Mourning Michelle Obama Rebukes Trump for Psychotic Rob Reiner Post; The Daily Beast, December 16, 2025

Meera Navlakha, The Daily Beast; Mourning Michelle Obama Rebukes Trump for Psychotic Rob Reiner Post

[Kip Currier: Democratic societies are strengthened by those who have the courage and conviction to speak out against hatred, cruelty, and divisiveness and those who traffic in such toxic behaviors.

Hans Christian Andersen's (1837) The Emperor's New Clothes is as timely as ever.]

[Excerpt]

The former first lady said that Rob and Michele Reiner were nothing but decent and courageous people.

"Michelle Obama calmly slammed President Donald Trump’s deranged comments on the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. 

In an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the former first lady said the 78-year-old film director and his 68-year-old wife were courageous people who cared about their country.

“Let me just say this, unlike some people, Rob and Michelle Reiner are some of the most decent, courageous people you ever want to know. They’re not deranged or crazed,” Obama said, referring to Trump’s descriptions of the couple in the wake of their gruesome slaying, allegedly at the hands of their 32-year-old son. 

“What they have always been are passionate people, in a time when there are not... there’s not a lot of courage going on. They were the kind of people who were ready to put their actions behind what they cared about, and they cared about their family, and they cared about this country, and they cared about fairness and equity,” she said. 

“That is the truth,” Obama, 61, concluded. “I do know them.”

Trump has been condemned for his bizarre comments on the Reiners’ murder. The president said the director suffered from “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a term often used by Trump and his supporters to undermine his critics."

Michelle Obama urges students to keep up diversity legacy: 'It's your turn now'; Guardian, 12/15/16

David Smith, Guardian; Michelle Obama urges students to keep up diversity legacy: 'It's your turn now' :

"She did not mention the election or Donald Trump once. But Michelle Obama’s message about diversity and inclusiveness was clear...

The first African American first lady addressed a gathering of students – many of them young black women – at the White House on Thursday after a screening of Hidden Figures, a new biopic of three black female mathematicians who helped launch Americans into space...

Obama, wearing black, added somewhat somberly: “But it’s up to all of you, our young people, to continue that legacy. It’s your turn now. All right?”"

Michelle Obama’s epic New Hampshire speech was a master class in speaking from the gut; Washington Post, 10/14/16

Jena McGregor, Washington Post; Michelle Obama’s epic New Hampshire speech was a master class in speaking from the gut:

"Michelle Obama's epic speech Tuesday in New Hampshire should be required viewing for every leader. Not because of its political content. Not for her strongly worded endorsement of Hillary Clinton or her scathing takedown of the Democratic nominee's "opponent" -- the First Lady refused to even say GOP nominee Donald Trump's name -- that has already been called a "defining moment in the presidential campaign."

Rather, it was for the absolute master class she offered in that elusive quality of leadership: "authenticity." It is among the most jargon-laden, vague concepts touted by leadership consultants and coaches, the subject of countless books and training seminars promising yet another elixir to effective speech-making or good leadership.

But on Thursday, Obama provided a stark reminder that this nebulous quality comes not from a book. It comes from the gut. With inclusive and personal stories, emotionally strong yet vulnerable tone and body language, and a passionate appeal rooted in her own experiences, Obama embodied the widely praised but rarely replicated feat of seeming "real" that escapes so many leaders."

Michelle Obama’s Speech: As Personal As Political Gets; BillMoyers.com, 10/14/16

Lynn Sherr, BillMoyers.com; Michelle Obama’s Speech: As Personal As Political Gets:

"“It reminds us of stories we’ve heard from our mothers and grandmothers about how back in their day the boss could say and do whatever he pleased to the women in the office. And even though they worked so hard, jumped over every hurdle to prove themselves, it was never enough. We thought all of that was ancient history, didn’t we?”

I sure did. It was 1979 when I was at ABC News that I did my first story on sexual harassment — perhaps the first network news piece on the ugly variation on sex discrimination. The concept was so novel, I had to spell it out on screen, and define it. To illustrate it, I used a scene from a movie – it was always played for laughs – of the lustful boss chasing his hapless secretary around the desk. Such innocent times: I talked about dealing with “a comment, a pinch or an unwanted proposition.” One of the victims took it further. Her boss, she said, “told me, ‘You’re gonna screw me or be canned.’” There were, I pointed out helpfully, now solutions: the law, the courts. But as Obama wisely noted in her speech, “here we are in 2016 and we’re hearing these exact same things every day of the campaign trail.” Simply because “all of us are doing what women have always done. .. Just trying to get through it, trying to pretend like this doesn’t really bother us.”

Back in the 1960s, when relatively few of us were traveling for business on a regular basis, a few female friends and I joked about inventing an inflatable belly, so that when we were (invariably) seated on airplanes next to annoying male seat mates, we could pull the cord and look pregnant. Memo to Donald Trump, who wondered why the woman who says he groped her on the plane didn’t contact airline personnel: back then, stewardesses paid little attention to other women. Sisterhood wasn’t powerful enough. Yet."

Michelle Obama delivers a passionate defense of Hillary Clinton; Washington Post, 7/25/16

Krissah Thompson and Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post; Michelle Obama delivers a passionate defense of Hillary Clinton:

"Obama did not mention Donald Trump by name, but she had a pointed critique of the Republican nominee.

“When you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military in your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or a tendency to lash out. You need to be steady and measured and well informed," Obama said...

“When they go low, we go high,” she said, repeating a mantra she heard as a child.

She delivered a passionate defense of Hillary Clinton — touting her “lifelong devotion to our nation’s children -- not just her own daughter – who she has raised to perfection, but every child who needs a champion.”...

"“When I think about the kind of president I want for my girls and for all children, that’s who I want,” Obama added. “I want someone with the proven strength to persevere. Someone who knows this job and takes it seriously. Someone who understands that the issues that a president tackles are not black or white and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters.”...

“I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I’ve watched my daughters, two beautiful intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all of our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States,” she said."