Former US presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama have recorded a rare joint video through which they sent their wishes to President Joe Biden while rooting for his success in leading the country out of the challenges faced by it.
In the video, which was aired on Wednesday night, the three former commanders-in-chief talk about the peaceful transition of power while standing in the amphitheatre at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia where they accompanied the newly installed 46th President of the United States to a ceremony where he paid his respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
It is a “free-flowing conversation,” focusing on “the majesty of the passage of power, importance of upholding democracy and staying civically engaged,” according to NBC News.
“Good evening America, obviously there is a personal element to see my former vice president become the 46th president and to see Kamala Harris as our first woman vice president.”
“Inaugurations signal a tradition of a peaceful transfer of power that is over two centuries old,” Mr Obama, 59, said.
Mr Bush, 74, said: “the fact that the three of us are standing here talking about a peaceful transfer of power speaks to the institutional integrity of our country. America”s a generous country, people of great hearts. All three of us were lucky to be the president of this country”.
“This is an unusual thing. We are both trying to come back to normalcy, deal with totally abnormal challenges and do what we do best, which is try to make a more perfect union. It’s an exciting time,” Mr Clinton, 74, America’s 42nd president from 1993 to 2001, said.
Mr Obama, who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017 with Mr Biden as his deputy, said: “We have got to not just listen to folks we agree with but folks we don’t”.
“One of my fondest memories of the inauguration, was the grace and generosity that President Bush showed me, and Laura Bush showed Michelle,” Mr Obama said.
“It was a reminder that we can have fierce disagreements and yet recognise each other’s common humanity and that as Americans we have more in common than what separates us,” Mr Obama, a Democrat, said.
Mr Bush, a Republican who was the 43rd president of the US from 2001 to 2009, said that Americans love their neighbours like they liked to be loved themselves.
