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Michelle Obama admits she cried “uncontrollably” for more than 30 minutes following Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration, and as she and outgoing president Barack Obama were leaving the White House for the final time.
The concession comes in the former first lady’s her new Audible podcast, which launches Tuesday, a clip of which was provided to People magazine.
“When those doors shut, I cried for 30 minutes straight, uncontrollable sobbing, because that’s how much we were holding it together for eight years,” Obama says of the moment Air Force One was readied to take them from Joint Base Andrews on 20 January, 2017.
“You walk through the Capitol, you wave goodbye, you get on Marine One, and you take your last flight flying over the Capitol,” where there weren’t that many people,” she added in a blatant dig at Trump’s false boast, articulated by his pugilistic first press secretary Sean Spicer, that “this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration – period.”
The podcast is hosted by TV presenter Hoda Kotb. In the first episode, entitled “Kids just want our gladness”, Obama tells her: “That day was so emotional for so many different reasons.
“We were leaving the home we had been in for eight years, the only home our kids really knew. They remembered Chicago but they had spent more time in the White House than anywhere, so we were saying goodbye to the staff and all the people who helped to raise them.”
Carlson condemned for ‘sanitizing’ Jan 6 riot footage
Tucker Carlson’s first take on the January 6 Capitol riot footage, controversially provided to him as an exclusive by Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy, was widely condemned on Tuesday for “sanitizing” the deadly insurrection.
The rightwing TV host showed selected clips from Capitol security cameras on his Fox News show on Monday night, including small pockets of supporters of Donald Trump wandering around, and a particular focus on the so-called Q-Anon shaman Jacob Chansley, sentenced in November 2021 to more than three years in prison for his part in the riot.
“The footage does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress. Instead it shows police escorting people through the building,” Carlson told his viewers, parroting Trump’s narrative that the rioters were simply sightseeing.
“Taken as a whole, the video does not support the claim that January 6 was an insurrection. In fact, it demolishes that claim.”
Quite the statement here from the family of U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick tonight:
“Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again and we are frankly sick of it. Leave us the hell alone…” pic.twitter.com/V8O5jkl9pR
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 7, 2023
As NBC points out, footage Carlson didn’t air shows police and rioters engaged in hours of violent combat, or the assaults on about 140 law enforcement officers. Several people, including police officers, lost their lives during or after the attack.
On Tuesday, the family of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol police officer who died a day after a confrontation with the rioters, issued a statement condemning Carlson.
“Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again and we are frankly sick of it. Leave us the hell alone,” the statement reads in part.
On CNN, Adam Kinzinger, a Republican former congressman and member of the House January 6 committee, called Carlson’s presentation “disgusting”.
Other media outlets are also trying to obtain the 44,000 hours of security camera footage given to Carlson, so far without success. McCarthy’s office said on Monday it was working to arrange it, but gave no details.
Joe Biden has been laying out some of his budget plans today in a guest opinion piece for the New York Times, and wastes little time bashing Republicans over benefits for future generations.
The president, whose full budget proposal is set to be unveiled on Thursday, says expanding Medicare will be a priority to maintain a “rock-solid guarantee that Americans have counted on to be there for them when they retire.”
Biden writes:
For decades, I’ve listened to my Republican friends claim that the only way to be serious about preserving Medicare is to cut benefits, including by making it a voucher program worth less and less every year. Some have threatened our economy unless I agree to benefit cuts.
Only in Washington can people claim that they are saving something by destroying it.
Biden’s returning to a tactic that served him well during last month’s State of the Union speech, when he goaded Republicans over plans by Florida senator Rick Scott, among others, to incorporate the termination or slashing of welfare benefits, including Medicare and social security, into policy.
It prompted some hasty backtracking and scrambling by Scott, and a stern rebuke from Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.
Biden’s plans for preserving Medicare, meanwhile, include what he says will be “a modest increase” in the contributions of wealthiest Americans.
Raising the Medicare tax rate from 3.8% to 5% on income exceeding $400,000 per year, including salaries and capital gains, would “help keep the Medicare program strong for decades to come,” he writes.
Biden is heading for Pennsylvania on Thursday to release his full budget plans, instead of the more traditional setting of the White House, the Associated Press notes.
But with Republicans controlling the House, the budget has little chance of passing.
Good morning Tuesday blog readers!
Joe Biden has been laying out some of his budget proposals today in a guest essay for the New York Times. He’s jabbing at Republicans again over their perceived agenda to cut benefits for future generations, and providing details of plans to expand Medicare by imposing a “modest increase” in contributions by wealthier Americans to pay for it.
As the Times notes, the president’s budget stands next to no chance of passing the divided Congress. But it’s a topic that helps draw 2024 attention back from Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and who the Republicans might nominate to oppose his re-election, assuming Biden runs.
We’ll take a closer look at that coming up. Meanwhile, here’s what else we’re following on a busy Tuesday:
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Rightwing TV host Tucker Carlson is receiving pushback for “sanitizing” the January 6 Capitol riot in selective footage aired on his Fox News show on Monday night, provided to him exclusively by Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
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The growing threat of a third party candidate running in 2024 and soaking up votes from Biden is worrying Democrats, according to Politico’s Playbook.
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Trump is mulling who he might pick as a running mate in 2024, Axios says, with election denier and failed Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake emerging as a favorite.
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Michelle Obama “cried uncontrollably for 30 minutes” after Trump’s January 2017 inauguration after she and outgoing president Barack Obama left the White House for the last time, according to the ex-first lady’s new podcast airing today. The Washington Post has the story.
We’ll have all this, and much more coming up in the blog today. Please stick with us.
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