Michelle Obama: 'We’re feeling what not having hope feels like'

President Barack Obama’s administration achieved the platform he ran for president on: hope, according to first lady Michelle Obama, who implied that many Americans no longer have that hope as President-elect Donald Trump transitions into the White House.

“We feel the difference now. See, now, we’re feeling what not having hope feels like, you know,” the first lady told Oprah Winfrey in an interview excerpt broadcast Friday on “CBS This Morning.”


Trump savaged his rivals with disparaging nicknames and ran a campaign more focused on his celebrity than his policies. He railed against Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, vowing to “make America great again,” but alienated segments of the population with pledges to temporarily ban Muslims, build a border wall and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

Obama ran his campaign more traditionally, running on a platform of hope and progress with the slogan “Yes we can.” Perhaps the quintessential emblem of that campaign is his “Hope” poster, which was designed in a day by Shepard Fairey, who told Esquire in 2015 that Obama failed to live up to his expectations.

“Hope is necessary. It’s a necessary concept,” the first lady said. “And Barack didn’t just talk about hope because he thought it was just a nice slogan to get votes. I mean, he and I and so many believe that if you — what else do you have if you don’t have hope? What do you give your kids if you can’t give them hope?”

Michelle Obama tore into Trump on the stump campaigning for Clinton, emerging as the most potent surrogate for the Democratic nominee and sparking calls for her to run for office — although President Obama has insisted that his wife won’t run for office.

She appeared to do the same in her interview with Winfrey, suggesting the nation will no longer have a grownup in the Oval Office once the current first family leaves but never mentioning the nation's 45th president by name.

“Our children respond to crises the way they see us respond. You know, it’s like the toddler that bumps his head on the table, and they look up at you to figure out whether it hurts, and if you’re like,” she began, gasping for effect, “‘Oh, my God,’ they’re crying.”

The president, the first lady continued, has been someone who would respond by saying: “You know what? Babe, it’s OK, it’s OK.”

“I feel that way about the nation. I feel that Barack has been that for the nation in ways that people will come to appreciate,” she said. “Having a grownup in the White House who can say to you in times of crisis and turmoil: ‘Hey, it’s gonna be OK. Let’s remember the good things that we have. Let’s look at the future. Let’s look at all the things that we’re building.’ All of this is important for our kids to stay focused and to feel like their work isn’t in vain, like their lives aren’t in vain. What do we do if we don’t have hope, Oprah?”

