working on it intensively, the president has, for the last couple days, and a lot of aides have told me they wouldn't be surprised if he would pull an all-nighter. a lot of people are wondering, will this be aimed at donald trump, and i think people who want him to take on the president-elect are going to be sorely disappointed. and it's not going to be just aimed at the people who are disappointed in the outcome of the election. so i think it's going to be a surprisingly optimistic speech, in many ways having echoes, brian, of his first campaign, telling people that you need to get out there, you need to get involved. >> veteran white house correspondent chris jansing tonight from our chicago bureau. chris, thank you so much. we'll look for you tomorrow night. that's our report for tonight. my thanks to nicolle wallace for sitting with us last week so i could get away with my family. she'll be back with us later this week, but for now that's my broadcast for tonight. "hardball with chris matthews" featuring a surprise celebrity