Former First Lady Michelle Obama likely expected backlash to her widely praised speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, so much so that she baked acknowledgment of any forthcoming retaliation into her words.
“I understand that my message won’t be heard by some people,” Obama said. “We live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am a Black woman speaking at the Democratic Convention. But enough of you know me by now. You know that I tell you exactly what I’m feeling. You know I hate politics. But you also know that I care about this nation.”
Obama’s speech, which was prerecorded, sharply criticized President Donald Trump—including laying blame on him for what was at the time “more than 150,000 people” who have died from coronavirus. On Tuesday, with the actual death toll now above 170,000, Trump perhaps inexplicably took the bait.
“She was over her head and, frankly, she should’ve made the speech live, which she didn’t do,” Trump said during an event at the White House to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. “She taped it. And it was not only taped it was taped a long time ago because she had the wrong deaths.”
“Goddamn, that is one of the biggest self-owns I’ve ever seen,” Trevor Noah said with a laugh on Tuesday’s episode of The Daily Show. He then impersonated Trump scoffing at the perceived error. “150,000 dead? I’ve killed 20,000 more since then, you idiot. Hey, Herman, get a load of this idiot. Herman?”
In her speech, Obama mentioned Trump by name only once. “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country,” she said plainly. “He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”
“That was ice-cold,” Noah said of that particular section. “And what made it even more devastating was that Michelle Obama wasn’t angry. She wasn’t yelling. She just stated Trump’s complete failure as a president as an obvious fact. You know, it’s the difference between your mom screaming at you and your mom just casually sipping a coffee and going, ‘Well, not all kids can be winners.’”