Former U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama participate in the unveiling of their official portraits during a ceremony at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, DC., on February 12, 2008. Some media commentators have asked whether Michelle might make a run for the White House.
In an interview with a Spanish newspaper, he said he could “guarantee” the former first lady was not planning a return to the White House as commander-in-chief, but added he would “support her in whatever she needs, regardless of what her next goal is.”
Asked whether Michelle could run for president, he told La Vanguardia on Sunday: “Michelle will not run for president. I can guarantee it,” according to a Google translation.
“As I tell in the book, she does not like politics. She also brought it out in her own book, and without too many niceties. That said, I will always be happy to support her in whatever she needs, regardless of what her next goal is, just as she did with me.”
Michelle Obama remains a popular figure among Democrats and earlier this year topped a YouGov poll on the most admired woman in the world. Many bookmakers still offer shorter odds on her becoming president in 2024 than on other prominent contenders.
However, she has already said herself that she has no intention of seeking high office.
She told comedian Conan O’Brien’s podcast in March: “I’m not one of these people who are like either you’re on my side or you’re not. I think you can do that better outside of politics. But I will do everything I can to emphasize the importance of voting.”
In his memoir, A Promised Land, which was released last month, Barack Obama revealed that Michelle Obama initially said “no” to the idea of him running for the presidency.
He later expanded on that during an interview for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert when he said he was only just getting out of the “dog house” for running for president himself.
“I put her and our kids through an extraordinarily stressful, difficult sequence, in deciding to run for president right after I had just gone through a tough race,” he said, with an apparent reference to his successful 2005 run to the Senate.
“Michelle stayed angry at me about it, you know it would flair-up every so often, but she stayed mad about it through all eight years.”
