Former First Lady Michelle Obama recently released her autobiography titled Becoming in which she talks "about her roots and how she found her voice, as well as her time in the White House, her public health campaign, and her role as a mother." One of the things that caught many people's eye was her personal opinion and response towards Trump's belief in the "birther" conspiracy.
“What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this I’d never forgive him.”
The "birther" conspiracy is the belief that former president Barack Obama was born in Kenya not in the US. President Trump started to make these claims in 2011, shortly before the 2012 election. At one point, Trump claimed that he had seen Obama's birth certificate. He even went far as insisting that the president should reveal his birth certificate: "if he wasn’t born in this country, which is a real possibility ... then he has pulled one of the great cons in the history of politics.”(Donald Trump) Trump's accusations are clearly false since he has contradicted himself many times, and cannot find a right answer. Which then can lead to the explanation on why he has decided to stop talking about the "birther" conspiracy.
The conspiracy has been brought up by more and more conspiracy theorists over time. It was first brought up by American journalist Andy Martin in 2004, not Hillary Clinton as the president claims. During Trump's presidential campaign in 2016, he decided to stop mentioning his beliefs on the conspiracy. Throughout his campaign, many reporters questioned on his role in promoting the "racially charge[d] smear" in which then he responded by saying, "'I don't talk about it because if I talk about that, your whole thing will be about that,"' he told reporters last week. "'So I don't talk about it."'
As a result Michelle Obama was angered "because she felt he was putting her family at risk." As a wife she has done the right thing to do, and that is to protect and support her one and only husband.
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5 comments:
Remember when this birther theory was the craziest thing? Wow. Here's some more recent things Trump has said.
- People are changing clothes to vote more than once.
- Putin's fine.
- Maxine Waters is a low-IQ individual.
- Collusion is not a crime
It's not even that these things are absolutely fabricated. It's that they have real consequences and intentions. Like Michelle Obama said, his words have power, and even though he might not be going around shooting people, he certainly has empowered others to do so (see the bombs send to Democrats, synagogue shooting, rise of white supremacy). Calling Putin "fine" and acting friendly around him is normalizing, even accepting, fascism. Calling the news media fake is destroying the truth and the possibility of it holding him accountable.
Trump, Fox News and right-wing conspirators don't care about the facts at all. They've discovered that fear-mongering wins elections.
https://youtu.be/Z8UZn7PmyXc
Like what Alyce said, it seems that Trump making ridiculous statements has become a new normal. They don't care about the facts and understand that propaganda works -- truthful or not. People have become desensitized to his statements, but it doesn't make what Trump says any less radical. I think Michelle Obama is just absolutely done and disgusted with Trump's crude ways.
Vox has an interesting take on Trump's extremism, asserting that because Trump is so radical, he makes former far right, anti-Trump conservatives look more moderate and reasonable. Trump's abnormal behavior also distracts everyone from things like a 250 billion mistake in a passed bill (refer to Vox video linked below).
https://www.vox.com/2017/12/21/16806676/strikethrough-how-trump-overton-window-extreme-normal
Michelle Obama has a right to be angry at Donald Trump for spreading false information about her family. It is only a smear campaign to rally Trump’s voter base up ahead of a possible re-election campaign. In addition, Trump has had a history of not saying many truthful things about Obama or his opponents in general. I do feel that Trump still believes in the conspiracy despite his unwillingness to say if he does.
Our president has made a lot of unthoughtful comments through various platforms such as Twitter. While this has now become repetitive and almost expected, it is still nice to see that the people of this nation are willing to fight back against what Trump says. I agree with what Alyce is saying about the impacts of Trump's statements. Trump's accusations hold many implications and consequences for the well-being of the country, which draws the attention of the American public. Through his statements, Trump garners widespread support as well as disapproval which further stretches the nation towards polarizing ends.
I think that Michelle Obama’s anger towards Trump is justified as it truly is putting their family in danger. There are extremists in America that resort to violent deeds to follow what they believe in. For example, white nationalists seem to pose a threat to Obama, especially after Trumps comments saying that Obama wasn’t born in the US. Also, I think there is some political gain over this as well as Trump is trying to gain support from Obama haters.
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