Former First Lady Michelle Obama said in a recent interview that her fears about the 2024 presidential election keep her up at night.
“I am terrified about what could possibly happen,” Obama said of the 2024 race in a Monday episode of Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast.
“Because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit — it affects us in ways that sometimes, I think, people take for granted,” she said when asked to name some of her fears that keep her awake.
“The fact that people think that: ‘Government, does it really even do anything?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, does government do everything for us,’” Obama, 59, continued. “And we cannot take this democracy for granted. And sometimes, I worry that we do.”
“Those are the things that keep me up,” she said.
The former first lady listed other concerns, including wars “in too many regions,” artificial intelligence, education, people being “too stuck” to their cell phones, and voter engagement.
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“If anything, what does still offend you?” Shetty asked.
“Injustice, ego, greed,” Obama replied. “Racism, ignorance — it’s offensive. And I’ve always been that kid. I don’t like unfairness; I don’t like bullies. But I have to think about how I deliver messages.”
Obama’s interview dropped amid reported concerns from her husband, former President Barack Obama, about the possibility of former President Donald Trump returning to the White House.
Barack Obama has increasingly questioned President Joe Biden’s prospects for November’s election and “feels that Democrats very well could lose,” according to an anonymous insider cited by the Wall Street Journal in December.
Trump is expected to cruise into the general election after easily securing the Republican primary nomination, recent poll numbers suggest.
In the Shetty interview, Michelle Obama appeared to call out the GOP frontrunner without directly naming him.
“The tone and tenor of the message matters. We can’t just say the first thing that comes to our minds,” she told the British-Indian life coach.
“That is not authenticity to me. That’s childish, and we see childish leadership right before us — what that looks like and how that feels, where somebody is just base and vulgar and cynical in a leadership position,” Obama continued. “It doesn’t trickle down well. That just begets more of that.”
