President Barack Obama congratulated President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday on his victory, expressing his desire to hand over control of the country peacefully in the coming months.
“One thing that you realize quickly in this job is that the presidency and the vice presidency is bigger than anyone,” Obama said in a speech from the Rose Garden. “We are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country.”
“The peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of our democracy, and over the next few months, we are going to show that to the world,” he added.
Obama had spent the past few weeks criss-crossing the country on behalf of Hillary Clinton, urging voters to view their support for her as support for his own legacy.
On Monday, he implored crowds in Michigan, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania to turn out for his chosen successor. Obama repeatedly slammed Trump as unfit for the presidency, joking that a person who could not be trusted to operate his Twitter account could not be trusted with the nuclear codes.
But Trump’s surprising victory on Tuesday overcame the popular president’s get-out-the-vote efforts in states Clinton was projected to win.
“I had a chance to talk to President-elect Trump last night, at about 3:30 in the morning … to congratulate him on winning the election,” Obama said Wednesday.
“It is no secret that the president-elect and I Ihave some pretty significant differences, but remember, eight years ago, President Bush and I had some pretty significant differences,” he continued.
Obama said Bush’s transition team “could not have been more professional and more gracious” in shifting their responsibilities to the incoming Democrat.
In congratulating Clinton on her hard-fought campaign, Obama highlighted the historic nature of her ascendance to the top of a major party’s ticket.
“I could not be prouder. She has led an extraordinary life in public service,” Obama said. “She could not have been a better secretary of state.”
The president called for unity after months of a bitterly-contested race that left the electorate split almost evenly between Trump and Clinton.
“We have to remember that we’re actually all on one team,” Obama said. “This is an intramural scrimmage. We’re not Democrats first. We’re not Republicans first. We’re Americans first. We’re patrionts first.”
