--- title: Michelle Obama on the 2016 Election: 'It Was Painful' description: Michelle Obama said watching the presidential election was "painful" this year, speaking to Oprah Winfrey in a farewell interview canonical: https://time.com/4607672/michelle-obama-presidential-election-painful/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-20T12:45:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:23:58.593Z article:section: Politics og:title: Michelle Obama on Watching the Presidential Election: 'It Was Painful' og:description: "This past election was challenging for me ... as a citizen" og:url: https://time.com/4607672/michelle-obama-presidential-election-painful/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08b49db3aa18d010/6988b385bc6cfcd0063df9ea/michelle-obama-oprah-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-OBAMA-HIDDEN FIGURES og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michelle Obama on Watching the Presidential Election: 'It Was Painful' twitter:description: "This past election was challenging for me ... as a citizen" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08b49db3aa18d010/6988b385bc6cfcd0063df9ea/michelle-obama-oprah-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michelle Obama on Watching the 2016 Presidential Election: 'It Was Painful'  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 20, 2016 12:45 PM UTC  First Lady Michelle Obama speaks following a screening of the movie, "Hidden Figures," in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 15, 2016. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks following a screening of the movie, "Hidden Figures," in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 15, 2016.Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 20, 2016 12:45 PM UTC First Lady [Michelle Obama](http://motto.time.com/4604722/michelle-obama-hope-oprah/) said watching the presidential election this year was “painful.” She spoke to Oprah Winfrey in a [farewell interview at the White House](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/oprah-michelle-obama-no-hope-interview/), which aired Monday night on CBS. “You know, this—this past election was challenging for me as a—as a citizen. To watch and experience. It was painful,” Obama said during the interview. She previously told _People_ that [she went to sleep](http://motto.time.com/4593609/michelle-obama-election-donald-trump/) before hearing the results of the election that ended with Donald Trump defeating Hillary Clinton, for whom Obama had campaigned heavily. “You kind of saw the tea leaves,” Obama told Winfrey. “I kind of felt like how things were going by the time I went to bed.” “So mentally, I’d already kind of digested it before I actually read it,” she added. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4607672/michelle-obama-presidential-election-painful/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4607672/michelle-obama-presidential-election-painful/"},"headline":"Michelle Obama on Watching the 2016 Presidential Election: 'It Was Painful'","datePublished":"2016-12-20T12:45:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:23:58.593Z","description":"\"This past election was challenging for me ... as a citizen\"","url":"https://time.com/4607672/michelle-obama-presidential-election-painful/","keywords":["2016 Election topic","White House","Michelle Obama","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08b49db3aa18d010/6988b385bc6cfcd0063df9ea/michelle-obama-oprah-interview.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/blt08b49db3aa18d010/6988b385bc6cfcd0063df9ea/michelle-obama-oprah-interview.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-OBAMA-HIDDEN FIGURES","caption":"US-POLITICS-OBAMA-HIDDEN FIGURES","creditText":"Saul Loeb—AFP/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":"https://time.com/4607672/michelle-obama-presidential-election-painful/","name":"Michelle Obama on Watching the 2016 Presidential Election: 'It Was Painful'"}}]}] ```