Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma made the TIME 100 on Thursday, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and a fellow nominee, President Barack Obama, took the opportunity to describe their unlikely friendship:
“Tom Coburn and I don’t always agree on the issues,” Obama wrote. “In fact, on the surface, we seem pretty different. I grew up in Hawaii; he grew up in Oklahoma. I’m trying to keep up with two daughters at home; Tom has already raised three.”
He added: “But after we entered the Senate at the same time, our wives, Michelle and Carolyn, hit it off at an orientation dinner. Pretty soon, we did too. Since then, we’ve bonded over family and faith. And we’ve harnessed our friendship and mutual respect to find places where we can agree and work together to move this country forward.”
Read the full note here.