White House press briefing on student Ahmed Mohamed's clock: transcript

Key points

• The President, like many people, was struck by news reports of the incident involving the Texas student and his clock.
• The spokesman says at least some of Ahmed's teachers failed him, and calls it a teachable moment to search our own conscience for biases.
• The White House invited Ahmed to astronomy night next month, which brings together government scientists and NASA astronauts with young people.
• Asked whether bias was a factor because Ahmed is Muslim, he says it is too early to judge and that local law enforcement has closed the case.
• He praises teachers who nurture students' curiosity, and says the tweet and invitation aim to reach out to a 14-year-old who was wrongly handcuffed for bringing in a clock.

Chapters

1. 0:04Why the President tweeted about Ahmed
2. 1:19Astronomy Night and the question of bias
3. 2:22Why the President got involved
4. 4:21A teachable moment and reaching out to Ahmed

Full transcript

0:04Mark. The Press, how did President Obama come to post a tweet about the high school student in Texas who made a clock with some wires protruding that got him in trouble? And why did he choose to tweet about it? Mr. Well, I think the President, like many of us, was struck by the news reports of this particular incident. Mark, the fact is that America's best teachers and our schools, and our best schools at least, nurture the intellectual curiosity of all of our students.

0:37In this instance, it's clear that at least some of Ahmed's teachers failed him. That's too bad, but it's not too late for all of us to use this as a teachable moment and to search our own conscience for biases in whatever form they take. This episode is a good illustration of how pernicious stereotypes can prevent even good-hearted people who have dedicated their lives to educating young people for doing the good work that they set out to do. So the President was pleased to extend an invitation, or the White House was pleased to extend an invitation to Ahmed to participate in astronomy night that will be hosted here at the White House next month.

1:19Astronomy Night is an event that we've previously held here, where we'll bring together government scientists and NASA astronauts and others to spend some time with young people examining the wonders of the heavens, and it'll be an opportunity for them to talk about science and our solar system and the universe. It should be a good event, and I think that or at least we are hopeful that Ahmed will feel right at home here. The Press, does President Obama believe bias was a factor because the young man is Muslim?

1:52Mr. Well, I think it's from this distance, it's far too early to draw that direct assessment from here. We have seen that local law enforcement officials have closed the case, and I think there are some difficult and and penetrating questions that do need to be asked in pursuit of the information that you just presented. Chris.

2:22The Press, let me ask you really quickly, follow-up on Ahmed Mohammed. So many interesting stories in the news that we often ask you about, the President doesn't comment on them or you haven't spoken to him. Why did he decide to get involved with this? Mr. Well, again, I think that he, like many of us who saw this online or saw it in the newspaper, today, I think we're struck by this story. And look, there are millions of teachers all across our country that dedicate themselves on a daily basis.

2:56Many of them are underpaid, too. But they dedicate themselves on a daily basis to trying to nurture the intellectual curiosity of their students. And that's heroic work, and it's work that is going to be critical to the long-term success of our country. But at least in this instance, at least some of Ahmed's teachers failed him. And that's a shame. And I think it tugs at your heartstrings a little bit. And we at the White House and the President himself recognized that there could be an opportunity to try to reach out to this young man and give him a unique opportunity to nurture that intellectual curiosity.

3:38And I think he's going to fit in quite well with the the other young people who will be at the White House on astronomy night, learning from some of the most informed, cutting-edge scientists in the world about the wonder of And we're going to be able to attend. The Press here to say, and I've been watching the Twitter feed, and I saw everybody from a NASA engineer to a member of Congress just since you've been talking who have tweeted about this. Was it specifically that he wanted to spark a larger conversation about this? Is that an opportunity to do that?

4:21Mr. Well, I think you heard me say that I do think that for all of us that this has the potential to be a teachable moment. to search our own conscience for biases that might be there. And the reason that we should do that is because I think this is an instance where you have people who have otherwise dedicated their lives to trying to teach our children, who failed in that effort because or potentially because of some things in their conscience and because of the power of stereotypes.

4:59And there's certainly more that needs to be learned about this particular situation. But even the potential of that I think is a good reminder to all of us. But I think at the end of the day, the President's tweet and the invitation from the White House are rooted in a desire to try to reach out to a 14-year-old boy who, at least based on what we know from law enforcement was wrongly handcuffed in his own school yesterday simply for bringing in a clock.

Source and licence

Recording: File:2015-09-16 White House Press Briefing on student Ahmed Mohamed.webm by The White House (2015-09-16), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.