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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / FLOTUS on PEEOTUS

FLOTUS on PEEOTUS

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The Post shares some tidbits from an advance copy of Michelle Obama’s upcoming book, Becoming, which will be released on Tuesday. Reporter Krissah Thompson says that in the book, Ms. Obama lays “bare her deep, quaking disdain for Trump.”

I suspect we’ll all say amen to this passage about Trump’s racist birther nonsense:

“The whole [birther] thing was crazy and mean-spirited, of course, its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed. But it was also dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks,” she writes. “What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this I’d never forgive him.”

None of us will, Ms. Obama. And, as we’ve seen, Trump’s reckless blather has since acquired a body count. A deranged bigot in Kansas killed an Indian engineer after shouting anti-immigrant slogans that could have come straight from a Trump rally. The Nazi who murdered 11 people in Pittsburgh cited the “caravan” hysteria as his primary motivation. The MAGA bomber’s incompetence at bomb-building was the only thing that prevented more Trump-inspired carnage.

Ms. Obama had this to say about Trump’s misogyny as revealed by the pussy-grabbing conversation caught on a hot mic:

“It was an expression of hatred that had generally been kept out of polite company, but still lived in the marrow of our supposedly enlightened society — alive and accepted enough that someone like Donald Trump could afford to be cavalier about it.”

I’m glad Ms. Obama called Trump’s revolting sexism what it is — hatred. That gets glossed over way too much. It’s not “locker room talk.” It’s not “boys will be boys.” It’s not “he has no filter.” It’s an expression of contempt and hatred for half of the world’s population. A man in Tallahassee recently acted on that hate, killing two women at a yoga studio.

Thompson reports that Ms. Obama “tried to block out [Trump’s] election.” Me too, last real FLOTUS. Me too.

Anyhoo, I don’t think I’ve ever read a first lady’s memoir, but I plan to make an exception in this case.

Reader Interactions

69Comments

  2. 2.

    Emma

    Me too. Usually I will read political biographies but not autobiographies. This time I plan to binge read Hillary and Michelle during the long Christmas holidays.

  3. 3.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    I’m looking forward to seeing Trump’s posthumous autobiography.

    Not reading it, mind you. Just seeing it.

  4. 4.

    Melusine

    I miss having a reluctant First Lady with the class and grace and dignity to serve her country with distinction anyway.

    Someone may have posted this before, but Contrapoints offers a fascinating and nuanced look at incel culture. Always enjoy her perspective.

  6. 6.

    Kay

    Melania’s a birther too:

    “It’s not only Donald who wants to see [Obama’s birth certificate], it’s American people who voted for him and who didn’t vote for him. They want to see that,” she argued. Behar then made the point that the birth certificate had already been on display and all over the internet. “We feel it’s different than birth certificate,” Melania responded.

    I don;t care to see the Trumps birth certificates, but I sure hope we see their tax returns and I think we might.

  7. 7.

    Raoul

    Reading this a.m. about Whittaker and World Patent Marketing, I can see why Rump was attracted — the guy is a Trump U fanboi. Right down to the $25M settlement.

    And now he’s acting A.G. The frunking GOP is amazing. Amazingly horrible. But we knew that.

    @Emma: Same. I am not a person who reads autobiographies, but Michelle’s? Yes, please!

  8. 8.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @HeleninEire:
    I’m expecting a lot of acting out in the coming days, although admittedly the bar is now so high it’s hard to tell. Partly, Trump is already finding that Mueller is not as easy to stop as just inserting a new boss. Much more than that, he has been relying heavily on the Republican house to not merely not investigate him, but fanatically cover for him. That’s going in the trash. When the new congress begins all his secrets will become public, and nothing he can think of will help.

    Seriously, just think about the outrageous lengths the House has gone to to protect him, how constant and powerful an effect that has been and how much we’ve dwelled on it. Think about how utterly pissed off the Democrats on the committees have been about it. Think about that protection reversing. I assure you Trump is thinking about it.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    I hope the racist birther movement the President and the First Lady promoted to advance their careers has a place in history books. It’s one of those things that will make their descendants cringe in shame. Someone wonderful and talented should cover it- from far Right racist fringe to the President of the United States and the First Lady. I’d buy that book.

