Former First Lady Michelle Obama issued strong praise for her husband at the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center on the south side of Chicago on Thursday. And in that profound speech, she criticized President Donald Trump without mentioning his name.
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After words of thanks, she turned to her husband to talk about watching him serve eight years in the White House.
“I know it hasn’t always been easy, but there hasn’t been a single second through this experience that standing by your side hasn’t left me in awe,” Mrs. Obama said. “Eight years in the crucible. And not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence, your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage. Your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency, your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber. And to do it all as a first and the higher standard that comes with all that.”
She recalled that he was criticized for not being experienced enough as a one-term U.S. senator and constitutional law expert. She then delivered a thinly-veiled take down of Obama’s critics, including the current president.
“The lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism. The outrage when you stated the biological fact that if you’d had a son that he too would be Black. Yet, you were unflappable at every turn, always focused, always calm, always looking at the long view,” she championed. “How absurd it is to even imagine that you might have buckled under the pressure, even once lashed out in frustration, lost your temper.”
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She continued: “How absurd it is to imagine that you might have done anything but make our family and this entire country proud. No, you were too busy … You were doing the people’s work, rescuing our economy, expanding health care, ending a war, ordering the [Osama] Bin Laden raid, saving an auto industry, winning a Nobel Peace Prize. Keeping us safe from Ebola. Regulating the banks.”
Trump has been frustrated about his inability to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sitting behind former President Obama, could be seen laughing, turning to her husband, covering her mouth and making a comment.
She closed the speech saying that “a lasting legacy isn’t a name on a building,” — another slight at Trump, who’s pushed to add his name to the John F. Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts.
At many points in the speech the former president could be seen wiping away tears as his wife’s voice echoed with passion and love.
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