Michelle Obama ‘Rattled’ When Trump Encouraged Capitol Attack: The ‘Most Frightening Thing I’ve Ever Witnessed’
The former first lady detailed watching the footage of the deadly assault on the Capitol on TV, describing her ‘shock’ at the January 6 insurrection.
The January 6 attack on the Capitol was a shock to so many people, including former First Lady Michelle Obama. The former FLOTUS recalled watching the events unfold alongside former President Barack Obama in her new book The Light We Carry: Overcoming In Uncertain Times, which was released on Tuesday, November 15. Michelle recounted her fear not only at the violent assault from a mob to try to overturn a free and fair election, but also at former President Donald Trump inciting his supporters.
Michelle reflected on going to watch President Joe Biden’s innauguration, two weeks after the attack, and she said how at the moment, she couldn’t help but remember what she’d seen so soon before. “[The rioters] smashed windows, pounded down doors, attacked and injured police officers, and broken into the chambers of the Senate, terrorizing our country’s leaders and putting democracy itself in jeopardy,” she wrote about the attack. “Barack and I had watched in shock as it unfolded live on the news.”
Like so many Americans, the former first lady was disturbed to see not only the violent attack, but Trump’s rhetoric, which only further motivated the crowd. “The events of that day rattled me to the core. I’d understood that our country was grappling with a toxic level of political discord, but seeing the rhetoric tip into reckless, rageful violence aimed at overturning an election was devastating. Watching an American president encourage a siege on his own government was perhaps the most frightening thing I’d ever witnessed,” she wrote in the book.
Besides the January 6 attack, Michelle said that she was disgusted by her husband’s successor from the beginning of his presidency. “It shook me profoundly to hear the man who’d replaced my husband as president openly and unapologetically using ethnic slurs, making selfishness and hate somehow acceptable, refusing to condemn white supremacists or to support people demonstrating for racial justice,” she explained. “stuck in my house over the frightening early months of 2020, I saw no logic to any of it. What I saw was a president whose lack of integrity was reflected in an escalating national death count.”
The former First Lady hasn’t been the only person to rebuke Trump’s actions during the January 6 attack. Besides the investigation by the House Select Committee, which has even subpoenaed Trump, and callouts by President Joe Biden, former Vice President Mike Pence even expressed his outrage in a new interview with ABC News. “It angered me,” he said when asked how he felt about Trump’s tweet calling him out. “The president’s words were reckless. It’s clear he decided to be part of the problem.”