‘The belief you can do anything to a woman? It is cruel. It’s frightening. And the truth is, it hurts. It hurts,’ the first lady said in an emotional speech.
First lady Michelle Obama delivered a powerful and emotional rebuke to Donald Trump on Thursday, saying his vulgar comments on sexual assault “have shaken me to my core,” whlie calling on women to rise up against the Republican nominee.
“The fact is in this election we have a candidate for president of the United States who over the course of his lifetime and the course of this campaign has said things about women that are so shocking, so demeaning, I simply will not repeat anything here today,” she said at a campaign rally in New Hampshire. “And last week we saw this candidate actually bragging about sexual assaulting women. I can’t believe I’m saying that a candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women.”
Her voice breaking at times, Obama warned the crowd that “I’m going to get a little serious here, because I think we can all agree that this has been a rough week in an already rough election.” She said remarks from Trump recorded in 2005, in which he crudely described language how his celebrity allowed him to sexually assault women without consequence, constituted “hurtful, hateful language.”
“Language that has been painful for so many of us,” she continued. “Not just as women, but as parents trying to protect our children and raise them to be caring, respectful adults. And as citizens who think our nation’s leaders should meet basic standards of human decency.”
Trump has apologized for the language captured on the tape, on which he can be heard bragging that he would “grab [women] by the pussy,” but also chalked the remarks up to little more than “locker room talk” that did not reflect anything he had actually done. But the first lady said it was much more, describing Trump’s remarks as “a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior.”
She said that the GOP nominee’s comments reminded women of being catcalled on the street or leered at by a coworker and of stories from mothers and grandmothers about what it used to be like for women in the workplace.
“I listen to all of this and I feel it so personally, and I’m sure that many of you do, too, particularly the women,” Obama said. “The shameful comments about our bodies, the disrespect of our intelligence. The belief you can do anything to a woman? It is cruel. It’s frightening. And the truth is, it hurts. It hurts.”
If you are going to be a thief – go after the Role and not the Timex…
Controversy erupted over the Chump’s wife, Melanoma stealing parts of her convention speech from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address of the Democratic Convention. Failing to have any Republican women whose speeches were worth stealing from – she went for the Gold Standard.
Sources from the Donald Trump campaign told NBC News reporter Katy Tur that there is an uproar over accusations that Melania Trump’s much-anticipated speech on Monday night was plagiarized from a speech by First Lady Michelle Obama in 2008.
Tur, who has been covering the Trump campaign, said that Melania didn’t want to do the speech in the first place, but in the end was brought on board to try and humanize the bombastic candidate.
“Well this morning I’m told that she didn’t necessarily want to do this, and that the campaign basically had to put their best person to help her with the speech,” Tur reported. “They were putting somebody from the staff with all of the family members because this is obviously a big deal, the convention, it’s not unusual to have a staff member help write a convention speech.”
Tur said that Trump staffers were hoping Melania would “outshine everybody” and immediately after the speech, she was praised for her performance. But shortly after, striking similarities between Obama’s 2008 speech were raised and people began mocking it online…
Michelle Obama called Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton an “impressive” and a “phenomenal woman” on Wednesday in response to a 14-year-old’s question at a White House event, saying Clinton, like “many” of the other candidates, has devoted her life to public service.
“I think Hillary Clinton is a phenomenal woman, and I’ve gotten to know her, and I think she’s made some pretty major contributions over the course of her life,” the first lady said during an event with the children of executive office workers marking Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.
She also spoke about the first family’s dogs, her “Let’s Move!” initiative to end childhood obesity, what she’ll miss most about the White House – as well as what she won’t miss so much.
Obama reiterated that she doesn’t plan to run for president in the future like the former first lady who is seeking the Democratic nomination.
“Hillary Clinton is an impressive woman and I will not do what she has done, I will not run for president,” Obama said, though she would like to continue to perform public service.
Neither the first lady nor the president has publicly endorsed a candidate.
Folks living in the DC area know about Michelle’s visits to the local eateries. No content to just hit the high end, like Citronelle (now sadly departed) or Komi – she is known to visit the new, medium priced, and trendy.
It’s a lot more classy than hitting Ben’ Chili Bowl, a DC institution – she has developed a culinary following among the “in the know” in DC. And introduced a number of places like Eatonville (A restaurant dedicated to Zora Neale Hurston) to a wider audience.
Hey, isn’t that… first lady Michelle Obama, hanging at hipster haunt Maketto on H Street, NE on Monday night?
FLOTUS was celebrating a pal’s birthday with a group of friends, a tipster reports. Maketto, a retail market (sample wares: culty Japanese sneakers and obscure magazines) combined with a Taiwanese and Cambodian-influenced eatery, is a far cry from the usual white-tablecloth spots one might expect to find a first lady. Obama, though, has sought out some of Washington’s trendier spots, in addition to dining at its finer tables.
