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Tour the White House in 360-Degree Virtual Reality

Today marks the launch of The People’s House: Inside the White House with Barack and Michelle Obama, the first-ever Facebook 360 project filmed inside the world’s most famous home. The piece, produced by Emmy-winning cinematic virtual reality creators Félix & Paul Studios alongside the Oculus team at Facebook, takes viewers to nine famous areas within the iconic building—from sitting with the President in the Oval Office to walking around the Situation Room to stopping into the Old Family Dining Room with Mrs. Obama.

“Michelle and I always joke, ‘We’re just renters here. ’ . . . The owners are the American people and all those invested in creating this amazing place with so much history,” President Obama says in the VR experience. “What we wanted to do is make sure that everybody felt they had access to the White House, . . . that as many people as possible could come in and appreciate the place where Lincoln, FDR, or Reagan made the decisions that helped to shape America.”

Take the Facebook 360 video tour of the White House here.

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Take a 360-Degree Virtual Tour of the White House

The tour includes rarely seen rooms like the Situation Room and Treaty Room.

— -- More than 50 years ago, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy introduced millions of Americans to the White House in a televised tour.

Now, the Obamas are offering a new way to see the People's House -- in virtual reality.

In this virtual experience, viewers can explore the White House and West Wing in 360 degrees. The tour, narrated by President Obama, also allows entry into the rooms that are rarely seen, such as the Situation Room and the Treaty Room, which is Obama's private office.

Throughout the tour, you'll be able to listen to the president and first lady Michelle Obama personally reflect on their time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Last year, the president made his virtual reality debut in a video filmed on his trip to Yosemite National Park.

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The White House and Google launch a new virtual tour with audio captions, Spanish translation

The White House with the help of Google Arts & Culture has launched a new virtual tour of the White House. It is the first such Google tour to include audio captions and Spanish translation and features portraits of the Obamas. (Oct. 28)

First Lady Jill Biden attends an event to celebrate National Civics Day with the launch of Well Versed, an animated musical series that aims to help teach kids about democracy and the U.S. Bill of Rights Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, in Philadelphia. (Jessicas Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

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Matthew Segal, Co-Founder of Attn:, and First Lady Jill Biden join Philadelphia School District Students during an event to celebrate National Civics Day with the launch of Well Versed, an animated musical series that aims to help teach kids about democracy and the U.S. Bill of Rights Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, in Philadelphia. (Jessicas Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Can’t come to Washington? Couldn’t get a ticket to tour the White House? Don’t worry.

The White House, Google Maps and Google Arts & Culture launched a new virtual tour of the famous mansion on Friday, which is also National Civics Day.

With a computer or smartphone, users will be able to spend time zooming in on all of the rooms that they would have seen had they been able to go on an in-person tour.

The updated virtual tour is part of a desire by first lady Jill Biden to make the White House accessible to as many people as possible. Biden, a longtime community college professor, hopes teachers use it to educate students about the White House and its history, said Elizabeth Alexander, her spokesperson.

“Not everyone can make the trip to Washington, D.C., to tour the White House, so she’s bringing the White House to them,” Alexander said.

Biden traveled to Philadelphia on Friday for a National Civics Day event hosted by Nickelodeon, ATTN: and iCivics, where they announced “Well Versed,” a new short-form series that uses animation and music to help teach children about democracy and the Bill of Rights.

She talked about the Constitutional Convention held at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall in 1787, where the founders of the United States created a government in which power rested with the people, not with kings and queens.

“That’s still how our country works, and it’s one of the things that make it so special,” Biden said. “And when we understand civics, how our government works and how to hold it accountable, we are able to help each other and make our country the best it can be.”

The virtual tour is the first Google virtual tour of the White House to include audio captions for people with disabilities. The captions are narrated by White House social secretary Carlos Elizondo and pop up on the screen to offer viewers historical information on each of the rooms.

It is also Google’s first virtual tour of the White House to have Spanish translation, and feature the official portraits of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama.

The tour opens with a brief video of President Joe Biden and the first lady welcoming visitors, the same message that plays at the White House Visitors Center for those who visit in person.

Google Street View technology was used to capture the imagery, starting at the East Wing Entrance and moving through all rooms on the public tour route, including the library, the China Room, the Green, Blue and Red rooms, the East Room and the State Dining Room.

The tour was created using Google Arts & Culture’s storytelling tool.

Ben Gomes, senior vice president of learning and sustainability at Google, said the mission of its arts and culture division is to open the world’s culture to people everywhere.

The tour is available on the White House website, as well as on Google Maps and the Google Arts & Culture page.

Obamas lead a White House tour virtually, with help from Oculus.

