In her last interview as the First Lady of the United States to be conducted at the White House, Michelle Obama praised her husband’s presidency while casting shade on his Republican successor. She never actually mentions President-elect Donald Trump‘s name while chatting with Oprah Winfrey in a preview clip that aired on CBS The Morning, but the subject of Michelle’s references was quite clear — especially when discussing President Barack Obama‘s focus on “hope” throughout his 2008 campaign.
“We feel the difference now. See, now, we are feeling what not having hope feels like,” Obama explains to Winfrey. “Hope is necessary. It’s a necessary concept and Barack didn’t just talk about hope because he thought it was just a nice slogan to get votes. He and I and so many believe that… What else do you have if you don’t have hope? What do you give your kids if you can’t give them hope?”
By claiming what Americans — especially women and Democrats — are feelings now is akin to “what not having hope feels like,” Obama seemingly suggests Trump’s victory and forthcoming presidency are “hopeless.” Yet possible implications notwithstanding, the least veiled of her jabs at the president-elect arrived in the form of a subsequent comment about “having a grown-up in the White House.”
“Our children respond to crises the way they see us respond,” she says. “I feel Barack has been that for the nation in ways that people will come to appreciate. Having a grown-up in the White House who can say to you in times of crisis and turmoil, ‘Hey, it’s going to be okay. Let’s remember the good things that we have.'”
The full interview, which airs December 19th at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and again on December 21st at 9 p.m. ET on OWN, covers the breadth of the Obama family’s eight years in the White House. Among the many topics the First Lady discusses with Winfrey, the recent election’s renewed focus on race relations takes prominence when the former laments how “[what] least defines us as people is the color of our skin.”
(Via CBS This Morning and CBS News)