President Barack Obama says his two daughters’ reactions to the 2016 election should serve as a model for younger Americans who were disappointed in the outcome.
“They were disappointed,” Obama said on Wednesday at his final White House news conference. “They paid attention to what their mom said during the campaign and believed it because it’s consistent with what we tried to teach them in our household, and what I’ve tried to model as a father with their mom and what we’ve asked them to expect from future boyfriends or spouses.”
Obama, and especially First Lady Michelle Obama, had prosecuted a fairly personal case against President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail, including an indictment of his treatment toward women.
Obama said Malia and Sasha Obama, however, knew not to “mope” and that the country had not rejected the values that they believed in. He recalled dinner conversations with them about the country’s “core decency” and said their attitude had not turned dour.
“What we’ve also tried to teach them is resilience and we’ve tried to give them hope,” Obama said, “and that the only thing that is the end of the world is the end of the world.”