Former first lady Michelle Obama knocked both President Trump and the Republican Party for their armchair criticism of her husband’s administration, suggesting it helped Trump gain power.
Speaking Wednesday alongside feminist author Roxane Gay, at a marketing conference in Boston, the ex-FLOTUS reminded the audience of the ‘peanut gallery’ that had second-guessed President Obama, telling them her husband wouldn’t do that to President Trump.
‘Barack is not going to turn into the – what this president was – just somebody tweeting in the wind and stirring up mess without really knowing what they were talking about,’ Obama said.
While she said she and her husband still supported Trump and wanted to be successful, she couldn’t quite wrap her head around why women, especially, didn’t vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, instead pulling the lever for Trump.
‘Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice,’ Obama said.
Michelle Obama, photographed at last summer’s Democratic National Convention, spoke at a conference in Boston Wednesday about the election of President Trump and life after the White House
Reporters weren’t allowed into the event, but some attendees recorded portions of the former first lady’s remarks.
‘He is our commander-in-chief,’ Obama said about Trump at one point. ‘He was voted in,’ she said with a laugh. ‘We may not like it.’
‘And when you’ve been in that position, which others weren’t when they criticized my husband, it is very difficult to lead when you have a peanut gallery of people who don’t know what the **** they’re talking about, second guessing when you do,’ Obama recalled, bleeping herself out like a radio edit, where she obviously wanted to use a four-letter word.
Obama said that most ‘formers’ do take a step back, as President George W. Bush had done for her spouse.
‘Now, like I said, there was a whole party that didn’t do that for my husband, a whole political party,’ she recalled. ‘But what we’ve learned is part of our legacy is leading with grace and being humble and diplomatic.’
Pivoting to health care, which was in the news this weeks thanks to the demise of the Senate GOP-led Graham-Cassidy bill, Obama said it’s not up to her or her husband to defend the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ‘Obamacare.’
‘It’s up to voters to decide how they feel about health care,’ she said. ‘Quite frankly, this is in the hands of the voters.’
‘So the Affordable Care Act isn’t Obama’s legacy,’ she added. ‘It’s the country’s legacy.’
Turning back to Trump, she expanded, ‘And right now people spoke and this is the leader they voted for.’
The former first lady also got personal during the event, giving a ‘No. Nooope I do not,’ when asked if she was missing the White House.
She did say, however, that she missed ‘the people and the work,’ the Associated Press said.
Obama gave an update on the couple’s two daughters too, as 19-year-old Malia has started college at Harvard University and 16-year-old Sasha is finishing up high school in Washington, D.C.
The ex-first lady called fame ‘a monster’ and admitted it has sometimes been difficult for her two daughters to cope.
At Harvard, Malia has had 20 to 30 people coming up to her each day, often asking for selfies.
‘Do I know you? Can I get a picture with you?’ Michelle Obama said, according to People.
Obama added that she’s proud of the way her daughters interact with people, even to say no, saying they do so with empathy and grace.