And it wasn’t the first First Family foray to the H Street corridor: the Obamas have visited Smith Commons and Boundary Road along the once-gritty strip.
Have to admit, she has hit a number of my favorites, but she had missed Boss Shepherd’s – named after one of town’s most famous (and occasionally infamous for having work crews build roads all night to avoid Union bosses and opposition) politicians (at least before Marion Barry). Great food, and excellent staff! But she beat my little culinary group to Boundary Road and Makketo!
President and Michelle Obama at Boundary Road Restaurant.
I’m not sure this one falls into the “incredibly racist” category… I think it just falls into “incredibly ignorant”. Is this fashion editor truly stupid enough to belive the back heads of Fortune 500 Companies, and Senior Executives go to work in baggy jeans and baseball caps turned sideways? And at a time when at any moment at least some of the top designers and supermodels in the Fashion industry are black folks? Get real!
Barack and Michelle Looking Great (and Presidential)
French Elle writer Nathalie Dolivo is so happy about black people! She’s thrilled that they’ve finally learned to dress well! Yes, after generations mired in baggy pants and rap music and such, they finally have Barackand Michelle Obama to look to. Thanks, Obamas! You’re stylish black people and now other black people can be stylish, too.
See how racist that was? We’re paraphrasing, but it’s not far off from what Dolivo actually said:
In this America led for the first time a black president, the chic has become a plausible option for a community so far pegged to its codes [of] streetwear … But if in 2012 the “black-geoisie” has integrated all the white codes, it does not [do so] literally. [There] is always a classic twist, with a bourgeois ethnic reference (a batik-printed turban/robe, a shell necklace, a ‘créole de rappeur’) that recalls the roots.
So, thanks to the Obamas, black people can dress like white people, with an “ethnic” spin. Like a turban!
That excerpt is from a post written by Dolivo for French Elle called (wait for it) “Black Fashion Power,” which manages to cram an insulting misappropriation into even just the title! There are some amazingly stupidthoughts on display in Dolivo’s post (why did we need to coin the term black-geosie?) but perhaps the most insulting is the suggestion that black people need to be taught by example. That before the Obamas, they were just toiling in their streetwear, waiting to be led.
One French Elle commenter (via NYMag) distilled the insult of Dolivo’s nonsense beautifully:
“How, in 2012, in a France where there are at least three million blacks and mixed people, can you write such nonsense? You are too kind when you write that in 2012 we have incorporated the white codes … what do you think, in 2011, we dressed in hay and burlap bags?”
We’re hoping sometimes things get lost in translation, but–as was the case with that Rihanna “nigga bitch” debacle a month ago–we’re betting this has more to do with racism, which isn’t uncommon in the fashion industry. Anyway, we’ll let you know when Dolivo issues her apology (/announces her resignation?). Expect phrases like “deeply regret” or “never intended to hurt.”
The First Lady is continuing her healthy living campaign to encourage kids to be more healthy by doing more physical activity, eating right, and exercise.
As with her sneak visit to Target last week, which was posited as a socialist plot by conservative bigots – undoubtedly she will accused by conservative haters for picking “Socialist Jumping Jacks” for the kids to break the world record.
I mean 25,000 people actually working, at anything… Is anti conservative capitalism!
Michelle Obama is looking for at least 20,425 people to help her break a Guinness World Record next week. The first lady will lead hundreds of children doing a minute of jumping jacks on the White House’s South Lawn on Tuesday, kicking off a 24-hour challenge, AP reports. Groups around the country will join the effort to beat the record for the most people doing jumping jacks in a 24-hour period. Event organizer National Geographic has more details.
An Associated Press photographer on Thursday snapped some choice photos of Michelle Obama in the checkout line of a Target store just outside Washington for what her office says was a “routine errand,” the likes of which she does often.
The first lady appears to have been trying to pick up some items incognito. She is seen sporting a Nike cap and large, dark sunglasses.
“It is not uncommon for the first lady to slip out to run an errand, eat at a local restaurant or otherwise enjoy the city outside the White House gates,” said Kristina Schake, communications director for the first lady.
It’s unclear how the photo came about; her office said the photographer, Charles Dharapak, “caught her” at the store.
President Obama has often mused about how he wishes he could break outside the “bubble” he has to travel in. The first lady does not have the same full-time entourage of reporters as her husband.
But she, too, has spoken of some frustration about how living in the White House has changed her routine.
“Before we lived here, we were normal people. I had a job, I drove my own car, I took my kids to school every day. I went to Target and shopped for my groceries,” she said at an April event for children of White House staff.
While President Barack Obama took his daughters to the beach, the first lady played the role of Christmas elf, surprising little girls and boys inquiring about the whereabouts of Santa.