NEW YORK—President Obama wants to give you access to the Oval Office—at least virtually.

The broad promise of virtual reality is that it can put us in situations or take us to places that are typically out of reach to the average person. And what could be more out of reach to most of us than the Oval Office, Situation Room and numerous other areas inside the White House that are off limits even to those visiting 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on an official tour?

Now as part of The People’s House: Inside The White House With Barack And Michelle Obama , a Facebook 360 and VR experience that is being released starting today, the President and First Lady serve as narrators and guide you through the West Wing and parts of the executive’s residence, giving a personal and historical perspective as you tour.

Facebook-owned Oculus teamed up with a VR studio called Felix & Paul Studios and the White House, to produce the experience, which is being released in two parts, initially as an 8-minute 360-degree preview that you can watch via Facebook, or by wearing an Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR headset. It will cover nine rooms, and is a preface to the longer more fully immersive stereoscopic VR version for the Rift or Gear VR that comes later, most likely after the Trumps move in. This second piece will last about 20 minutes and give viewers virtual access to about twice as many rooms within the White House. Both experiences are free.

“We all felt the need to release something good before the change of administrations,” says Félix Lajeunesse, co-founder and creative director of Felix & Paul Studios.

You’re meant to watch the experiences from start to finish, rather than jump from room to room. The filming took place in November and December. Though the voice-over narrations read by the Obamas were scripted, there are moments during your tour—a session in the Oval Office, for example--where the President is talking directly into the camera. “The idea is to make it feel like it’s not an interview but someone talking to you in a very conversational way,” explains Lajeunesse. “The point is you have a one-on-one moment with the President.”

President Obama participated in another virtual experience last year in Yosemite during the National Park Centennial. Oculus and Felix & Paul Studios were involved in that project as well, along with National Geographic.

In The People’s House , President Obama remarks that, “Michelle and I always joke, ‘we’re just renters here’ ... the owners are the American people and all those invested in creating this amazing place with so much history. What we wanted to do is make sure that everybody felt they had access to the White House... that as many people as possible could come in and appreciate the place where Lincoln, FDR, or Reagan made the decisions that helped to shape America.”

Among the more personal scenes, the First Lady shows off the renovated family dining room. And you get to see the Obama family dogs, Bo and Sunny, in the Rose Garden.

In the longer yet-to-be-released piece, you’ll also get to explore Vice President Joe Biden’s office.

“There’s a lot of exclusive access in this piece that has never really been granted before,” says Lajeunesse.

One of the things that I observed in watching the preview: the Oval Office appears to be smaller than it does in most other pictures that you see.

“Every president moves to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with the full awareness that it is a temporary address,” President Obama noted in the experience. “This is where we watched our daughters grow up. This is where we came to know the talented, devoted, optimistic Americans from every corner of the country and every station in life. Because as beautiful as these buildings are, it’s the people in them and the work that’s done here… the triumphs and tragedies you experience over the course of your years here—that’s what imbues this place with meaning.”

Email: [email protected] ; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter

You Can Virtually Tour the White House—Here's How

Get an inside look at the People’s House without having to go anywhere at all!

Thanks to Google Arts & Culture , you can virtually visit the White House, including its interiors and exterior, as well as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is located just next door and houses the offices of most of the White House staff. You can also explore the many pieces of decorative arts in the White House collection, including the many variations of presidential China, opulent chandeliers, gilded pianos and clocks, and, of course, the historic portraits of presidents and first ladies—including works by John Singer Sargent, who painted the official portraits of both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

Some of the White House rooms on this virtual tour include the Blue Room, the State Dining Room, the China Room, the Red Room, the East Room, the Vermeil Room (which boasts oil paintings of various first ladies on its walls, including Jackie Kennedy), the Green Room, and the Library.

Whether you want to tour one of the grand state rooms, the lush landscaping of the front lawn, or the cozier—but just as beautifully decorated—rooms of the ground floor, there’s plenty to see on this virtual tour of the People’s House! And, if you’re left wanting to tour other presidential residences, might we suggest our curated list of former presidents’ houses that you can also virtually tour.

Take the White House virtual tour here.

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Tour the White House with Obama in VR

A 360-degree video on Facebook takes you into White House sanctums like the Oval Office and the Situation Room, a teaser to a longer virtual-reality tour.

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US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle take you into iconic spots of the White House in a 360-degree video tour.

Yesterday, I sat across from US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. First impression: The room is way smaller than you'd think. (Obama agreed.)

It sounds like something that happened all in my head, but really it happened on my face -- a 360-degree video tour of the White House, led by the president and the first lady, via a Samsung Gear VR headset.

