Barack Obama: “You have 80 percent of the American people who support a balanced approach. Eighty percent of the American people…”

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

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”.

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.