party lines

Tyra Banks on Barack Obama’s Victory

If you didn’t already know that the world revolves around Tyra Banks, girl, we have proof. When asked on the red carpet of Glamour’s 2008 Women of the Year awards about how she spent Election Night, Banks described the emotions of many. “When it was announced Barack Obama was going to be our next president, I could not sleep,” she said. “I called my brother. I called my mom. We cried on the phone. I woke up at three o’clock in the morning. I woke up at five o’clock in the morning. And then I would wake up just crying to myself. It was amazing.” But wait! It wasn’t just history being made that touched Banks, but rather how she’d help make history. “I felt so touched because Barack Obama was actually the first candidate to come on my talk show,” she said. “So to have spent that hour with him … I actually held up a crystal ball to him, and I said, ‘What do you see in your future, Senator?’ And he said, ‘I see the White House.’ So then I’m crying some more. I held up the crystal ball and he saw it!”

That night Banks also rubbed shoulders with Condoleezza Rice (“I was like, ‘You’re one of the leaders of the free world and you want to meet me?’”) and Mayor Bloomberg, who presented her Media Mogul award. The two of them met planting a tree. “You know his Plant-A-Million trees initiative?” Banks explained, “I wanted to plant a tree with him, so we planted a tree. We actually physically did it together, and I met him there and that day he declared it Tyra Banks Show Day.” So after all that tree-planting togetherness, do Banks and Bloomberg hang out? “No, we don’t hang out!” she said. “Nothing in common but the tree.”

Tyra Banks on Barack Obama’s Victory