On Friday, Facebook's Oculus launched a 360-video version of the tour on its social network. You can watch on your phone, moving it around you to see in every direction or you can use a Gear VR headset like I did. The 8-minute clip is a prelude to a longer virtual-reality experience to come later this year.

"What we wanted to do is make sure that everybody felt they had access to the White House," Obama says in the experience.

Virtual reality is an entertainment format that makes you feel like you're in the middle of the action, created by wearing a googles-like device that presents a digital view of the world and that responds to the way you turn your head. It's among the buzziest consumer technologies, as big investments in VR hardware by tech giants like Facebook and Samsung start to deliver products to consumers more widely.

Samsung said last week that 5 million of its $99 Gear VR headsets are in use around the world, with more than 10 million hours of video viewed in them so far.

But by and large the technology, new and unfamiliar to creators and consumers alike, has yet to find widespread traction .

The beauty of spherical video

That limited reach, combined with the desire to release the tour before the Obamas leave the White House later this month, motivated the administration and the filmmakers to release the 360-degree-video version via Facebook, according to Félix Lajeunesse, one of the filmmakers.

"The beauty with spherical video, you can distribute all across the world," he said in an interview, since it lets anyone with a phone or tablet still experience the tour. Lajeunesse's company, Felix & Paul Studios , is the same VR filmmaking house that shot "Through the Ages," a virtual-reality experience that visited Yosemite National Park with Obama and his family.

The tour itself takes viewers into eight different areas of the White House. You sit across from Barack Obama in the Oval Office. Michelle Obama sits across the table from you in the Old Family Dining Room. They both narrate the experience with personal recollections and historical notes as you enter places you'll likely never visit in person, like the Situation Room, the White House's intelligence hub.

It's sure to make history buffs geek out. Fans of the Obamas will delight in having what feels like a private sit-down with the president and first lady. If you're not a fan of Obama administration, well, maybe you can start mentally redecorating all the rooms? Send tips and suggestions to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

"The People's House: Inside the White House with Barack and Michelle Obama" is available as a Facebook 360 video as well as Oculus Video for Samsung Gear VR.

Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool. Take a look here .

CNET Magazine: Check out a sampling of the stories you'll find in CNET's newsstand edition, right here .

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Virtual White House tour features Obama portraits, audio captions, Spanish translation

The White House with the help of Google Arts & Culture has launched a new virtual tour of the White House. It is the first such Google tour to include audio captions and Spanish translation and features portraits of the Obamas. (Oct. 28)

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This White House VR Tour Will Feed Your Obama Nostalgia

The 44th president loves virtual reality.

Though we are now just over 100 days into Donald Trump’s first term as president, the sheer pace of the news cycle has made it feel more like 100 months. The eight years that President Barack Obama occupied the White House seems like a lifetime ago.

Now, those wistful Americans with access to an Oculus Rift can travel back in time via a virtual reality tour of the White House, narrated by Barack and Michelle Obama.

Produced by Felix & Paul Studios , the VR tour offers despondent liberals and history buffs an inside look at the executive mansion. The Obamas, in both voiceover and in-person interviews, look back on some of their fondest White House memories and outline a number of the most consequential moments in the history of the 200-year-old house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The tour visits the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, Situation Room, Roosevelt Room, State Dining Room, and many more locations in the world’s most famous rental unit. There is a tranquility to the White House, which is especially impressive given the circumstances during which the video was produced — scouting pre-production at the White House began on November 9th, less than 12 hours after Hillary Clinton, who Obama endorsed to be his successor, went down in a shocking defeat.

“It was probably exactly like what you’d imagine that day,” Paul Raphaël, one of the studio’s co-founders, told Inverse . “People were sad; I saw a few people crying. It was an intense time to be there.”

The actual production began a week or so later. The studio had already worked with the Obama administration on Through the Ages , a VR experience that focused on the country’s national parks system, so they were familiar with the process of working with the White House’s digital strategy team. And they also had an ally at the top.

“What was great was Barack himself was a huge proponent of the project,” Raphaël said. “We often got resistance from the Secret Service, but he would come in and say, no, it’s OK and open doors — literally — to some of these rooms.”

The tour thus includes Obama’s personal office, which was located in the Treaty Room, and the Old Family Dining Room, where the family of four ate some of its meals. Sasha and Malia aren’t present in the tour, but the 360-degree video allows you to imagine the First Family enjoying a dinner together.

The studio had nothing but praise for Obama’s digital team, and the former president’s embrace of VR as a storytelling platform as part of it.

“They’ve been opening doors more than any administration ever before, in terms of the actual visits,” Félix Lajeunesse said. “They produced a lot of videos about inside the White House, opened it up to Architectural Digest , a bunch of different outlets. This was a natural continuation of that.”

