well, our jim bitterman hit the road to find out what drives people to vote for mr. macron. >> time to hit the road again in our finely tuned electoral machine. we're going to be out on a hunt this time around for voters for the centrist candidate. emmanuel macron. not hard to find since he is ahead in the polls. a retired schoolteacher, an international business consultant, a philosophy professor and a municipal police officer. but macron was the first choice of only one of the four. gee says he has been with macron from the start. >> reporter: it i like the way he sees things. not where we come from, but where we are going. what we can do together. >> reporter: hopes for an extreme left candidate, but when he was eliminated in the first round of the voting she decided to avoid the worse, meaning marine le pen. she will reluctantly vote mac n macron. >> translator: many people voted for him by default. >> reporter: he is worried his economic will go too far. will also vote for macron. >> le. p pen was on the second run. >> reporter: that's who john will vote for, to

anna. >> all right, jim bitterman reporting from france tonight. thank you. the french election also became something of a proxy war between president trump and former president obama. president trump praising le pen for the strongest on borders and terrorism. in an interview last month. president obama took the unusual step of actually taping a video message in support of macron. >> i have admires the campaign that emanuel macron has run. he is committed to a better future to the french people. athena jones joins us from new jersey what reaction are we hearing around the white house? >> hi, an yachlt tna, the presi tweeted congratulations a few hours ago. he said congratulations to emanuel macron on his win today as the next president of france. i look forward to working with him. so pretty straight forward statement of congratulations. the white house press secretary sean spicer put out a slightly longer statement echoing just what the president said. it's interesting. you mention the fact that the president trump didn't ebb dors any candidate in this race