Former first lady Michelle Obama reacted to the impeachment proceedings against President Trump on NBC’s “Today,” calling the events “surreal” in a clip released Monday morning.
“It’s surreal, I think,” she told Jenna Bush Hager, as the two chatted in Vietnam where Obama has been focusing on girls’ education. “The last impeachment hearing, a lot of young people weren’t around for that, so this is all new.
“I don’t think people know what to make of it, but do I think we can come back from it? Oh, yeah.”
“We’ve seen worse times,” the best-selling “Becoming” author and Netflix producer continued. “We’ve seen tough times in this country. You know, we’ve gone through depressions and wars and bombings and terrorist attacks and we’ve gone through Jim Crow and we’ve always come out stronger. And that’s what we have to continue to believe, because what’s our choice? To ball up in a corner and call it a day? Well, that’s not fair to this next generation that’s coming before us, that are counting on us to get this right. It’s not an ‘us’ or ‘them.’ It’s not an ‘R’ or a ‘D.’ We are all here as part of this country. We all want the same things. It’s just sometimes, that gets lost in the noise.”
In the clip, which previews the full interview set to air Tuesday, Obama also muses on why she is traveling to support girls’ education, noting, “It’s important for us to know more versions of what it means to be human, and we’re seeing it in these girls. It’s also a continuation of what I consider my life’s work. Yeah, the book was something I did, it was wonderful — the response, I’m humbled by it — but the truth is, is that working on girls’ education is what I want to do for the rest of my life until we fix this issue.”
She told Bush Hager, herself the child of a former president, that the beauty of post-presidential travel is she and husband Barack Obama can travel together without rushing, without having to use freight elevators or back entrances, and without missing out on spending time with local people. As empty-nesters, the mother of two added, they don’t even need to worry about who will stay back in the United States to watch the kids.