Thus far, they say they have yet to hear from anyone in the Trump administration — and didn’t expect to any time soon. Asked whether they’d be willing to work with the 45th president on a tour or some other project, Raphaël laughed and said, “We’d have to see what happens.”

The People’s House is now available at the Oculus Store .

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Take This Virtual Reality Tour of the White House

Though it's free and open to the public, scoring a White House tour can be rather difficult for the average citizen. And unless you're a head of state or a foreign dignitary, you can forget about getting a glimpse inside the historic presidential residence with both President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama acting as your guides.

That is, until today. On Friday, Oculus announced that they had partnered with the President and First Lady to give the public unprecedented access to the White House thanks to virtual reality, Mashable reports . Produced by Felix & Paul Studios and Oculus, the eight-minute-long tour is titled The People’s House: Inside the White House with Barack and Michelle Obama . Viewers will have the chance to tour nine different areas of the White House, including the Situation Room and the Oval Office, as the Obamas provide historic and personal insight into each nook and cranny of the building. “This house belongs to you, and to every American," President Obama wrote in a Facebook post. "For eight years, just a short chapter in the long story of our democracy, my family also had the privilege of calling the White House home."

Those who are eager to start their tour don't have to wait for a ticket. The video is now available on the White House's official Facebook page with a longer, more immersive version of the tour coming to the Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR headsets very soon, according to a blog post .

Facebook content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

This isn't the first time that the White House has gotten more accessible to tourists since Obama has been in office. Back in the summer of 2015 it was announced that for the first time in more than 40 years, photography would be allowed on tours of the historic residence.

Related: Where the Obama Family Will Live After the White House

Check this out:

Explore the White House with Google Arts & Culture

Oct 27, 2023

[[read-time]] min read

It’s National Civics Day, and we’re taking a unique tour inside one of the most famous American structures of all: the White House.

“ Welcome to the White House ” is the first virtual guided tour of the White House’s official tour route complete with accessible audio captions and Spanish translations, so that Americans everywhere can “visit” the People’s House. The tour was captured using Street View that lives on both Google Maps and Google Arts & Culture — and the tour is now open to anyone with an internet connection, not only those who can visit in-person.

Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t always called “the White House.” Throughout the 1800s different names were tried — the "President's Palace," the "President's House" or the "Executive Mansion” — but it was Theodore Roosevelt who gave the White House its simple and direct name in 1901, and it stuck.

In this tour, you're invited to explore 11 unique rooms in the White House, from the Blue Room (where the only White House wedding in history took place), to the Library with an American landscape by Georgia O’Keeffe, to the East Room, where Abraham Lincoln first promoted Ulysses S. Grant.

So take the tour, today , and we hope this slice of living history inspires you this National Civics Day to learn more about our country’s history.

“White House Front View” by The White House | The White House on Google Arts & Culture

“White House Front View'' by The White House | The White House on Google Arts & Culture

“Red Room” by The White House | The White House on Google Arts & Culture

“Movie Theater” by The White House | The White House on Google Arts & Culture

“The Library” by The White House | The White House on Google Arts & Culture

“Green Room” by The White House | The White House on Google Arts & Culture

“Blue Room” by The White House | The White House on Google Arts & Culture

“The East Room” by The White House | The White House on Google Arts & Culture

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Take a virtual reality tour of the White House narrated by Obama before he leaves forever

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With just days left until President Barack Obama leaves the White House forever, let him take you on a tour of the place.

Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama act as tour guides on a narrated virtual reality tour of the presidential property on Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington DC.

The tour features historical moments throughout the careers of America’s 44 presidents, as well as memorable moments under Obama’s administration.

Announced by Oculus, The People’s House: Inside the White House with Barack and Michelle Obama is a 360 video available on Facebook, an Oculus video for Rift and Gear VR.

Obama says: ‘Michelle and I always joke, we’re just renters here… the owners are the American people and all those invested in creating this amazing place with so much history.

‘Every president moves to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with the full awareness that it is a temporary address,’ President Obama notes in the clip.

Now, get your tissues ready.

He added: ‘This is where we watched our daughters grow up. This is where we came to know the talented, devoted, optimistic Americans from every corner of the country and every station in life.

MORE : Here’s what to do if you need to call the police but are too scared to talk

‘Because as beautiful as these buildings are, it’s the people in them and the work that’s done here, the triumphs and tragedies you experience over course of your years here—that’s what imbues a place with meaning.’

The First family opened up the doors of the White House because they wanted to ‘make sure that everybody felt they had access to it, that as many people as possible could come in and appreciate the place where Lincoln or FDR or Reagan had made decisions that helped to shape America.’

