Barack Obama: “We will also be mortgaging our future and it will be irresponsible if, in the process of reducing our deficit, we…”

It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say.

People need to “rediscover what’s the story we tell about how we’re going to live together, and see each other, and recognise each other, and disagree, and yet, still care for each other”.

A drift towards extremism was "not inevitable

It is a decision about how do we face and embrace this finite amount of time we have on the planet.