“Hello, this is the first lady, Michelle Obama, with NORAD, tracking Santa. How can I help you?” she said, taking a call from an 8-year-old boy named Max from Los Angeles.
It was a decidedly different greeting than other families across the country got after some confusion about which was the proper number for NORAD in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“Sorry, they gave out the wrong number,” the man informed one caller before giving out the correct number.
The first lady took a dozen calls over 40 minutes from inside the family’s vacation rental in Kailua. She reminded the kids to put out cookies — and vegetables — for Santa and his reindeer and warned the kids to get to sleep or their houses might be skipped.
She also answered a few questions about what it’s like to be first lady — and to be married to the president — from an inquisitive little boy named Austin.
“Is it a hard job?” Austin asked.
The first lady said it’s not as hard as being president and can be fun because she gets to work with kids.
“Is it hard to have all that security around you?” Austin wondered.
It’s not, the first lady said. The Secret Service are very nice and professional, she added.
“They’re good with the girls,” she said, referring to her daughters, Sasha and Malia. “It’s almost like they’re family after a while. So it’s not that hard having them around. And they’re there to keep us safe, right? You can’t be mad at that, right?”
Governor-turned-gadfly Sarah Palin goes after first lady Michelle Obama for encouraging Americans to — gasp! — eat healthier:
Sarah Palin is again taking aim at Michelle Obama over her anti-obesity campaign, taking the opportunity in Sunday’s “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” to land a diss against the first lady’s efforts to improve nutrition. While making s’mores at one point during Sunday’s episode, the former Alaska governor proclaims the marshmallow and chocolate treat is “in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert.”…
Palin’s comments Sunday appear to be in reference to a speech Michelle Obama delivered in July, during which she described her own upbringing when it came to food and exercise.
“In the afternoon, there was no way we’d be allowed to lie around the house watching TV,” she told the NAACP in a Kansas City speech. “Our parents made us get up and play outside.”
As the CNN article notes, this isn’t the first time Palin has slammed the first lady for her anti-obesity advocacy. She previously brought cookies to a school and suggested, wrongly, that Obama wants to remove parents’ decision-making power over what they feed their children; she lobbed the same accusation in a radio interview with Laura Ingraham. Perhaps most tastelessly, she recently invoked the memory of slain soldier Pat Tillman — whose family has made abundantly clear its disgust with using the former NFL star’s selflessness and courage to score cheap political points — to yet again conjure Michelle Obama’s nearly 3-year-old quote that she was, for the first time in her adult life, proud of her country following a primary election victory by her husband.
In case you forgot (as most of us probably have with such trivial episodes), Obama explained away her moment of candor, and the country moved on and elected her husband president by a convincing margin. Yet Palin, who styles herself as uniquely in touch with the concerns of Joe Six Pack American, has very mean-spiritidly taken aim at one of the country’s most popular public figures. Her obsession with the first lady’s supposed insufficient patriotism borders on pathological. If there’s a better indicator of poor political judgment, I’d like to know.
Spain gets a whitewash job just in time for First Lady Michelle Obama’s vacation with the girls. Racism in Spain has been a boiling issue for several years now, with Spanish sports fans verbally attacking black athletes, and apparently the local “Po Po” harassing black visitors and tourists. Somehow I don’t think the local “Po Po” will be bothering Michelle for “Visiting While Black”.
Our First Lady Arrives in Spain - Looking Fabulous as Usual
Good news for Michelle Obama and any other African-Americans planning trips to Spain: “Racist prejudices” are—suddenly—no longer a problem, according to the US State Department. A warning on the department’s website that African-Americans who visit the country may need to fear getting arrested by prejudiced police was hastily pulled this week after it was noticed by the Spanish press, ABC News reports.
The note—put up after the arrest of two US government employees in Barcelona—was 15 months old and apparently out of date. “Somebody forgot to remove it,” explained a spokesman at the US embassy in Madrid. “We are in no way suggesting Spanish police are racist. This is an isolated incident.” Michelle and her younger daughter, Sasha, are staying at a 5-star resort on Spain’s Costa del Sol. Daughter Malia is at summer camp.
Paul McCartney was honored last night with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, and his evening at the White House was filled with reverent tributes, raucous performances, and a bit of humor. “After the last eight years, it’s good to have a president that knows what a library is,” McCartney said after thanking the Library of Congress for the prize. He also sang “Michelle” to the first lady, while speculating that “I’m gonna be the first guy to get punched out by a president.” Not so: President Obama simply joined in the serenade to his wife, the Washington Post reports. Other artists, from Dave Grohl to Corinne Bailey Rae, also performed McCartney’s hits—with the Jonas Brothers, who sang “Drive My Car,” being the obvious favorite of the first daughters. PBS will air the program on July 28.
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