January 20 will be the final time Barack and Michelle wake up in the White House.

That night, following his inauguration, Donald Trump will move in as the new POTUS.

His wife, and therefore future First Lady, Melania is not moving in with him .

She is remaining in the penthouse of Trump Tower in New York while Barron Trump completes his $44,120 (over £35,000) term at the prestigious Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School.

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Black Men Rally for Kamala Harris, and Confront an Elephant in the Room

“I’m standing behind a Black woman to be president of the United States, and it doesn’t make me any less of a Black man,” said the Illinois attorney general. “I’m asking all of you all to do the same.”

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By Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Erica L. Green

Reporting from Washington

A day after Vice President Kamala Harris announced that she intended to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, more than 40,000 Black men from across the country convened on a virtual fund-raising call to discuss what the moment required of them.

For four hours, one Black man after another — prominent politicians, activists, entertainers — laid out the challenges ahead for Ms. Harris, including the racist and sexist attacks they expected from her opponents. In pledging their support, many offered emotional testimonies about the personal relationships they have built with her.

But it was not long before the men confronted the elephant in the room.

“Sometimes as Black men we get confused as to what strength is, and sometimes we think that standing behind a Black woman as a leader does not display strength as Black men,” said Kwame Raoul, the attorney general of Illinois. “I’m here to tell you all tonight that it does the opposite of that, it displays strength.”

Mr. Raoul then drove home his point. “I’m standing behind a Black woman to be president of the United States, and it doesn’t make me any less of a Black man,” he said. “I’m asking all of you all to do the same.”

The call, one in a series the Harris campaign has held in recent weeks with Black women, white women and white “dudes,” was a rallying cry to a part of a crucial Democratic constituency seen as skeptical of Ms. Harris.

While Black men have been reliable voters for Democrats for decades, Mr. Raoul was touching on an uncomfortable truth: A small but significant slice of Black men have historically been hesitant to support Black women seeking the highest positions of power. The numbers are on the margins but could be crucial to carrying Ms. Harris to victory in November.

Dr. Moya Bailey, a Northwestern University professor who coined the term “misogynoir” to describe racist misogyny, said in an interview that while patriarchy is not unique to the Black population, “the consequences are much higher.” Scholars note that a demographic group that is conservative on many social issues has historically equated leadership with masculinity, borne out in the dearth of Black female leaders in the church, business and elected office.

When Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, announced her intent to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972, she faced pushback from Black male colleagues who felt she should have sought their approval. “Black male politicians are no different from white male politicians,” Ms. Chisholm said at the time. “This ‘woman thing’ is so deep.”

Nearly a half-century later, Stacey Abrams organized “Stacey and the Fellas” gatherings during her failed 2022 run for governor of Georgia because of concerns that her support among Black men was tepid. “If Black men vote for me, I will win Georgia,” she called out to them at one event.

Ms. Harris has her own challenges after decades in law enforcement, when she built a “top cop” persona associated with the incarceration of Black men, and became a proxy for a Democratic establishment that has increasingly left Black men disillusioned.

Polls from The New York Times and Siena College last year found that Black voters, and particularly Black men, were more disconnected from the Democratic Party than they have been in decades, frustrated with what many saw as inaction on their political priorities. In the 2020 election, 12 percent of Black men said they had voted for President Donald J. Trump compared with 6 percent of Black women, according to an Associated Press survey .

Ms. Harris’s campaign advisers acknowledge that the Black men drawn to Mr. Trump see him as a projection of strength, and that the former president is banking on their support once again.

“I seem to be doing very well with Black males,’’ Mr. Trump said in a news conference at Mar-a-Lago last week.

But historians, academics and Black male leaders say that Ms. Harris’s ascent may signal a change. Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, who was on the call with the Black men, urged them not to “flinch” in supporting Ms. Harris.

“It is very evident that there are forces that want a rematch on the Civil War,” Mr. Johnson said. “They made it very clear a season ago. They are playing for keeps. The best moment that we have to secure our democracy, and protect the progress that we’ve made as a people, is to put our arms around this sister.”

Black male leaders rallying support for Ms. Harris said Mr. Trump only helped their effort during an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists. Facing a panel of three Black women reporters, Mr. Trump falsely said that Ms. Harris, whose mother was Indian and whose father is Jamaican , had only recently decided to identify as Black for political purposes. He also proclaimed himself “the best president for the Black population” since Abraham Lincoln.

Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League, said such moments would make it harder for Black men to explain to other Black people why they would vote for Mr. Trump over Ms. Harris.