  11. 11.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    She’s as nasty and mean spirited as her husband and everything she does and says proves it. They’re both nasty pieces of work- hateful people. She gets a pass which is fine with me- she doesn’t have any power- but let’s not kid ourselves. Nothing she has done or said gives any indication she’s any better than her sleazy husband.

  12. 12.

    MazeDancer

    Me too, last real FLOTUS. Me too.

    Right on, Betty C.

    Married to last real POTUS.

    Going to start calling her LRF. Because that’s who she is.

  15. 15.

    Mary G

    Michelle Obama is one of the very few people Twitler has not attacked. But between the midterms, the pushback on Whitaker, and this he may not be able to restrain himself. It won’t go well for him.

  16. 16.

    Raoul

    Jebus. Ruth Marcus has a piece up referencing Whitaker calling Marburg v Madison wrongly decided. He would throw out 210 years of Supreme Court precedent and kick the leg out of our tripartite government balance.
    Yow.

  17. 17.

    Droppy

    I am going to get the Audible version because FLOTUS reads it herself and I want to hear her say all those words. I love the Obamas in a “fan” kind of way, but I also admire the hell out of them. We are going to look back at them from our dying campfires underneath the overpasses as the final best hope we had.

  19. 19.

    Raoul

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Calling him “Little Adam” on twitter isn’t going to be enough? C’mon, Donnie is a master genius amazebals tactician.

    (I need a little absurdity this morning)

  20. 20.

    debbie

    I was sure Trump’s crack about the “Obama regime” during his press conference would have generated a lot of angry tweeting.

  21. 21.

    mad citizen

    Two random BJ thoughts/questions: I think Cole promised the site would have changes/load better post-election, but it still seems wonky to me. It seems at times when I have BJ up my whole home PC slows and grinds to a standstill.

    2: People always talk about bringing green baloons out to events, but on my monitors the right side of the balloon is blue, and the left side is teal. I don’t see any green.

  23. 23.

    TS (the original)

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I assure you Trump is thinking about it.

    I’m not so sure he has a clue as to what is about to happen. He is not a student of history and is convinced he is invincible. He has already mentioned working with the democrats in the house – he thinks they will fold as did the GOP. He is in for a surprise – not before time.

  24. 24.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Melania’s a birther too:

    That’s why I call her the Birther Trophy Wife, anyone trying to show sympathy for her…well….I don’t think so.

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    @Raoul:

    Reading this a.m. about Whittaker and World Patent Marketing, I can see why Rump was attracted — the guy is a Trump U fanboi. Right down to the $25M settlement.

    A grifting con man as ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES.

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

  26. 26.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker: Consider if you will what happened when Bill Clinton saw Lynch on the tarmac. Geez trump has been recruiting this guy through Steve King. They are such hypocrites.

  29. 29.

    JPL

    Robin Roberts mentioned on GMA that the politics is a small part of the book. The book reveals her miscarriage and the fact that they went to marriage counseling. I assume trump will criticize the former President Obama for submitting to marriage counseling and calling him weak.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: I’m hoping it blows up in his face. Whitaker was all over TV like some wingnut chatbot regurgitating Trump talking points: Mueller has gone too far! Better not look into Trump’s finances! Anyone would have taken the Trump Tower meeting! Blah blah blah. And Trump made THAT guy acting AG, bypassing people who have been confirmed by the Senate? Gee, I wonder why?

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    It’s one of those things that will make their descendants cringe in shame.

    Assumes facts not in evidence. Their existing descendants are quite proud of it.

  33. 33.

    mad citizen

    My current favorite wikipedia page is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_federal_politicians_convicted_of_crimes#Executive_branch_8

    Of course, these are just the reported items. I read “I Heard You Paint Houses”, the mobster Frank Sheeran’s Zelig-like account of his life–this is the new/last Scorcese mob movie coming to netflix about the Jimmy Hoffa murder. Sheeran claims at one point he delivered a briefcase full of cash to John Mitchell in DC, and it turned out that anti-Hoffa supporters had also delivered to cash to Mitchell. I love it when criminals are running the Executive Branch.

  38. 38.

    japa21

    @OzarkHillbilly: I think Dorothy meant she is prettier than her husband, not prettier than Michelle. If she meant the latter, than, although I like Dorothy and have met her, she is crazy.

