The End!

Good thing we arrived early at the private reception before the premiere screening of THE END: INSIDE THE LAST DAYS OF THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE hosted by CNN honcho Jeff Zucker & CNN Films because shortly after arriving at 701 Restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, iPhones were bursting with news that President Obama freed up Chelsea Manning by way of a Presidential pardon. CNN Politics Nightcap by Daniella Diaz and Eric Bradner described it this way:”President Barack Obama this afternoon commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks. Manning, a transgender woman and former US Army soldier, was serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, an all-male Army prison in eastern Kansas, despite her request to transfer to a civilian prison. Her prison sentence is now set to expire on May 17.” So now, that’s the end of that!

On the other ‘end‘ Inside the Last Days of the Obama White House, will premiere in simulcast on CNN/U.S. and CNN International Wednesday, Jan. 18, at 9:00pm. According to CNN, filming began shortly after Election Day 2016, and concluded with President Obama’s farewell address. Leading voices in the film include Josh Earnest, White House press secretary; Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor; Cody Keenan, director of speech writing for the White House; Jen Psaki, White House communications director; Angella Reid, chief usher of the White House; and Tina Tchen, assistant to the President and chief of staff for First Lady Michelle Obama. Each granted exclusive access to key meetings, their work, and their personal thoughts on their final days inside the White House. The rare interviews capture the nostalgia of the people who have worked closest to the Obamas during their White House tenure.