On the call, Mr. Morial made a point to emphasize that Ms. Harris was qualified for the job, having been an elected official for decades who spent “four years as vice president to a consequential president.” He urged the men to “not engage or allow people to create a double standard” in assessing her readiness for the job.

“An African American male has to talk in the community to African American women about why he would pick Trump over an African American woman,” Mr. Morial said in an interview, adding that “my mama would run me out the house,” if he said he was going to vote for Mr. Trump.

Ms. Harris will still face a significant challenge in motivating Black men to go to the polls, said W. Mondale Robinson, the mayor of Enfield, N.C., and the founder of the nonprofit Black Male Voter Project.

Ms. Harris is “not a trusted messenger for Black men,” he said. Mr. Robinson spoke on the call rallying support for Ms. Harris but said the callers did not represent the views of all Black men in the United States, including the many who have lost faith in the system.

“Everything she says will be looked at with a side eye from Black men because there’s a lack of trust in politicians coming for you in election years, saying they’re going to do something and then they didn’t deliver on it,” Mr. Robinson said.

For more than a year, Ms. Harris has paid close attention to signs of erosion among Black voters — and specifically men — from the Democratic Party. She has invited Black male business leaders and heads of grass-roots organizations to her official residence to hear their concerns. She has held events around the country to make the case for how the Biden administration’s domestic policies can help Black male voters.

In early 2023, the N.A.A.C.P. helped Ms. Harris organize a meeting of about 60 Black men at the White House.

Dominik Whitehead, the N.A.A.C.P. senior vice president for campaigns and mobilization, said that the men who attended were wary about her background as a prosecutor, and that he thought the meeting would feel “transactional,” merely a photo opportunity.

“There had been some neglect toward Black men and their issues,” Mr. Whitehead said. “I think there were some hard truths they needed to hear, but they were open to hearing that.”

By the end, the men had engaged with Ms. Harris on an array of topics, including their economic mobility in the job market. Before she left the room, Mr. Whitehead said, Ms. Harris told the group, “I see you. We see you. And we know this has not been easy.”

Mr. Trump and his allies have made the push for Black men by marketing gold sneakers to them, campaigning with rappers and claiming without evidence that those who cross the border are taking “Black jobs.” Mr. Trump’s surrogates have held listening sessions in a cigar bar in Philadelphia while contending that the Democratic Party has abandoned Black voters.

Mr. Trump has gone so far to say that Black men would vote for him because they could relate to his recent convictions — a claim Ms. Harris has called “insulting.” She has also said she has work to do to earn their votes.

“There is a trope in this election which I take issue with, because the underlying premise suggests that Black men should be in the back pocket of Democrats,” Ms. Harris said in an interview with The Nation magazine last month. “And that is absolutely unacceptable. Here’s why: Why would any one demographic of people be different from any other demographic? They all expect you to earn their vote! You’ve got to make your case.”

Earlier this year, Ms. Harris invited groups of Black male leaders to her official residence at the Naval Observatory for a series of meetings about the needs of their communities. One dinner was described on the formal menu card as a “celebration of Black excellence honoring extraordinary men.”

At that event, the men told her she had to make the case that the Biden administration’s policies had benefited Black communities, not just by naming legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, but by describing its impact, including lowering the cost of insulin for Black families.

In May, during a stop in Milwaukee on what she billed as an economic opportunity tour , Ms. Harris cited a Black construction business owner by name, highlighted the growth in the number of his employees and made her case. “When the president and I came in, we said we are going to increase by 50 percent federal contracts going to minority-owned businesses, and we are on track to get that done by the end of next year,” she said. A moment later she added, “Look, who’s in the position of power matters.’’

What matters to Jason Nichols, senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park, is the change he sees occurring this year. While Black men may not see as much of themselves in Ms. Harris as they did in former President Barack Obama, Dr. Nichols said they can see themselves in the progress she represents.

“You see the community coming together to vote their best interest — which, in this case, is a Black woman,” he said. “I think this time Black men understand the assignment.”

Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Erica L. Green

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Tracking the Polls . The state of the race, according to the latest polling data.

Election Calendar. Take a look at key dates and voting deadlines.

Candidates’ Careers. How Trump, Vance, Harris and Walz got here.

Who Is Tim Walz? Meet the Minnesota governor, who Harris picked as her V.P.

Harris on the Issues. Here’s where Harris stands on abortion, immigration and more.

Trump’s 2025 Plans. Trump is preparing to radically reshape the government.

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Tim Walz pulls no punches in first speech as Harris’s running mate at packed Philadelphia rally

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Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz made their debut as the Democratic presidential ticket on Tuesday night , kicking off a campaign against Donald Trump and JD Vance in front of an electrified crowd in Philadelphia .

