Secretary Kennedy: "I've been coming to the White House for 65 years, and it has never looked better."
"Thank you very much, Mr. President. And I just want to begin by making a comment that is irrelevant to why we're gathered here today to talk about, but I've been coming to this building for 65 years, and I have to say that it has never looked better. [Applause]
And I've spent some time in the Oval Office, which really has... it's been transformed. And I was looking at a picture of the Oval Office the other day when I was there when I was a kid with my uncle. And, you know, it's extraordinary—it's always been extraordinary to go into that sacred space. But I have to say that it looked kind of drab in the pictures—and they were black-and-white pictures—but it looked drab. And it looks the opposite of drab today. And I think... I know all these portraits, I hope you get a chance to look at them when you go out there, that they were handpicked by the President and many of them hijacked from other agencies that were trying to keep them...
And, you know, my uncle and my aunt, Jackie, who were deeply committed to design, to beauty, and who understood that it's important to have our public buildings be beautiful because it inspires us, it elevates the human spirit, it is one of the... it is a template, an exemplar for democracy. They’re releasing through freedoms of the creativity of the human spirit. And this building, of all buildings, should look beautiful, and under your stewardship, it looks extraordinary today. So thank you, Mr. President, for that."