Michelle Obama went to bed before Trump won election
First Lady Michelle Obama may have been one of Hillary Clinton’s top surrogates on the campaign trail this election, but she declined to be among the first to know the outcome, since -- as is her habit -- Obama went to sleep early, before it was evident that Donald Trump would win the White House.
“I went to bed. I don’t like to watch the political discourse; I never have,” Obama said in an interview with PEOPLE.com, and speaking about her husband, she added, “I barely did with him.”
In a 2012 interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” President Obama acknowledged his wife’s early-to-bed ways. “I’m a night guy as it is,” he told Steve Kroft. “And so, Michelle usually goes to bed about 9:30. She’s an early bird, maybe 10:00. The girls go to bed around 10:00.”
Obama was a powerful messenger for Clinton, traveling to battleground states, making a persuasive argument for Clinton’s passion and her readiness for the presidency. She appealed voters to go to the polls for Clinton. “If Hillary doesn’t win this election, that will be on us. It will be because we did not stand for her,” she said in North Carolina, days before the election. “It will be because we did not vote for her.”
On the trail, Obama also talked about why Mr. Trump shouldn’t be elected, albeit without mentioning him by name.
“Anything that I felt about the election I said and I stand by,” the first lady told PEOPLE.com. Of her early night, she added, “Once you do what you can do, then the rest is easy. It was in the hands of the American people.”
Nonetheless, Obama, like her husband, will do what she can to help with the transition to Mr. Trump’s administration.
“This is our democracy, and this is how it works,” she said in the PEOPLE.com interview. “We are ready to work with the next administration and make sure they are as successful as they can be. Because that’s what’s best for this country.”
