The text of the linked article for someone asking above. It didn't copy over well because there are lots of links and photos and tweets. But bottom line, on Gary Lee's last day on staff at the white house, President Obama took the time to learn a bit of Korean and said Hello to him in Korean. There is a precious photo of a beaming Gary Lee shaking hands and laughing with President Obama.
Text of the Washington Post Article:
Donald Trump sent the 2,559th tweet of his presidency on Saturday. Like many before, it was combative and vague and quite popular.
“So much Fake News is being reported,” Trump wrote — perhaps referring to reports that he had complained of immigrants from “shithole countries,” or perhaps rebutting the previous night’s NBC News report that he once called a career intelligence analyst a “pretty Korean lady.”
The 2,559th tweet did reasonably well, by Trump’s standards. More than 124,000 people “liked” it. Trump is not the most popular president, according to opinion polls, but he is an extraordinary tweeter. He doesn’t call himself @realdonaldtrump for nothing.
Gary Lee’s screen name, on the other hand, is @whoisgarylee. Maybe because, well, who is Gary Lee? Google him, and not much comes up. He had never tweeted before Saturday, when Trump’s words inspired him to begin.
Gary Lee
@whoisgarylee
1. I’ve never tweeted before but today felt like a good day to start.
8:08 AM - Jan 13, 2018
5,117 5,117 Replies 56,831 56,831 Retweets 159,622 159,622 likes
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Lee once worked in the White House, too, as an assistant staff secretary under President Obama. But that was hardly a high-profile position. Assistant staff secretaries don’t often make the news.
“Who am I, other than just some Korean American kid from Albuquerque, New Mexico?” Lee used to think to himself, he once said in a 2011 interview with his alma mater, the University of Southern California. It only appeared on the school’s website, so you might have missed it at the time.
But the gratification of managing email systems on a presidential campaign, or saying, “This is the White House,” into a phone after Obama's Inauguration Day, changed the way Lee thought of himself and his place in history, he told the school.
13 Jan
Gary Lee
@whoisgarylee
1. I’ve never tweeted before but today felt like a good day to start.
Gary Lee
@whoisgarylee
2. President Trump made a lot of upsetting remarks this week including this one. “Where are you from?” is a question that many Asian Americans dread.
www.vox.com/platform/amp/world/2018/1/12/16885546/trump-asian-american-intelligence-briefing … pic.twitter.com/rwgrx7OQrb
8:08 AM - Jan 13, 2018
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“My Korean-born-and-raised parents both came to America as young adults, knowing a bare minimum of English, having a handful of family to rely on, and coping with a true culture shock,” Lee once wrote. One generation later, their son had a bachelor's degree in political science and was working for the president.
And even if not many outside the White House knew who Lee was when he left the staff in 2011, Obama did.
13 Jan
Gary Lee
@whoisgarylee
Replying to @whoisgarylee
3. This struck a chord with me not only bc I’m Korean-American, but also bc I worked at the White House, for President Obama. I left the WH in 2011 for a Fulbright scholarship in Korea. President Obama knew I was leaving to learn more about the culture and language of my parents.
Gary Lee
@whoisgarylee
4. On my last day, I went into the Oval Office and POTUS greeted me by saying, "안녕하세요". Hello, in Korean. I’m lucky bc @petesouza captured that exact moment. pic.twitter.com/sKl5ie0DLM
8:08 AM - Jan 13, 2018
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As he remembered these things on Saturday, and read about Trump's words, Lee decided to tell his story again. Not to the university this time, but to anyone who cared to hear. So he logged into @whoisgarylee and wrote his first-ever tweet, then his second and third, and 14th.
13 Jan
Gary Lee
@whoisgarylee
Replying to @whoisgarylee
8. After my departure photo with POTUS, I left the Oval Office in a daze and ran into @kalpenn in the West Wing lobby. I recounted the interaction with the president and he started tearing up. "Why are you crying?" I asked.
Gary Lee
@whoisgarylee
9. He replied, "think about what you just said. How incredible that is. On your last day of work at the White House, after your years of service, the first African-American president greeted you in your parents' native language." I started crying too.
8:08 AM - Jan 13, 2018
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And as he wrote, many read.
13 Jan
Gary Lee
@whoisgarylee
Replying to @whoisgarylee
10. My parents could never have fathomed such an idea. My mom came to the US when she was 18, my father when he was 26. They worked multiple full-time and part-time jobs, opened a small business, and at one point, had only $20 in their checking account.
Tibblenibble2
@tibblenibble21
What a marvelous story. Thanks for sharing.
12:39 AM - Jan 14, 2018
Replies 10 10 Retweets 42 42 likes
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13 Jan
Gary Lee
@whoisgarylee
Replying to @whoisgarylee
13. What a beautiful, incredible nation of immigrants we are. 🇺🇸
Vicky Durieux
@vickydurieux
pic.twitter.com/O0YPFnirdx
8:34 PM - Jan 13, 2018
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Lee had said all this before. He told his old university how much Obama’s “안녕하세요” had meant to him in 2011, shortly after he left the White House to study in his parents’ homeland. “It says a lot about the man himself,” Lee had said, “but it also says how far we’ve come.”
Lee still believes in that optimism, he wrote Saturday — on the same weekend President Trump issued his 2,559th tweet, and his 2,560th, and more besides that.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realdonaldtrump
I, as President, want people coming into our Country who are going to help us become strong and great again, people coming in through a system based on MERIT. No more Lotteries! #AMERICA FIRST
7:19 AM - Jan 14, 2018
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But none of them were quite as popular as Lee’s first tweet, introducing a thread about a different president’s respect for other cultures, which was “liked” by 142,000 people and counting. And every one of those people now knows who Gary Lee is.
13 Jan
Rachel Maddow MSNBC
✔
@maddow
read this. …
Katherine Tansey
@kattansey1
Omg I dont even know you and I love you Gary Lee.
11:22 AM - Jan 13, 2018
8 8 Replies 63 63 Retweets 739 739 likes
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Raja Krishnamoorthi
✔
@congressmanraja
Today, on #KoreanAmericanDay and in the wake of President Trump's comments on immigrants and their countries of origin, I want to encourage you to read this thread by Obama White House staffer Gary Lee. …
5:20 PM - Jan 13, 2018
4 4 Replies 79 79 Retweets 217 217 likes
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Cody Keenan
✔
@codykeenan
Can’t call @whoisgarylee a moment when the dude is all-time
twitter.com/i/moments/952220666769694723 …
6:58 PM - Jan 13, 2018 · Washington, DC
15 15 Replies 282 282 Retweets 2,065 2,065 likes
for that man!
