Obama reveals what made last week "a really good week"
President Obama had a landmark week in his presidency last week, after securing the passage of a critical trade bill, witnessing a set of Supreme Court victories and delivering a powerful eulogy in Charleston, South Carolina that combined the spiritual with the political.
Out of all of those developments, Mr. Obama revealed Tuesday that he found one detail particularly gratifying -- "how good the White House looked in rainbow colors," he said at a White House press conference with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
After the Supreme Court on Friday legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, the White House was illuminated with rainbow-colored lights. That night, people gathered outside the White House to celebrate.
"That made it a really good week," Mr. Obama said. "To see people gathered in the evening outside on a summer night, and to feel whole and to feel accepted and to feel that they had a right to love -- that was pretty cool. That was a good thing."
The only "bad part," the president said, "was I couldn't go out and peek at it myself because then I would have had to clear out all the people, or the Secret Service would have." Instead, he watched the celebration on a television screen.
Aside from that detail, Mr. Obama said that last week reflected "a culmination of a lot of work we've been doing since I came into office."
The passage of trade promotion authority, he said, will enable the negotiation of "high-standards agreements." He also reiterated his approval of the Supreme Court's rulings on marriage and on the Affordable Care Act.
As for his remarks in Charleston, "it wasn't a celebration," Mr. Obama said. "It was, I think, a reflection on the consistent challenge of race in this country and how we can find a path towards a better way."
The president said he's ready to use any political capital he may have gained in the last week to "to squeeze every last ounce of progress we can make as long as I hold the privilege of holding this office."
Specifically, he said he's interested in securing bipartisan legislation to invest in infrastructure and to reform the criminal justice system. He also said he wants to keep making progress on the issue of job training and to ensure that his proposal for subsidizing community college starts taking root.
"I feel pretty excited about it," he said. "I might see if we can make next week even better."
As for whether last week was the best ever, the president acknowledged he had some personal milestones that probably top his political victories of the past week.
"My best week, I will tell you, was marrying Michelle -- that was a good week," he said. "Malia and Sasha being born, excellent weeks. There's a game where I scored 27 points, that was a pretty good week. I've had some good weeks in my life, I will tell you."