Obama to Give Farewell Address.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can tell you what I'm feeling right now is that I'm busier than I expected these last two weeks. A great deal of emotion around the people that I've worked with and the gratitude I feel for the sacrifices they've made on behalf of the American people but also on behalf of me personally.</s>CAMEROTA: So President Obama will return to Chicago today, where he says it all started; and that's where he will deliver his farewell address to the nation tonight. So joining us from the White House with a preview is senior adviser to President Obama, Valerie Jarrett. Good morning, Valerie.</s>VALERIE JARRETT, SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: So we know that the president has been hard at work on this speech, and we've heard that he wants to end his time in office the way he started it, quote, "with optimism and hope." Now...</s>JARRETT: That's absolutely right.</s>CAMEROTA: But Valerie, that sounds like it's going to be a hard needle to thread, given this climate, you know. All the stuff that has been said during the campaign, how toxic it became and with a president-elect that President Obama did not support.</s>JARRETT: Well, you know, I think the president's optimism comes from the American people. He's had the privilege the last eight years of traveling our country, meeting so many ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things, who are committed to our country, to making it better. He is enjoying, you know, high popularity among the American people. He's proud of his track record. If you think about when he took office, the fact that we were losing nearly 800,000 jobs a month, an unemployment rate ticking up to 10 percent. Now it's down to 4.7. High school graduation rates are up. College admissions are up. Poverty is down. Typical family income is up. There's so much that's going on that's positive. His record-breaking announcements on climate change, both here domestically and around the world. Bringing so many of our men and women home who have been serving our country. There's just a lot to feel very positive about. And he wants to reflect briefly on the progress that we've made but also looking forward, taking the long view about why he's optimistic about the future of our country.</s>CAMEROTA: And yet, Valerie, I mean, so many Democrats would not describe what they're feeling today as hope, including the first lady, Michelle Obama, who sat down with Oprah and said, 'Now we know what it feels like not to have hope."</s>JARRETT: I wish you could have heard her speech last week when she spoke to young girls as we were honoring the best counsellors in the country. And she spoke directly to them and said, "I have so much -- so much faith in you; and we're counting on you, and I want to lift you up." And I think the young people give both the president and the first lady hope, and they always take the long view. As the president has said, you know, the progress of our country has always been messy. There are going to be zigs and zags along the way. But if you really focus on what makes our country extraordinary, what makes it great, I think that there is reason to be optimistic and hopeful.</s>CAMEROTA: As you stand there, still at the White House, ten days out from -- from leaving, what do you think the future of Obamacare is?</s>JARRETT: Well, I hope that the future of the Affordable Care Act, called Obamacare, is positive. There are 20 million people who never had health insurance before, many who never had it before who have it now. Everyone is covered if they have a preexisting condition. Young people can stay on their parents' plan until they're 26. Senior citizens are getting help with prescription drugs. Women can get preventative care without a copay. There's so much in it that is positive. I would hate to think of taking those important benefits away from the American people.</s>CAMEROTA: But I mean, you know that Republicans say it is their first order of business to repeal it.</s>JARRETT: I think as we saw yesterday, they're finding that it's a lot more complicated than they may have originally thought. The president tried to engage the Republicans as we went through Congress the first time to get the best ideas that they would have to try to incorporate them into a bill that had bipartisan support. And they opted not to participate. And now the burden is on them, and they're seeing it's challenging. It's a complicated piece of business, and many of the pieces are interrelated. If you care about covering everybody with a preexisting condition, well, then you really have to have a requirement that everyone buy health insurance. It's very difficult when you start to break apart the pieces.</s>CAMEROTA: What do you think of the news that Donald Trump would like his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to become his senior adviser, the role that you have played for the past eight years?</s>JARRETT: Well, you know what, Alisyn? My first priority right now, as set by the president, is to help President-elect Trump's team with the transition in every way possible, so that it's smooth and orderly, the same way President Bush helped us. So I'm not going to comment on every single appointment that the president-elect makes. What I can tell you, though, having co-chaired President Obama's transition ,is that he said to his lawyers, "Tell me where the lines are, and then I'm going to color well within the lines." He did that with the appointments in the White House, and he also did that with his cabinet. He wanted to make sure that our due diligence was done ahead of time, that we knew everything that was important to know about a nominee, because that nominee was going to represent the president.</s>CAMEROTA: So what advice would you give to Jared Kushner?</s>JARRETT: Listen to the American people. Make sure you stay in touch with them. Make sure you have your pulse on them. Washington can swallow you up whole, and I think it's incumbent upon all of us who serve in the White House to remember every single day who we're here to serve. We're here to serve you, the American people.</s>CAMEROTA: Valerie, what's next for President Obama? What role will he play in the country and in the Democratic Party?</s>JARRETT: Well, he's looking forward to working on the Obama Center. We're just thrilled. I am personally, because I'm from Chicago to see it located on the South Side of Chicago, his adopted hometown where, the first lady was born and raised, where so many of his initial support came from. And he wants it to be more than just a library reflecting on the past and his important time in office but really a beacon of hope for not just Chicago but the world about the future, thinking of ways of creating a platform to be a force for good. And he's going to spend a lot of time, after a much-deserved rest, focusing on that.</s>CAMEROTA: Valerie Jarrett, we look forward to seeing what you will do next after also much-deserved rest. Thank you.</s>JARRETT: Thank you, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: Thanks so much for being on NEW DAY. Let's get to Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right. The confirmation hearing for Jeff Sessions. He's a senator from Alabama. He is the president-elect's choice to be our next attorney general. A big deal will be the past and allegations of racism. Could they hurt him now? The senator's spokesperson joins us next.