Closing out Monday’s 11th Hour on MSNBC, host Brian Williams couldn’t help but join the chorus of media tributes to outgoing First Lady Michelle Obama as he hailed her as a “formidable presence” whose “future appears limitless.”
Williams teed up a clip from the hour-long CBS special between Mrs. Obama and Oprah Winfrey by touting “Oprah's exit interview with First Lady Michelle Obama, who talked about the long eight-year journey in role, including raising a family in the public eye, saying nothing of the historic significance of the first African-American family in the White House.”
Setting up the soundbite concerning a possible future for the First Lady in public office, Williams gushed as if he were tasked with writing a short bio for an Obama campaign website:
Michelle Obama is a formidable presence, degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law School. Hugely popular, her initiatives have changed the public conversation, and her future appears limitless. So the question has to be asked, is a run for public office in her future? It came up tonight.
Following an exchange between Obama and Winfrey in which the former flatly denied she’ll run for future office, Williams returned to hold out hope (on behalf of all downtrodden liberals) that she’ll change her mind: “For all politicians looking for a way to say no, I'm not running for office, you can start there. Michelle Obama from tonight's broadcast, and that is our broadcast for this Monday night.”
Of course, what Williams didn’t take into account was the reality that Mrs. Obama’s “initiatives” such as her school lunch program were widely panned and a point of mockery for critics.
Additionally, statements such as one she made in the same interview about the lack of hope in America showcase the bubble the left lives inside of that led to their downfall in the November 8 election.
Here’s the relevant portion of the transcript from MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams on December 19:
MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
December 19, 2016
11:28 p.m. EasternBRIAN WILLIAMS: Last thing before we go here tonight has to do with the last days of the Obama family in the White House. Tonight, we got to see Oprah's exit interview with First Lady Michelle Obama, who talked about the long eight-year journey in role, including raising a family in the public eye, saying nothing of the historic significance of the first African-American family in the White House. Michelle Obama is a formidable presence, degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law School. Hugely popular, her initiatives have changed the public conversation, and her future appears limitless. So the question has to be asked, is a run for public office in her future? It came up tonight.
OPRAH WINFREY: Would you ever run for office?
MICHELLE OBAMA: No.
WINFREY: No kind of office?
OBAMA: No. Look, that's one thing I don't do. I don't make stuff up. I'm not coy. I haven’t proven it. I'm pretty direct. If I were interested in it, I would say it. I don't believe in playing games. You know, it's not something I would do, but it also speaks to the fact that people don't really understand how hard this is and it's not something that you cavalierly just sort of ask a family to do again. Maybe because we got it wrong or we think we got it wrong, so it's like now you — you just go back in there and do it. You're the closest thing to that, so you do it, but let me just tell America, this is hard. It's a hard job. I said it on the campaign trail. It requires a lot of sacrifice. It is a weighty thing and it's not something that you even look to one family to take on at level, you know, for that long of a period of time.
WINFREY: Eight years is enough?
OBAMA: And 16 years would be, right? Let’s just — you know — 16 years. I wouldn't do that to my kids.
WILLIAMS: For all politicians looking for a way to say no, I'm not running for office, you can start there. Michelle Obama from tonight's broadcast, and that is our broadcast for this Monday night.
