Wednesday morning, we woke up in an America where Donald Trump is president. And that meant Hillary Clinton had to give a concession speech—likely one of the hardest speeches she’s ever had to give.
Tim Kaine spoke before Clinton took the stage at 11:40 a.m. Eastern Wednesday morning in New York, to huge applause.
Clinton started off her speech with thanks: “Thank you so much, and I love you all too!”
She said when she called Trump on Tuesday night to concede the election, she offered to work with him during the upcoming presidency.
“Being your candidate has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” she told supporters. “This is painful, and it will be for a long time. But our campaign was never about one person or even one election.”
She said that while the election has shown the U.S. is more divided than most of us even expected, we need to continue working toward a more inclusive, hopeful America. And she encouraged supporters to accept the result.
“Donald Trump is going to be our president,” she said. “We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.”
She thanked President Obama for his eight years of service, her family for supporting her, the volunteers, activists and employees who made her campaign run, and everyone who donated to the campaign.
Then she spoke directly to young men and women: “To the young people in particular, I hope you will hear this. I have spent my entire adult life fighting for what I believe in. I’ve had setbacks, sometimes very painful ones. You are at the beginning of your professional careers. You will have successes and setbacks too. This loss hurts. But please, never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.”
She finished by encouraging young women to believe that they are powerful, and said Americans to continue to have faith in each other and their values.