The governor strode on stage at Temple University’s Licouras Center on Tuesday with Harris just hours after she announced him as her running mate , with 91 days to go until the November election.

Walz’s appearance ended the closely-watched contest for the next potential vice president, landing on a seasoned Midwestern politician, military veteran and former school teacher with a progressive track record.

Harris told the estimated 12,000 people in attendance that she “set out to find a partner who can build this brighter future” during her weeks-old campaign for the presidency.

Her search for a running mate led her to a “leader who can unite this nation and move us forward,” someone who was “a fighter for the middle class” and a “patriot who believes as I do the extraordinary promise of America, a promise of freedom, opportunity and justice not just for some but for all,” she said.

She told the crowd that she “found such a leader” in Walz, a 60-year-old former high school teacher who enlisted in the Army National Guard at 17 and served for 24 years, then spent more than two decades teaching and coaching football before entering politics.

The vice president recounted how during the 1990s, a time when the federal government enacted a law banning any recognition of same-sex relationships, Walz served as a faculty adviser for a high school gay-straight alliance group because he “knew the signal it would send to have a football coach get involved.”

Walz “makes people feel they belong and inspires them to dream big, and that’s the kind of vice president he will be,” she added, “and that’s the kind of vice president America deserves.”

He represented Minnesota in the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017 and is now in the middle of his second term as the state’s governor. He has had a recent meteoric rise on to the national stage with his no-nonsense assessment of the GOP’s platform and the “weird” agenda behind it.

In the governor’s office, Walz ushered through a series of popular progressive policies, including protections for abortion rights and LGBT+ Minnesotans and a free breakfast and lunch program for public school children.

“Minnesota’s strength comes from our values, our commitment to working together, to seeing past our differences, to always be willing to lend a helping hand,” Walz told the crowd.

Trump, however, “doesn’t know the first thing about service, because he’s too busy serving himself,” according to Walz.

The former president “weakens our economy to strengthen his own hand, mocks our laws, and sows chaos and division, and that’s to say nothing of his record as president,” said Walz, who said Trump “froze” during the Covid-19 crisis, “drove the economy into the ground,” and “make no mistake: violent crime was up under Donald Trump.”

“That’s not counting the crimes he committed,” he added.

Walz said he “can’t wait to debate” his GOP counterpart JD Vance.

“Like most people who grew up in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best seller trashing that community,” he said, his voice carrying more than a hint of sarcasm.

He added that what Vance represents is “not what Middle America is,” and drew some of the loudest cheers of the night when he told rallygoers: “I can’t wait to debate the guy ... if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up .”

“See what I did there?” said Walz, making an apparent reference to an online joke that Vance wrote about having sex with a couch in his best-selling memor.

Harris’s announcement arrived roughly three months before Election Day and two weeks before the Democratic National Convention, where the Harris-Walz ticket will formally receive the party’s nomination.

After President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and backed Harris as the party’s nominee, she quickly collected endorsements and delegate pledges to clinch the nomination , with record-breaking fundraising numbers that have eclipsed Republicans’ multi-million dollar war chest.

A campaign spokesperson said the newly-christened Harris-Walz effort pulled in yet another $20m in the hours after the announcement.

The electic atmosphere recalled the boisterous rallies of the Obama-Biden campaigns in 2008 and 2012. It attracted a racially diverse crowd that included a pair of gray-haired white men sporting shirts declaring themselves “Old White Men for Harris and Freedom.”

“It’s as clear as the T-shirt says,” Bernie Strain told The Independent . “It’s about two old white men liking our Social Security, liking our Medicare, liking our freedom, liking our democracy — we’ll lose it if Trump gets elected.”

Strain said that his son, a Marine, had served a pair of tours at the base that was struck by Iran-backed militants in Iraq on Monday.

“He’s no loser and he’s no sucker for serving in the United States’s service, and Trump’s not going to call my son a loser or a sucker,” he said. “Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”

Harris even drew a pair of former Republican members of Congress, including former Pennsylvania congressman James Greenwood, who told The Independent that he understood Biden had to stand down after his June 27 debate against Trump.

Greenwood described the vibe after Biden stood down as “like an electric charge.”

“The excitement, the volunteers, the fundraising, — everyone’s pretty excited,” he said.

Another ex-Republican House member from Illinois, Joe Walsh, said Walz was “a great bet” for Harris because the Minnesotan is “like an everyman.”

“I disagree with him on a lot of policy, but he's like a regular guy, and that's what Democrats have to have,” he said.

Andrew Feinberg reported from Philadelphia

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Experience yosemite national park in virtual reality with president obama.

