Obama in new video: Clinton made country 'stronger' and 'safer'

Ahead of President Barack Obama's first campaign stop with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, the presumptive Democratic nominee's campaign unveiled a new video in which the current president lays out the White House's argument for supporting his former secretary of state.

"Not only did, I think, she impress me during the campaign, but she frankly really impressed me in terms of how she handled the loss of that primary. She was a trouper. She came on board, started campaigning with me almost immediately, worked tirelessly," Obama says in the 112-second video posted to Clinton's Twitter account in the hours leading up to their event together in Charlotte, North Carolina.


Clinton, Obama said, "was willing to set her own personal feelings and agendas aside to serve the larger cause and to serve the country," and that willingness was "part of the reason" he asked her to lead the State Department. "And that’s part of the reason why I was willing to reach out to her, and in fact, insisted on reaching out to her about serving as secretary of state because I thought that somebody who is able to set aside personal agendas to make sure that we actually are making this country stronger, more prosperous, safer, that’s the kind of person who I could trust in my administration," Obama said in the video, featuring soft music and imagery from throughout Clinton's two presidential campaigns and time at the State Department. "And in fact, that’s how she ended up performing as secretary of state," the president added.

The video follows the announcement from FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday morning in which he said that the agency is not recommending charges be pursued against Clinton but also ripped into the former secretary of state and the department in general for their "extremely careless" handling of classified materials on a non-secure, private email server.

Obama effusively praised Clinton throughout the video, remarking that as secretary of state, she "could not have been more diligent, more tireless, more loyal, more committed to making sure around the world, diplomatically, we were promoting the interests and goals of the American people."

"She fought for human rights, she fought for democracy, she tried to avoid conflicts through diplomacy," Obama concluded, as images of Clinton reviewing papers on the trail and in the situation room on the night of the Osama bin Laden raid flash across the screen. "When I consider what I’ve learned over the last seven and a half years, this job ultimately is not about making fancy speeches. It’s not ultimately about public appearances. It’s about when nobody’s watching and you’re alone or in a small group of people and you’re making really tough decisions, do you have somebody who’s steady? Do you have somebody who has done their homework? It’s got to be somebody who recognizes that we all have a part to play. And that’s something I’m absolutely convinced Hillary Clinton can do. It’s one of the reasons I’m sure she can be an outstanding president."