Transcript for Michelle Obama on the bruising campaign to the White House: Part 3
By the summer of 2004 Barack Obama was already a rising star when he was asked to speak at the DNC national convention. There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is the United States of America. Barack Obama, a name that you’re going to hear a lot in the future days. A meteoric rise that would lead to Barack Obama’s own candidacy in 2007. I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States of America. As much as you love your husband and gave him your blessing to run for president, you didn’t think he would win. Oh, yeah. Not that he shouldn’t win. Uh-huh. And you saw “Time” magazine, and I think it was like October 2006, and on the cover it says, “Could Barack Obama be the next president?” And you looked away. Uh-huh. You didn’t even want to see that. Why? I think I did what a lot of black folks were doing. We were afraid to hope because it’s hard to believe that the country that oppressed you could one day be led by you, you know? I mean, my grandparents, you know, lived through segregation. My grandfather, his grandfather was a slave, you know? So this — these memories were real, and they didn’t think the country was ready, and so my attitude was a reflection of that skepticism. That’s the thing, it’s inconsistent. Ten years ago we were sitting down in Norfolk, Virginia. This is pre-white house, and I want you to take a look, and tell me what you see about this version of yourself. I am Michelle Obama. I live in Chicago. I’m married to this guy Barack. That’s about it. That’s about how I see myself. And that is how you see yourself. Yeah, yeah. We got these great little girls, and they crack us up. You know, we want to make the world a better place. That’s who we are. Wow. What do you wish you could tell your pre-white house self? Whew. You know, the hard parts were the things that I expected. That it was gonna be hard, you know? So much of this country lives in isolation, and we just don’t know each other. And so there were people who didn’t know what a black woman was and sounded like, and so I knew that was going to be a challenge that I’d have to earn my grace. Can we do this? The campaign trail would test her resilience. People called me Barack’s baby mama, you know? Accused me of not loving my country. You know, told me I was angry. You know, it was the first time I really experienced someone taking my voice and balling it up and distorting it. And I was, like, “This isn’t me. Wait, wait, people. This isn’t who I am.” I remember talking to you during the campaign about the criticism, and you said you didn’t really pay attention to it. In the book, you admit it. Yeah. You said, “This stuff hurt.” Yeah, yeah. “This stuff hurt.” I don’t think we do each other a service by pretending like hurtful things don’t hurt. And that’s what I’ve come to — I came to after that experience. I need to own that hurt. I need to talk about it. I need to put it out there for myself so that I can heal from it, but at the time, oh, gosh, you know? I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel victimized from it because there was no time to hurt in that role. Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States. I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend, the nation’s next first lady Michelle Obama. For Michelle the hurt would continue straight into the white house with calls for president Obama’s birth certificate, questioning his legitimacy. She writes — Its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed, but it was also dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks. What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Why doesn’t he show his birth certificate? Donald Trump with his loud and reckless innuendos was putting my family’s safety at risk, and for this, I’d never forgive him. Michelle says she had little choice but to push the fears away. Welcome to the white house. And focus on the business of becoming the first lady. Launching initiatives like let’s move, joining forces, and let girls learn. Empower yourself with a good education. With no official job description each first lady makes the role her own. Is the current first lady — how do you think she is doing in defining who she is? You know, one of the things you learn as a former, it’s like, I don’t judge what a current is doing, you know? So I’d prefer not to, you know, speak on what she’s doing versus what I did because I think every first lady approaches this job differently. In 2016, shortly after the election, Michelle met with Melania trump at the white house continuing a long tradition of hosting future first ladies. I know that Laura bush reached out to you and said, if you need any help, I’m a phone call away. Yep, yep. You wrote about how and have talked about how you extended that same courtesy to Melania trump. Has she reached out they and asked — No. — For any help?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
