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BY Meg Wagner
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, December 16, 2016, 1:38 PM

Michelle Obama understands your despair, America.

The first lady suggested that the election of Donald Trump has drained the country of the hope her husband’s 2008 campaign ran on.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama said he believes President Obama’s administration achieved the platform he promised — hope — because Americans “feel the difference now.”

“Now we are feeling what not having hope feels like," she said in a Friday clip previewing the interview, which is set to air on CBS Monday.

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Michelle Obama insisted she and her husband — whose first presidential campaign in 2008 featured an iconic poster of his likeness with the word “hope” — believe hope is “a necessary concept.”

## U.S. President-elect Donald Trump arrives to speak during a USA Thank You Tour event at Giant Center in Hershey, Penn. Thursday.

(LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS)

“Barack didn't just talk about hope because he thought it was just a nice slogan to get votes,” she said. “He and I and so many believe that — what else do you have, if you don’t have hope? What do you give your kids if you can’t give them hope?”

Without mentioning Trump by name, the first lady quietly tore into the Republican businessman, insinuating that the nation will lose a “grownup in the White House” when President Obama’s term ends in January.

She said her husband has been a steady leader able to comfort the nation even during tremulous times and compared him to the father of “a toddler that bumps his head on the table.”

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“They look up at you to figure out whether it hurts,” she said. “If you’re like, ‘Oh, my God!’ they’re crying.”

## First Lady Michelle Obama speaks to Oprah Winfrey in a new CBS interview, set to air Monday.

(Michele Crowe/The White House)

She said President Obama is the calm dad who tells his injured child, “You know what, babe? It’s OK.”

“I feel that way about the nation,” she said. “I feel that Barack has been that for the nation in ways that people will come to appreciate.”

She continued: “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.”

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“What do we do if we don’t have hope, Oprah?”

Tags:
  michelle obama
  donald trump
  barack obama
  oprah winfrey

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