Michelle Obama Tells Oprah She’ll Never, Ever Run for President
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On the morning of April 25, Netflix gave us two big offerings: John Mulaney: Baby J, a stand-up comedy special of the comic chronicling his journey to sobriety in hilarious fashion, and The Light We Carry: Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, an interview special featuring the two iconic Black women.
Rolling Stone exclusively premiered a pair of clips from The Light We Carry yesterday, of former first lady Michelle Obama telling media god Oprah about going “slow ghost” on some of her friends upon reaching the White House. As far as the rest of the special —filmed in Los Angeles, on the last day of Michelle’s book tour for her self-help tome of the same name — is concerned, it’s a light conversation between two close friends that mainly covers tips for living and coping during the Covid pandemic.
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“I think it helped that we lived with a former president — not just any president, but a president who reads and believes in science,” Michelle tells Oprah, taking a dig at Trump. “Who had steered the country through several pandemics. Remember Ebola? I think one case reported in the U.S. That was my husband.” (There were 11 cases reported in the U.S.)
“What scared me, Oprah, was watching the confusion in the world — the mixed messages, the inconsistency, the lack of leadership, the lack of a plan, watching people not take this seriously, people treating the pandemic like an extended vacation, people arguing about wearing masks, watching kids partying on the beach in Florida,” Michelle added.
Michelle says she found herself “spiraling down in a depression… and I needed to find my own hope.” The election of Trump also left pondering whether the Obama presidency had any lasting impact.
“In a way, I felt a little abandoned,” shares Michelle. “It’s like, did it really matter what we did? Does it? That’s the dark part of those times.”
She was “losing a bit of my own light” and had to “search my own toolbox for ways to come out of that,” which included knitting and, of course, writing the aforementioned book.
One of the most candid — and powerful — parts of the Netflix’s The Light We Carry sees Michelle and Oprah discussing using hormone replacement therapy, and then tie it to the ongoing conservative war on reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.
“And then they wanna tell us what to do with our wombs?” asks Michelle. “This is what I tell the men in my life: You don’t know me, so you should not comment on me. You shouldn’t have an opinion about me, the way my hair looks, what happens inside my body. Just stay out of it.”
Michelle also had some words for the Instagram mommy influencers of the world — young, photogenic, mothers who fancy themselves experts in motherhood while lacking experience.
“This is social media. We like to listen to young people because we think there’s some value in youth. Y’all don’t know nothing!” she says. “If I wanna hear about mothering, I want to hear from somebody who’s finished it. I want to see how yours has turned out before I decide whether I take your advice. So, I talk to my mother about mothering. I’m not talking to somebody on the ‘Gram or whatever.”
Toward the end of the 1.5-hour sit-down talk, Oprah pops the big question: Will Michelle ever run for president? The answer, Democrats, is a resounding no.
“I’ve never expressed any interest in politics. Ever,” admits Michelle. “I mean, I agreed to support my husband. He wanted to do it, and he was great at it. But at no point have I ever said, ‘I think I want to run.’ Ever. So, I’m just wondering: Does what I want have anything to do with anything? Does who I choose to be have anything to do with it?”
She continues: “Politics is hard. And the people who get into it — it’s just like marriage, it’s just like kids — you’ve got to want it. It’s got to be in your soul, because it is so important. It is not in my soul. Service is in my soul. Helping people is in my soul. Working with kids? I will spend my lifetime trying to make kids feel seen and find their light. That I will do. I don’t have to hold office to do that. In fact, I think I’m actually more effective outside of politics, because sadly, politics has become so divided. The minute you declare a party, you’ve alienated the other half of the country. Now, maybe some people who don’t agree with me politically can still gain some tools that can help them. Maybe I can help a kid who’s a Republican, because maybe they’ll listen to me.”
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