Columnist Charles Krauthammer panned First Lady Michelle Obama’s Tuesday remarks in a high school commencement speech in Chicago, mocking her for talking up the “burden” she claims to carry with her every day.
In an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, the conservative commentator laughed off Obama’s remarks, saying that she must feel full of “self pity” as she continues her “tough life inside the White House.”
“Well, you know the burden she carries, she keeps — I mean, the self pity and this, you know — it was a tough life inside the White House, I’m sure carrying all the burdens that she imagines that she is,” Krauthammer said mockingly.
“I think what’s happening is the same thing that’s happening to her husband. They are nearing the finish line. They no longer have to worry about any elections, either for themselves or midterms for the Democratic Party,” Krauthammer said. “They are both unleashed. Obama’s unleashed in the sense that he doesn’t have to listen to Congress. He can insult and try to intimidate the Supreme Court. You know, there are no restrictions, no separation of powers. There’s no limitation on what he is trying to do and what he will try to do in the next 18 months.”
“I think in the same way, she no longer has to hide what she feels,” Krauthammer said. “She can go back to, sort of, amplifying on the gaffe that she made in 2008 where…she said famously that I’ve never been so proud of my country or proud of my country as I am now because they were recognizing her and her husband, elevating them to the presidency. But if it hadn’t been for that, she could find no place for pride in her country. They sort of had to walk that back a little bit.”
“That’s where she is and now she’s unburdening herself I guess,” Krauthammer added.
“She’s free,” Ingraham said. “She’s free to say much more specific and passionately.”
“Right. No sugarcoating,” Krauthammer joked. “I don’t see her in the vegetable garden very much.”
Obama made the comments during a commencement speech at King College Prep High School, a school on Chicago’s south side where she grew up.
“You will encounter people who doubt your very existence. Folks who believe that hard work and families with strong values don’t exist on the south side of Chicago,” the first lady told graduates. “They don’t believe you are real, and with every word you speak, with every choice you make, you are rewriting the story of our communities. And that is a burden President Obama and I carry with us every single day in the White House.”
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