Earlier this summer, the First Family traveled to Yosemite National Park to celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service. Today, on the National Parks 100th birthday, you can experience the President’s trip to Yosemite like never before through virtual reality (VR).

In a first-ever VR experience featuring President Obama, witness Marine One lower into Ahwahnee Meadow, float in a canoe on the Merced River, and gaze up at the sequoias in Mariposa Grove and take in stunning views of Yosemite Falls. 

“Going to a place like Yosemite changes you; it stays with you for the rest of your life ... And I want all of our kids, and all of their kids, to have this chance too.” President Obama

Through the Ages: President Obama Celebrates America’s National Parks was created by National Geographic, Felix & Paul Studios, and Oculus, and is available today on the Oculus Store and as a 360 video on Facebook.

Experience Yosemite in VR, then join the centennial celebration by visiting a National Park IRL for free from August 25-28th. Get started at FindYourPark.com .

Learn more about the places featured in the film: 

Scene 1: El Cap Meadow

El Cap Meadow, along Northside Drive in Yosemite Valley, provides a breathtaking view straight up El Capitan, a massive granite monolith that towers 3,593 feet above the Valley floor. From spring to fall, climbers come from all over the globe to scale El Capitan. El Capitan meadow, located on the west end of Yosemite Valley, offers a great view of other notable Yosemite formations as well, like the Cathedral Rocks.

Scene 2: Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

The Mariposa Grove contains about 500 mature giant sequoias. Among the largest living things on earth, giant sequoias are not as tall as their cousins, the coast redwoods, but are more massive. They are also among the longest-living trees. Some ancient trees are over 3,000 years old!

Scene 3: Arrival of Marine One in Ahwahnee Meadow

Peaceful Ahwahnee Meadow, located along the north wall of the Valley, offers a spectacular view of Half Dome and up to Glacier Point. Deer can often be seen browsing here in the evenings, and apple trees, remnants of some  19th-century  Yosemite Valley residents,  still dot the meadow, 

Scene 4: Lower Yosemite Falls

Originally carved by tributary glaciers thousands of years ago, Yosemite Creek was gradually enlarged by the heavy volume of water and ice which ran through this massive watershed. Now, when show melts, some 2,400 gallons per second of icy runoff can be funneled down the drainage, plunging over the sheer cliff down three cascades into the Valley below. These three cascades, totaling over 2,400 vertical feet, make Yosemite Falls one of the tallest waterfalls in the world. Albeit impressive during spring run off, Yosemite Falls in an ephemeral fall, meaning that it dries up completely during most summers. 

Scene 5: Canoe on Merced River

A lazy float along the peaceful Merced River is a great way to tour the towering granite cliffs and waterfalls around Yosemite Valley. Take in stunning views of Half Dome, Glacier Point, and Yosemite Falls as you float past the emerald-green meadows and pine and cedar forests of Yosemite Valley. Wildlife abounds along the trip -- keep your eyes peeled for deer, black bear, and many species of birds.

Scene 6: Return to Lower Yosemite Falls 

The Lower Yosemite Fall plaza area offers an amazing framed view of Yosemite Falls (all three cascades!), and a short, accessible trail will take you to the bottom of the crashing Lower Fall.

Scene 7: Glacier Point

Sitting 3,314 feet directly above Curry Village in Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point provides an overlook with a commanding view of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, up the Merced River Canyon, and across Yosemite's vast Wilderness. While the road is closed during the winter due to snow, adventurous visitors can ski to Glacier Point.

Scene 8: President Obama delivers remarks at Yosemite 

Scene 9: El Capitan

From spring to fall, climbers come from all over the globe to scale El Capitan. 

Scene 10: Vernal Fall

Unlike ephemeral Yosemite Falls, Vernal Fall (317 feet high) flows all year, although it peaks during spring run off, usually in late May or June. You can see Vernal Fall from Glacier Point when the road is open, or it is accessible via trail when conditions permit. The Mist Trail, which rises steeply off the Valley floor, offers a good view of Vernal Fall after about 3/4 mile, and the moderately strenuous round-trip gets you to the base of the fall after just over 1 mile.

Scene 11: Tenaya Lake 

Very few lakes are easily accessible in Yosemite National Park. Tenaya Lake, located along the Tioga Road, is one of the easiest to get to when the Tioga Road is open (summer only), and is popular for picnicking and canoeing. The high granite peaks and dramatic domes provide a spectacular background for this lovely high country lake.

Kori Schulman

• Follow @KS44

Watch President Obama's final State of the Union address.

Read what the President is looking for in his next Supreme Court nominee.

Take a look at America's three newest national monuments.