--- title: Michelle Obama Campaigns for Hillary Clinton: Transcript description: Michelle Obama on Friday made her first campaign stop for Hillary Clinton, criticizing Donald Trump without ever mentioning his name canonical: https://time.com/4498086/michelle-obama-hillary-clinton-campaign-trail-transcript/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-17T13:53:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:36.496Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Michelle Obama's First Campaign Trail Speech for Hillary Clinton og:description: "There is only one person in this election we can trust" og:url: https://time.com/4498086/michelle-obama-hillary-clinton-campaign-trail-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69acd17dd0eace1d/6988a67ecf40a89ff4c44da6/michelle-obama-clinton-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: First Lady Michelle Obama campaigns for Democratic candidate for President Hillary Clinton at The Johnson Center at George Mason University og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Michelle Obama's First Campaign Trail Speech for Hillary Clinton twitter:description: "There is only one person in this election we can trust" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69acd17dd0eace1d/6988a67ecf40a89ff4c44da6/michelle-obama-clinton-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Michelle Obama's First Campaign Trail Speech for Hillary Clinton > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 17, 2016 1:53 PM UTC  First Lady Michelle Obama campaigns for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at The Johnson Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., on Sept. 16, 2016. First Lady Michelle Obama campaigns for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at The Johnson Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., on Sept. 16, 2016. The Washington Post/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 17, 2016 1:53 PM UTC [Michelle Obama](http://time.com/4423176/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-star/) on Friday made her [first campaign stop for Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4497557/michelle-obama-hillary-clinton-birther/), praising the Democratic nominee and criticizing Donald Trump without ever mentioning his name. “As I’ve said before, the presidency doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are. And the same thing is true of a presidential campaign,” she said. “So, if a candidate is erratic and threatening, if a candidate traffics in prejudice, fears, and lies on the trail, if a candidate has no clear plans to implement their goals, if they disrespect their fellow citizens, including folks who make extraordinary sacrifices for our country — let me tell you, that is who they are. That is the kind of president they will be. Trust me.” It was a rare appearance on the campaign trail for the first lady, who delivered an [emotional speech](http://time.com/4421538/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-transcript/) at the Democratic National Convention about her support for Clinton. Here are Obama’s full remarks during the speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4498086/michelle-obama-hillary-clinton-campaign-trail-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4498086/michelle-obama-hillary-clinton-campaign-trail-transcript/"},"headline":"Read Michelle Obama's First Campaign Trail Speech for Hillary Clinton","datePublished":"2016-09-17T13:53:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:36.496Z","description":"\"It is excruciatingly clear that there is only one person in this election we can trust with those responsibilities\"","url":"https://time.com/4498086/michelle-obama-hillary-clinton-campaign-trail-transcript/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Michelle Obama","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69acd17dd0eace1d/6988a67ecf40a89ff4c44da6/michelle-obama-clinton-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69acd17dd0eace1d/6988a67ecf40a89ff4c44da6/michelle-obama-clinton-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"First Lady Michelle Obama campaigns for Democratic candidate for President Hillary Clinton at The Johnson Center at George Mason University","caption":"First Lady Michelle Obama campaigns for Democratic candidate for President Hillary Clinton at The Johnson Center at George Mason University","creditText":"The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4498086/michelle-obama-hillary-clinton-campaign-trail-transcript/","name":"Read Michelle Obama's First Campaign Trail Speech for Hillary Clinton"}}]}] ```