Obama: 'We've got to do something to prevent gun massacres ... it is not normal' (VIDEO)



SEATTLE -- President Barack Obama made a quick, 3 1/2-hour visit to Seattle Friday and told supporters that something has to be done about the gun massacres that occurred in Oregon and at other schools around the country.

"We know we've got to do something to prevent the kind of gun massacres we saw last week, and two months before that, and two months before that," Obama said to the loudest applause of the evening. "... It is not normal!"



Obama spoke at a fundraiser for Sen. Patty Murray’s reelection campaign at the Seattle Westin hotel. The event, which drew a crowd of about 1,450 people, raised more than $500,000 for Murray’s campaign, according to the media pool report.

He took the stage at around 6:05 p.m. and spoke for about 20 minutes.

Obama described Murray as "one of my favorite people in either Washington ... we have to have Patty Murray back in the United States Senate."

"When I took office we were losing 800,000 jobs a month," Obama said. Since then Obama  said that 13.2 million jobs have been created under his administration, unemployment has fallen to 5.1 percent and that many more have health insurance.

"When I took office our standing in the world was diminished," Obama said, but now the U.S. is leading the world on issues like the nuclear deal with Iran and on negotiations with climate change. "We've got a lot of stuff done," Obama said.

"Marriage equality is now a reality in all 50 states," Obama said to a long ovation.

"Why are all these Republicans so down on America?" Obama asked "Listening to them is really depressing and it doesn't match up with the truth. In the world they create, everything was great in in 2008 ... To hear them tell it those were the good old days, the golden years," said Obama, recalling that the U.S. was in the midst of a major economic recession and two wars.

"You gotta feel bad for the fact-checkers who can't keep up with some of the stuff that they say," Obama said, laughing.

The remarks covered topics at the core of Obama's second-term agenda such as climate change and the need to make college more affordable.

On Immigration: "There was a time when they were talking about the Irish the way Mr. Trump is talking about the Mexicans now," Obama said. "America's greatness doesn't come from building walls, it comes from building opportunity."

He called on the audience to get involved and elect people who reflect the "goodness of the American people."

President Obama landed at Boeing Field at about 3:35 p.m., where Gov. Jay Inslee, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine and dozens of viewers were on hand to meet him. He shook hands for about five minutes.

The president's motorcade then made its way down a closed I-5 to the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle for a couple of political fundraisers.

Obama left Seattle at 7 p.m.

Obama's full speech in Seattle is below: