democrat.
Williams narrates The Obama Years: The Power of Words, a look at the politician’s six most important speeches. Norah O’Donnell enthused, “[Obama] clearly has a gift as people said as the orator-in-chief. You know? But his writing was a way to move people. He tried in a way to make people to understand.” Charlie Rose called it “a teaching element.”
Actor Williams cheered, “There's a connectivity to being able to really understand who and what you're talking about and being able to frame it in a way that's relatable, that people can see themselves in the experience and use, kind of, key words and vocabulary that relax people, disarm people, and make them, set a table for them.”
The actor described Obama as “the most villainized president, certainly in my life.” In his lifetime? Has he forgotten George W. Bush? He was the subject of a faux documentary fantasizing about assassination. Currently, rapper Snoop Dogg made a video which features Donald Trump’s death.
When Williams tried to say that Obama’s speeches aren’t about himself, even Charlie Rose couldn’t accept the premise:
JESSE WILLIAMS: And he makes it not about him, but about the moment. And make it about you. Wherever you are. Whatever living room you are in.
ROSE: But he does occasionally makes it about himself.
A transcript is below:
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CBS This Morning
3/16/17
8:44am ETGAYLE KING: That’s Jesse Williams as Dr. Jackson Avery on the hit drama Grey’s Anatomy. The actor and activist made headlines last year accepting a BET Humanitarian award. He spoke bluntly about the Black Lives Matter movement.
JESSE WILLIAMS; Now, this award, this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the country, the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, teachers, students, that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish us and destroy us cannot stand if we do.
KING: Williams is now bringing his voice to the new Smithsonian documentary. It’s called The Obama Years: The Power of Words. It focuses on six of former President Obama's most important speeches, delivered before and during his eight years in the White House.
[Clip of documentary.]
WILLIAMS: Six speeches might shape his legacy from a brash young state senator —
BARACK OBAMA: There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is the United States of America.
WILLIAMS: — to a president grappling with turbulent times.
OBAMA: Justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other. That my liberty depends on you being free too.
KING: Jesse Williams joins us now to talk about the documentary and other things going on in your life. Welcome, Jesse Williams.
WILLIAMS: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
KING: This documentary, I enjoyed it so much because you take us behind the scenes of all the key speeches, what the speechwriters were thinking, what Obama was thinking. In eight years he wrote 3500 speeches and statements, is what he delivered. And the people close to him say that “he knows that words are powerful. He values them and he knew how to match the moment.”
WILLIAMS: I think that proved to be very true and I think that’s one of reasons that he impacted so many of us.
CHARLIE ROSE: What was the essence of the process?
WILLIAMS: Writing these speeches?
ROSE: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: I think it has to be born out of an authentic, not only interest and passion for the material, but information. You have to have some wisdom and experience and, you know, intellect matters, despite popular opinion these days. You have to have some intellectual heft around these issues or be surrounded by people who do to be both interested and informed on a topic.
NORAH O’DONNELL: You know, it's interesting that you say that. He clearly has a gift, as people said, as the orator-in-chief. You know? But his writing was a way to move people. He tried in a way to make people to understand.
ROSE: A teaching element.
O’DONNELL: Yes. A teaching element.
WILLIAMS: Yeah. And anybody, to some degree, can recite words, right? But there's a connectivity to being able to really understand who and what you're talking about and being able to frame it in a way that's relatable, that people can see themselves in the experience and use, kind of, key words and vocabulary that relax people, disarm people, and make them, set a table for them to do it on.
O’DONNELL: One of those speeches was on the 50th anniversary of the March of Selma.
WILLIAMS: Yep.
O’DONNELL: And that speech has been talked about as one of his greatest speeches of his presidency. What did you take from that speech?
WILLIAMS: That was surrounded by such an — it was the 50th anniversary. It couldn't be laid up any — in a stronger way. So I think that the atmosphere was just so — it was just so palpable. There was a bit of both tension and nostalgia, both good and bad. I think he just — what I appreciated was he stepped up to the plate. And it was never — as happens so often with him, he takes a moment and makes it — he’s the most villainized president, certainly in my life. And he make it not about him, but about the moment. And make it about you. Wherever you are. Whatever living room you
ROSE: But he does occasionally makes it about himself. I mean, take, for example, one of the speeches I thought he wrote himself and was more authentic than any.
WILLIAMS: Philadelphia?
KING: The race speech.
WILLIAMS: Which is really a reaction to half of a nation making it about him, saying, you know what? If we're going to talk about it, let's talk about it. If you really want to talk about, let's talk about what it is to be an American.
KING: They called it the most critical speech because it came at the most critical time. All that went into writing that speech.
WILLIAMS: That could have gone very badly. It was a risky, risky endeavor and it came out very well, I think.
KING: They say his moment, though, was 2004. But Jesse Williams, you had a moment at the BET. Awards when you also spoke up, when you were talking race relations. They said, you know, for people who didn't know you at the time, they thought, “Who is this guy?” Why was it important to speak out at that time when you did about that topic in particular?
WILLIAMS: You know, that question is one I'm not always sure to answer because I didn't have a choice. It wasn't something I wrestled with. I tell the truth, as far as I know it at the time. I'm a student more than anything. I'm constantly learning. But I was there — you know, I was there for a humanitarian award. I'm there for work I'm doing with incredible people around the country. So it was appropriate to discuss how I came to be on the stage at this moment. To seize the time, to seize the opportunity at that moment to address things directly. That’s my brand of communication is to call things like I see them and not allow ourselves to constantly have to be tugged to the right and create these false equivalencies and false middle on topics where we're not being honest about it.
