After having teased former First Lady Michelle Obama’s appearance all week, Thursday’s CBS Mornings lived up to the embarrassing hype with an astounding nine teases plus 14 minutes and 20 seconds over two segments prostrating themselves over the ground she walked on, led by co-host, Democratic donor, and Obama family friend Gayle King (neither of which was, as usual, disclosed to viewers). All told, democracy died in a lack of journalism.
King couldn’t even get a second beyond welcoming viewers to the show before reminding them Obama would be there. After the Eye Opener, King exclaimed they were “very excited because we’ve got a very special guest in the show today” after having “tour[ed] the country” and “spreading the word about her book.”
She added the title of her second book was The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times and remarked, “And boy, don’t we have some uncertain times right now.” Co-host Nate Burleson agreed, gushing, “And her light shines bright.”
Two teases later, King swooned over how Michelle was so highly anticipated at CBS that, in a move she claimed has never happened before, “a techician came to me and said, ‘how does Mrs. Obama like her room temperature?’”
The second part was even dumber as King called over a staffer to relay how this woman’s mom had chided her for planning to wear jeans in the presence of Obama (click “expand”):
KING: And then Katie, come here, Katie.
OBAMA: Katie!
KING: Katie, her mom said, what are you wearing? And she said I’m wearing jeans.
OBAMA: Very cute.
KING: Her mother said that’s disrespectful to the First Lady.
OBAMA: Oh, no, no. No.
KING: Tell Katie’s mom —
OBAMA: Where is —
KING: — is this okay?
OBAMA: — it’s okay. We’re in jeans era. Former — for a former —
KING: We are so excited that —
OBAMA: — jeans are — Katie’s mom —
KING: — Michelle Obama is here —
OBAMA: — it’s fine.
KING: — to talk about her documentary. Thank you, Katie. Mrs. Smith, Michelle Obama says your daughter looks good.
After King said in a top-of-the-hour tease she “couldn’t be more excited” about Obama, the former First Lady even joined the co-hosts in front of the table after they previewed some of the stories for the show’s second hour. Burleson pretended to be surprised she would be standing there and King proclaimed that “[t]his has never happened before.”
The actual interview couldn’t have had a more gooey open (click “expand”):
KING: We’re going to begin this hour with former First Lady Michelle Obama, who is here in our studio, live and in color. She is — listen to this, guys — the number-one best-selling author of Becoming and her recent book The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, by the way, that was number one, too.
OBAMA: Mmmm.
KING: She traveled the country. She talked to big names about her recent book including — there was Tyler Perry, Ellen DeGeneres, and Oprah — there’s only one. You can hear those conversations on Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast. The former first lady also recorded a Netflix special with Oprah during her final stop.
Reacting to a clip of Obama discussing which friends to bring to hang out with Oprah, King recalled how she then “met your friends” (presumably at said gathering) and they really are your true blue friends.” Again, so much for maintaining independence from those you cover.
King pivoted to her second book and gushed over “the difference between the two books because Becoming was a best-selling novel, over 12 million sold. Drop the microphone, thank you so much.”
“So when you started writing the second one, did you feel pressure that I have to top that, or I want to make another bestseller,” she asked.
Obama explained she wasn’t contractually obligated, but did anyway due to “the last few hard years of being in quarantine, dealing with COVID, all the political uncertainty” and thus “had a lot of time on my hands to just sort of stew and to mull over questions that young people...would ask about managing life in uncertain times.”
King reacted as you would expect:
This is the thing about you — you have always been very candid, authentic, uniquely yourself. And so many people, Mrs. Obama, at your stature, “when people say how are you doing,” “oh, fine, fine, fine.” But you have been very open about your insecurities, your anxieties, even your frustrations. Why did you choose to be so vulnerable, and do you regret being so vulnerable and open?
After spending a few minutes wallowing in how difficult it is to be the Obamas, King peddled a classic liberal media example of revisionist history:
I’ve heard you say that when you’re in the White House, did you feel tremendous pressure? Because all eyes were on you. And I heard you say once we just knew we could not screw up. I mean, you had eight years where there were really, relatively no scandals to speak of compared to what we’re dealing with even now.
On cue, Obama cited her husband’s tan suit and her donning of long pants in the Grand Canyon as proof of how the media weren’t always kind to them.
Skipping ahead to the second block, King started with another focus on how her title fit the mood of the country with examples being gun violence and, yes, the end of Roe v. Wade. Like close friends, there was nothing but in agreement (click “expand”):
KING: I really think that these are uncertain times.
OBAMA: Yeah.
KING: I look at the things in the news recently, the three recent shootings, the terrible shooting in Kansas City with the 16-year-old, thank God he survived.
OBAMA: Yes.
KING: A young woman in New York was shot turning in the driveway — just normal things.
OBAMA: Mmm.
KING: Do you think that we can ever figure out a way to reconcile gun violence in this country? Because it does keep me up.
OBAMA: I hope and pray that — that, at some point, enough becomes enough.
KING: Enough. But is there a point?
OBAMA: But, you know, we wondered that throughout our entire presidency —
KING: Mmmhmm.
OBAMA: — thinking that this time —
KING: — yeah. Barack Obama said —
OBAMA: — you know?
KING: — Newtown was one of the worst days of his presidency.
OBAMA: Yeah.
KING: And we still didn’t get that message.
OBAMA: But we are the only developed country on the planet where its citizens can have unfettered access to firearms.
KING: Mmmhmm.
OBAMA: That is not a good thing.
KING: Mmmhmm.
OBAMA: And more of us have to feel strongly about it and particularly our young people. This is where democracy comes in. Voting — this — all this stuff is decided —
KING: It matters.
OBAMA: — in the — in the ballot box.
KING: And then you’ve got the Supreme Court, when they overturned Roe v. Wade. You — you put a very poignant message about you were heartbroken.
OBAMA: Mmhmm.
KING: What’s your reaction today as you see this battle over abortion access continuing to play out, uncertain times, scary times.
OBAMA: This is — this was to be predicted. I can’t tell you how many times we talked about the importance of the Supreme Court, the importance of voting, voting in every election, so now we are here. I am not surprised by it. It was coming.
With time running short, King ended with the cockamamie dream (of at least some) of Michelle Obama running for president:
I emceed this event at Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, for Wynton Marsalis, and just mentioning your name that you were going to be on, people were YAHHHHHHH! I mean, people have such expectations and hopes that will she, will she?
King then said she wouldn’t, fretting there’s a question of whether Obama “ever think[s]...politics will leave you because you I’m not a political person, politics isn’t something I wanted, that people still hope and want you to do something.”
Obama went along:
I am authentic. If I were going to engage in politics, I would let people know. But I am a public figure, I still care about these issues. I will always find ways to use my platform to — to speak out. That’s why I’m focusing on getting young people to vote. Because none of it matters, it doesn’t matter who’s in the Oval Office if we can’t give them a Congress to work with. If we’re not, you know, managing our state house and on and on. I could go on and on about it.
King’s final question was eye-rolling: “What gives you joy these days, Michelle Obama? What are you looking forward to?”
And because they couldn’t get enough, the show ended with King thanking Obama.
CBS’s pathetic excuse for journalism and lack of self-control was made possible thanks to the endorsement of advertisers such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Honda, Prudential, and Subaru. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcript from April 20, click here.
