Former First Lady Michelle Obama is weighing in on the presidential election and declaring, “This isn’t a game.”
Noting that she has been reflecting “a lot on where I was four years ago” when Hillary Clinton was dealing with a “tough loss by a far closer margin than the one we’ve seen this year,” Michelle Obama wrote in an Instagram post on Monday. She said she was “hurt and disappointed” when President Donald Trump won.
The former first lady spoke about the time her and former President Barack Obama invited the president-elect’s team to their office to share information learned. She said “none of this was easy for me,” before blasting Trump for having “spread racist lies about my husband that had put my family in danger.” The former first lady also invited now-First Lady Melania Trump to the White House.
“I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do — because our democracy is so much bigger than anybody’s ego. Our love of country requires us to respect the results of an election even when we don’t like them or wish it had gone differently — the presidency doesn’t belong to any one individual or any one party.”
Michelle Obama then appeared to take aim at Trump, as he has refused to concede the election so far and has filed lawsuits in multiple states.
“To pretend that it does, to play along with these groundless conspiracy theories — whether for personal or political gain — is to put our country’s health and security in danger. This isn’t a game,” she wrote.
“So I want to urge all Americans, especially our nation’s leaders, regardless of party, to honor the electoral process and do your part to encourage a smooth transition of power, just as sitting presidents have done throughout our history.”
Trump has falsely insisted that he won. However, several major outlets projected Joe Biden as the winner of the election after he garnered more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.
See her post below:
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Barack Obama also spoke out following Election Day, saying during a “60 Minutes” interview that he “absolutely” thinks Trump should concede, as IJR reported on.
“A president is a public servant, they are temporary occupants of the office by design,” Obama said. “And when your time is up, then it is your job to put the country first and think beyond your own ego and your own interests and your own disappointments.”
He added, “My advice to President Trump is if you want at this late stage of the game to be remembered as somebody who put country first, it’s time for you to do the same thing.”
Obama also noted during a CBS News interview with Gayle King, which aired on Sunday, that he is “disappointed” in Republicans for not pushing back on Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
