(peaceful piano music)
- When we first boarded Marine One, on our way
to the airport, President Obama was still feeling
jubilant from his remarks about marriage equality
but right away we started then thinking,
well what was coming next?
And we had been to so many memorial services
by that point for people who had been murdered
through gun violence.
And so haven given so many eulogies he said,
"What more is there for me to say?"
- When Charleston happened, there's the convergence
of a mass shooting and the racial hatred.
I remember saying this, "Look, I wanna go to the funeral
"and I wanna hug the families.
"I don't think I wanna talk.
"I don't know what else to say.
"I feel as if I have run out of words
"because I've been doing this too much
"and it doesn't seem to have any impact on it.
"And I don't wanna perpetrate this notion
"that somehow this is normal."
- You know, over the weekend the families
of the victims all forgave the killer in open court
which I found extraordinary and the President seized
on it and said, "Look, if I speak here,
"this is what it's gonna be about.
"It's gonna be about the concept of grace."
- This whole week I've been reflecting
on this idea of grace.
The grace of the families who lost loved ones.
The grace that Reverend Pickney would preach about
in his sermons.
The grace described in one of my favorite hymnals.
The one we all know.
- Just before we got off the helicopter,
the President stood up and then said,
he'd added the lyrics to "Amazing Grace"
to the speech the night before and he said,
"You know, if it feels right, I might sing it."
- When he said he was gonna sing,
I said "Hmm, that sounds like a great idea"
and Mrs. Obama said, "Well, you be you."
- As he paused he kept singing grace,
what came next, the world, that he was witness to.
♪ Amazing grace ♪
(crowd cheering)
♪ How sweet the sound ♪
♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪
- When I played the first note behind President Obama,
my mind immediately went back to the first time
I ever touched a piano and know what it really meant
to let the Lord guide me and lead me
in that endeavor.
♪ Was blind ♪
♪ But now ♪
♪ I see ♪
(audience clapping)
- The President of the United States,
your words can move markets.
Your words can move armies.
So for him to get up and sing
and show emotion like that, I think was important,
not for him, but for the country.
He always stepped up to be the healer and chief,
but more than that, to actually push us somewhere better.
- It was their strength, not my strength
that I was relying on.
It was their grace that then bathed me in grace.
(peaceful music)