Michelle Obama said that she believes the United States will make it through the dark period surrounding President Donald Trump’s likely impeachment.
The former first lady spoke to Today’s Jenna Bush Hager on Monday, noting that while a number of Americans were too young to remember the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and don’t know what to make of the current political climate, she is confident that there are better days ahead.
“We have seen worse times, we have seen tough times in this country,” she said, via People . “We have gone through depressions and wars and bombings and terrorist attacks and we’ve gone through Jim Crow and we’ve always come out stronger.”
Michelle added that there wasn’t much other alternative for America, noting that it’s not an option to “ball up in a corner and call it a day.” She said that getting through the difficult period is not a partisan issue, not “an us or a them,” but instead something that the nation needs to move through together.
While Barack Obama has become gradually more critical of President Trump since spending nearly all of his first year away from office out of the spotlight, he has been mostly quiet on anything related to Trump’s impeachment, as has Michelle.
That hasn’t stopped the former president from being dragged into the proceedings, however. At an impeachment hearing last week, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz suggested that Obama himself could be impeached, pointing to a 2013 incident in which the National Security Agency monitored the calls of world leaders. As Business Insider noted, Gaetz claimed that if “wiretapping political opponents is a political offense… a different president” should be impeached.
Michelle has been more open in her own views on Trump, frequently making critical remarks but often not referring to the president by name. That appeared to be the case during her appearance at the Essence Fest in July when the former first lady was asked about the upcoming election. As ABC News noted, Michelle was asked which candidate she and her husband were supporting. Obama has said publicly that he will not back any candidate until they win the nomination and Michelle responded instead by criticizing Trump’s performance .
“The leader of the free world, with a tweet, can start a war, can crush an economy, can change the future of our children,” she said. “It is a real job which requires deep seriousness and focus.”