  42. 42.

    psycholinguist

    @OzarkHillbilly: Jeff sessions firing is a sign. the lowly bulldogs of Mississippi State take down the evil empire of nick saban and alabama football this weekend.

  43. 43.

    Karen S.

    @Kay:
    She sure is. There was this bizarre, to me anyway, “Free Melania” thing going on on social media, as if she were somehow trapped in a marriage to Drumpf. Nope. She chose him. She chose to be there. She chose to endorse that pernicious and racist birther absurdity. No sympathy for her all. She’s one of these terrible white women who votes for their own subjugation because it reinforces white (male) supremacy.

  45. 45.

    Aleta

    @Mary G:
    Nor has he or Mel ever denounced the racist attacks on Michelle by rw hate media. (They divert the media with their ‘we must punish a reporter who laid a hand on a woman (a lie) ‘ and denounce unchivalrous words about SSanders; while Lewandowski works for them on CNN and they endorse their own hate media attacks on MO, HRC, Maxine Waters, Pelosi, …. And he continues the hate chants at rallies. A reporter needs to confront him on those chants.

  46. 46.

    japa21

    Penzeys latest email.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you! All of you have every right to feel good about who you are and the difference you make. There will be those disappointed that races that could have been won weren’t, and I get that, especially with the role voter suppression played in some of those. And there will be others working to distract you from how overwhelming turnout was Tuesday and how much of a rejection the turnout was of the current administration; don’t let them distract you. Now is your time to rejoice in the disaster you averted. From the Women’s March to Election Day, so many did so much to defend the values of this country. I salute all of you.

    So Rejoice! Relax! And then get ready for the next two years of this. The threat that is the Nationalist Republican Party is far from over. Yes, there will be advantages in 2020 in turnout and in how many senate seats they will have to defend. But next time it will be the President on the ticket and where he campaigned the most is where they most outperformed the polls. The reality is, the amount of hate let loose in this country these past two years has opened the doors to even more hate to come. These are the days where the kindness of Cooks will mean everything.

    In times of fascism, anything that makes someone different makes them dangerous. So we see the mocking of the disabled; the mocking of the women brave enough to speak out against assault; attacks on people for their faith, skin color, sexual orientation and identity. How many times do they have to call for withholding lifesaving health insurance from those with “pre-existing conditions” before we admit what they really are calling for?

    Now is no time to let down our guard, but it is a time to take pride. Yes, even America is not immune to these forces, but in how quickly we found ourselves responding to this threat and in how great our numbers have become is the proof that there is more than just a spark of our greatness still alive within us. In America what makes us different makes us great. In America, what makes us different makes us America. Out of Many—ONE. I love this country.

    And as much as I wish that 11.6.18 marked the beginning of the end of the Nationalist Republican movement, it doesn’t. This weekend, as we go about our lives, they are working behind the scenes to place themselves above the law. There will be bad days ahead. This will not be over quickly. But what 11.6.18 was is what Churchill called the end of the beginning. As long as we don’t let them wear us out, as long as we remain vigilant, victory is certain. 11.6.18 showed the world that after 242 years, the majority of Americans have no desire to see our never-ending revolution for ever-greater equality come to a halt now. And for that I thank you so very much.

  47. 47.

    Aleta

    @Raoul: Whitaker even criticized Roberts for not just ‘calling balls and strikes’ in the same 2014 interview that quote was from. Iow for being activist (liberal) I guess.

  48. 48.

    schrodingers_cat

    Michelle channels how I feel when I see or hear T. A wave of revulsion and anger washes over me. And then I feel an immense sadness, that there are enough people in the country I chose as my home, who voted for this bigot and made him the President. A man without one single redeeming quality. A man who is totally unqualified and inept, on the basis of his naked xenophobia and racism. They decided to give him immense power to put people like me in their place. It feels personal, in a way W’s election never did.
    And my ex-friend’s vote for Jill Stein just brought home the fact how little our friendship meant to her. I thought that Barrack Obama’s election and the subsequent freakout gave me a taste of the extent of racism in America, boy was that underestimation.

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    Reporters asked Trump directly about Michelle Obama’s criticism, and he chickened out and attacked President Obama instead:

    LOL! What a fucking coward.

