Michelle Obama not only said Friday that she would not run for president because Americans are “not ready for a woman president,” but also implied that they are not ready for her in the White House as a black first lady.
Obama cited Kamala Harris’ defeat by Donald Trump in 2024 as evidence of the country’s sexism, saying Americans “have a lot of growing up to do.”
“As we saw in the last election, unfortunately, we are not ready,” she told an audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music while promoting her new book, “The View.” “So I say, don’t even look at me about running, because you’re all lying. You’re not ready for a woman. You’re not.”
“You know, we have a lot of growing up to do,” she continued. “And there are still, unfortunately, a lot of men who don’t feel like they can be led by a woman, and we’ve seen that.”
Obama seemed to amplify earlier complaints on her book tour that she was under “particularly intense scrutiny” as a black first lady, saying that even Democrats were trying to destroy her when she became “effective” when her husband ran in the 2008 primary.
She told the audience:
Let me be clear, these were our people who were persecuting me. This started when we were running against our party. The beginning of turning into an angry jerk who belittled her husband, who didn’t love her country, who was unpatriotic… These people are lying. They’re making things up because they’re trying to win.
She said that when she arrived at the White House she had to “quickly define myself” and “I didn’t even feel like I had the support of the campaign” because “they were white too.”
“So I knew this right away. And I knew that coming in as First Lady, I was in charge of my story, my narrative,” she said. “I had to be smarter than them. I had to outsmart everyone, and that was in everything I did, including what I wore.”
Obama’s book, released earlier this month, explores her experience with fashion and beauty, while also arguing that women in politics are often judged based on their physical appearance, rather than their leadership qualities.
While the former first lady claims to have faced fierce criticism during her time in the White House, she has often been celebrated in traditional media and has appeared on the cover of Vogue three times.
As Breitbart News reported, Obama clearly doesn’t understand the experience of current First Lady Melania Trump. A former supermodel, she was ignored by the establishment media and left-wing magazines, despite her status as a high-fashion figure throughout her life.
Veteran journalist Lowell Coffiel is the author of the New York Times bestselling “House of Secrets” and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. Visit lowellcauffiel.com for more information.