Barack Obama: “I'm going to be starting from scratch in the sense that I will be open to any ideas that help promote these goals.”

Because if this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her — or that future presidents, in either party, won’t do the same.

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”.

And I will fight for that, even if I don’t always think it’s going to win.

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