  53. 53.

    Quinerly

    @Betty Cracker: I caught some of this. Seemed crazier than usual. Plus, “I don’t know Matt Whitaker” and “Robert Mueller wasn’t Senate confirmed” were particularly nice touches.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    Hah!

    @FrankLuntz
    Follow Follow @FrankLuntz
    More
    House + Senate endorsement wins: #Midterms2018
    • Trump: 21 (75 endorsements)
    • Obama: 39 (74 endorsements)

  56. 56.

    Kay

    Here’s what Donald and Melania Trump believe: that Obama was lying about his birthplace and compounded that lie by submitting a FAKE birth certificate.

    They believed a sitting US Senator and Presidential candidate did this. Produced a counterfeit birth certificate and a whole fake birth story.

    No one on the Right has accused anyone of this insane crime since that one time with Obama. Just the black President. Never mentioned birth records again. It is 100% about them believing black people, their very existence, are illegitimate. I mean, this wasn’t subtle- they questioned the basic facts of his life. Remember when they gave him a completely different father?

  57. 57.

    rikyrah

    @japa21:

    And as much as I wish that 11.6.18 marked the beginning of the end of the Nationalist Republican movement, it doesn’t. This weekend, as we go about our lives, they are working behind the scenes to place themselves above the law. There will be bad days ahead. This will not be over quickly. But what 11.6.18 was is what Churchill called the end of the beginning. As long as we don’t let them wear us out, as long as we remain vigilant, victory is certain. 11.6.18 showed the world that after 242 years, the majority of Americans have no desire to see our never-ending revolution for ever-greater equality come to a halt now. And for that I thank you so very much.

    That was beautiful.

    The American Experiment continues.

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    No one on the Right has accused anyone of this insane crime since that one time with Obama. Just the black President. Never mentioned birth records again. It is 100% about them believing black people, their very existence, are illegitimate. I mean, this wasn’t subtle- they questioned the basic facts of his life. Remember when they gave him a completely different father?

    no lie told

  60. 60.

    debbie

    @Betty Cracker:

    NPR interviewed one of his colleagues this morning who assured listeners that because he played Iowa football, he would be eminently fair. Give me a fucking break.

  62. 62.

    geg6

    @mad citizen:

    People always talk about bringing green baloons out to events, but on my monitors the right side of the balloon is blue, and the left side is teal. I don’t see any green.

    It is an old BJ joke. You can find it in the Lexicon, which is up top in Quick Links. To save you the time and effort, here’s the “Green Balloon Juice” entry:

    Green Balloon Juice – Republican State Senator Rod Jetton reacted to charges that he beat and choked his partner into unconsciousness by complaining that she didn’t use their ‘safe word’, green balloons. It didn’t take long for Balloon Juice commentor Kryptik to plead “Green Balloon Juice” when the concurrent HCR (health care reform) discussion threads descended to levels, and lengths, that could be construed as unnecessarily abusive to the innocent by-reader.

    Now it’s our bat signal.

  64. 64.

    mad citizen

    I don’t want to play the trumpov fox clip, but based on the text, OMG what a transparent BS artist–all he will ever be.

  68. 68.

    schrodingers_cat

    @amygdala: She is not Asian or look Asian. Her eyes don’t look natural, like cosmetic surgery gone wrong, was what I was trying to say. Also, I didn’t realize the subtext till you pointed it out. I am sorry. My bad.

  69. 69.

    Ohio Mom

    @schrodingers_cat: I think of Melania’s plastic eye surgery as aiming toward cat eyes.

    But now I have insulted all the pet owners.

    She reminds me of a Barbie Doll, in the body-shape she has consciously acquired, in her taste in clothing, in her taste in shoes (I halfway expect her bare feet to be bent like Barbie’s), and in her stiff, unnatural carriage.

    She is as cold in personality as a plastic doll; people project glamour on to her like little girls project whatever they do on their Barbies.

    The main difference between Barbie and Melania: Barbies tend to end up naked, in a pile, when their owners have out grown them (at that point, the shoes have all been lost and the clothing has disintegrated); Melania of course started out naked, and had her instance of being piled up with other naked women documented in an infamous photoshoot.

    Wasn’t that mean and uncalled for?
    Heh.

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