In her new 427 page memoir, "Becoming," former First Lady Michelle Obama articulates her disdain for President Donald Trump, who she believes put her family's safety at risk based on a lie. She notes that Trump built his political reputation on the lie that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya — a right-wing conspiracy theory that has been widely debunked.
"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," Obama writes, according to the Washington Post, which obtained an early copy of the memoir. "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," Obama says of Trump.
It's the most pointed and personal language she's used about the president.
Trump was asked Friday morning to comment on the former First Lady's criticism, and he responded by attacking his Oval Office predecessor. "I'll never forgive him for what he did to our United States military," Trump said. "I'll never forgive him for many other things."
As the first lady, she claimed her hudband "went high" when others "went low," in reference to Trump's claim that her husband was not born in the United States. She has previously discussed the challenges of raising children at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and revealed she's urged her daughters "to ignore those who question their father's citizenship or faith."
Obama's memoir will be released Tuesday — exactly one week after the midterm elections in which Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives and Republicans expanded their slim majority in the Senate. It is likely to ignite conversations as the Democrats look for a contender to face off against Trump in 2020.
In her memoir, however, the former First Lady attempts to put an end to calls for her to pursue a White House bid, writing, "I've never been a fan of politics, and my experience over the last ten years has done little to change that. I continue to be put off by the nastiness."
Obama also wrote that her "body buzzed with fury" after hearing about the now-infamous leaked footage in which Trump bragged about grabbing women: "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."
Earlier this year, she warned people at a rally to encourage voter registration, who might be frustrated by the current political climate and tempted to disengage, that "democracy continues with or without you."
"Believe me, I am frustrated, too," the former First Lady admitted. "I am sick of all the chaos and the nastiness of our politics. It's exhausting. And, frankly, it's depressing. I understand wanting to shut it all out."
But Obama warned that the alternative is exactly the one that many politicians desire. "They're finding all kinds of ways to keep you at home, hoping that when you hear about all those things, you’ll just give up. Don't let anybody intimidate you from being a part of this process."
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