Former first lady Michelle Obama took to Instagram to slam President Donald Trump for not conceding to Joe Biden to bring about a peaceful transfer of power while saying that it was difficult to transfer power to Trump because “he spread racist lies” about Barack Obama.
“Donald Trump had spread racist lies about my husband that had put my family in danger,” Obama wrote on the social media site. “That wasn’t something I was ready to forgive. But I knew that, for the sake of our country, I had to find the strength and maturity to put my anger aside.”
“This week, I’ve been reflecting a lot on where I was four years ago,” Obama wrote. “Hillary Clinton had just been dealt a tough loss by a far closer margin than the one we’ve seen this year. I was hurt and disappointed—but the votes had been counted and Donald Trump had won.”
“The American people had spoken,” Obama wrote. “And one of the great responsibilities of the presidency is to listen when they do. So my husband and I instructed our staffs to do what George and Laura Bush had done for us: run a respectful, seamless transition of power—one of the hallmarks of American democracy. We invited the folks from the president-elect’s team into our offices and prepared detailed memos for them, offering what we’d learned over the past eight years.”
“I have to be honest and say that none of this was easy for me,” Obama wrote.
Obama said she helped first lady Melania Trump with helpful information, such as what it like to live in the public spotlight and raising children in the White House.
The Austin-Texas-based CBS affiliate outlet reported on Obama’s offering advice now to the seated president of the United States, who has not yet officially lost the election. The outlet also included what the media believe in the final electoral votes even if the election is yet to be certified.
Despite Biden earning 306 electoral votes (270 are required to win the presidency) and maintaining a popular vote lead of more than five million, Trump has yet to concede the race. Instead, the outgoing president is proceeding with legal challenges in hopes of overturning the results. In her post, Obama discouraged that course of action.
“Our love of country requires us to respect the results of an election even when we don’t like them or wish it had gone differently — the presidency doesn’t belong to any one individual or any one party,” she wrote. “To pretend that it does, to play along with these groundless conspiracy theories — whether for personal or political gain — is to put our country’s health and security in danger. This isn’t a game.”
Obama ended her post by urging “all Americans, especially our nation’s leaders, regardless of party, to honor the electoral process and do your part to encourage a smooth transition of power, just as sitting presidents have done throughout our history.”
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