East Room

7:43 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Everybody, please be seated. Do not fear, no long speeches here. (Laughter.) We just want to say welcome on behalf of Michelle and myself. We’re so glad all of you could join us.

Obviously the country is going through an extraordinarily difficult time, and we are going to have some monumental debates taking place over the next several months and years. We also know that we’re not always going to agree on everything. But given how hard so many of you are working on both sides of the aisle, day in, day out, we thought it was important for us to be able to step back for a moment, remind ourselves that we have things in common — family, friends, laughter — and hopefully, we’ll have a chance to appreciate each other a little bit, take a timeout before we dive back into the game.

So we hope you have a wonderful evening — not to mention the fact that this is a pretty big house, so we get lonely. (Laughter.) So — and it’s hard for me to move around out there sometimes so I’ve got to bring the world to me.

But, anyway, I’m grateful for all of you coming. Michelle is thrilled that you’re here. And we hope you just have a wonderful evening.

Thank you. (Applause.)

                                   END       7:45 P.M. EST