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# The Story Behind One of Obama's Most Touching Moments As President

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pbtyChm9.m3u8" -->
## Video: The Story Behind One of Obama's Most Touching Moments As President

[Watch (HLS stream): The Story Behind One of Obama's Most Touching Moments As President](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pbtyChm9.m3u8) (1:52)

![The Story Behind One of Obama's Most Touching Moments As President](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pbtyChm9/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2017-01-19. The story behind one of the most viral moments of Obama's presidency, as told by his Chief Official White House Photographer, Pete Souza._


---

Jul 28, 2023 4:21 AM UTC

---

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---


## Transcript

[ MUSIC ] One of the things that's happened with this administration is social media exploded. So certain photographs tend to take off and go viral, as you say. And I think that people seem to gravitate towards Pictures of him interacting with little kids. Carlton Philadelphia was a national security staffer, and he had come in to have a family photograph with the president. And his son Jacob said that he had a question for the president and said that his friends had said his haircut was just like the president's And he wanted to see if it really was, so the president bent over and he touched his head.

It's been interesting in the last couple years how this has become one of the iconic photographs of the administration. You know, it's kind of a grab shot. But I think it just tells you a lot about him as a person, that he would be willing to not only bend down like that but have this little boy touch his head. High five. You are so strong! You knocked me over. You could sort of see what he must have been like as a dad when Sasha and Malia were one and two through how he interacts with these young kids now. Have you ever seen a picture of a president of the United States literally lying on the rug of the Oval Office hoisting a little girl up in the air?

She's got her elephant costume on or crawling around on the floor with Jen Psaki's daughter. It's like a break in the day for him that he relishes and I think it tells you a lot about What he's like a person. [ MUSIC ]

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