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VIDEO: Obama Tears Up As He Thanks Campaign Staff

"No-drama Obama" got emotional as he thanked his campaign staff this week in Chicago, and a video released Thursday of him tearing up is going viral.

"What you guys have done means the work that I'm doing is important. I'm really proud of that. I'm really proud of all of you," the president says just before a tear comes down his right cheek. Fast forward to about the 3:20 mark if you want to get to that moment.

The president is due to speak to the nation for the first time since Election Night early this afternoon. The White House says he will make a statement "about the action we need to take to keep our economy growing and reduce our deficit" at 1:05 p.m. ET. In other words, he'll offer his first post-election comments about the so-called fiscal cliff and what needs to be done to keep from going over it.

(Thursday, the Republican leader in the House — Speaker John Boehner of Ohio — said "raising tax rates is unacceptable." He has, though, also said that "we're willing to accept new [tax] revenue under the right conditions.")

We'll post later on the president's comments.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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