Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton spent their first joint rally gushing about each other

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Speaking on Thursday in front of a crowd of 11,000 people in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, first lady Michelle Obama made a shocking declaration: She considers Hillary Clinton a "friend."

"People wonder," the first lady acknowledged, whether she and the Democratic nominee she's been stumping so passionately for are actually close. But Obama put that rumbling to rest, detailing how close the Obama and Clinton families are before eventually calling the Democratic nominee "my girl."

The North Carolina appearance was the first joint event for Clinton and Obama, and it was Clinton's second-largest crowd of the campaign. And while Obama made an impassioned plea for early voting, telling the thousands assembled that claims of a "rigged" election — like the ones Clinton's opponent Donald Trump has been making — are merely efforts to suppress voter turnout, the shared stage was mostly an opportunity for the two women to gush over each other: