Former first lady Michelle Obama has said that she will not even entertain the idea of running for president of the United States while the country remains so immature in its politics.
Speaking at a promotional event for her new book, The Look, Obama said the country is “not ready” for a female leader as it still has “a lot of growing up to do.”
“As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” Obama told actress Tracee Ellis Ross at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York on Nov. 5. Footage of the event was made public on Friday.
“That’s why I’m like, don’t even look at me about running, because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman. You are not, so don’t waste my time.”
Obama was America’s first Black first lady during her husband Barack Obama’s two terms as president, and has long been touted as a potential future presidential candidate for the Democratic Party.
Having campaigned for former Vice President Kamala Harris during her 2024 leadership bid, Obama was considered the second most likely to win the executive position in 2028, behind current Vice President JD Vance.
However, the 61-year-old attorney and author has said that the current population of American men make female leadership at the very top impossible.
“You know, we got a lot of growing up to do, and there’s still, I’m, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman,” Obama said.
She added that the defeat of Harris last year to President Donald Trump proved that the country simply isn’t capable of accepting a woman in office.
“I think we still have growing to do in that regard,” she said.
Noting that Trump’s second term has marked a radical departure from his first in the pursuit of policies that human rights organizations have branded “a threat to women’s rights everywhere,” Obama added that progress is not always linear.
“We can see how progress can be made and things can be snatched back when it comes to us owning our power as women,” she said.
While her run for president may be a pipe dream for Democrats, Obama herself has previously ruled out the idea on several occasions.
“Never going to happen,” she told Kylie Kelce on her Not Gonna Lie podcast in March. Obama’s communications director, Crystal Carson, confirmed her decision in March of 2024.
“As former first lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president,” Carson said.
