Barack Obama: “I am honored that they have joined me in this mission, and I trust that they will serve the American people well.”

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.

When we choose, when we make that decision, I do believe – and there is evidence for this – that the world gets incrementally better, and that is a worthy goal and it’s worth fighting for.

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

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”.