First up, a highest level meeting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. U.S. President Barack Obama hosted U.S. President-elect Donald Trump yesterday afternoon. The two men have a history of taking verbal shots at one another. While campaigning for the presidency, Mr. Trump called President Obama incompetent. While campaigning for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, President Obama called Mr. Trump incompetent.
Tensions remain in the U.S. over the historic election. The country, which has been repeatedly characterized as divided, saw protests and rallies and dozen of cities after the vote. Most were peaceful, but there was some violence in places like Oakland, California, where emergency workers had to extinguish about 40 fires. Many of the protesters turned out to say they opposed the election of Donald Trump. Some supporters of the president-elect turned out to celebrate.
But at the White House, both leaders had kind words for each other and seemed focus on working together to move the nation forward.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I just had the opportunity to have an excellent conversation with President-elect Trump.
It was wide ranging. We talked about some of the organizational issues in setting up the White House. We talked about foreign policy. We talked about domestic policy.
And as I said last night, my number one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president-elect is successful.
I believe that it is important for all of us, regardless of party and regardless of political preferences, to now come together, work together, to deal with the many challenges that we face.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: This was a meeting that was going to last for many 10 or 15 minutes. And we were just going to get to know each other. We had never met each other. I had great respect.
The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half. And it could have, as far as I`m concerned, it could have gotten for a lot longer. We really -- we discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties.
I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel.
So, Mr. President, it was a great honor being with you and I look forward to being with you many, many more times in the future. Thank you, sir.(END VIDEO CLIP)