Michelle Obama lambasts Donald Trump over Capitol riots, while refusing to say his name
Michelle Obama has launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump, following the storming of the Capitol building by far right supporters of the president.
Taking a day to process her thoughts and devastation, the former First Lady highlighted the contrasting approach taken by law enforcement when the Trump mob stormed the congressional building compared to that of the Black Lives Matter marches last summer, in a statement shared to social media.
Placing the blame for inciting the mob firmly at Trump's feet, Obama criticised him while refusing to say his name - which is something the mother-of-two has done on several occasions.
"The day was a fulfilment of the wishes of an infantile and unpatriotic president who can't handle the truth of his own failures," Obama wrote on Instagram on 7 January.
Holding account the members of his party and right wing media organisations who have enabled his behaviour as president, the bestselling author continued: "And the wreckage lays at the feet of a party and media apparatus that gleefully cheered him on, knowing full well the possibility of consequences like these."
Obama continued to write that, of all her emotional responses to witnessing the riots at the Capitol, the one she "could not shake" was what would have happened had the protesters been Black instead of white.
"And for all those who call others unpatriotic for simply taking a knee in silent protest, for those who wonder why we need to be reminded that Black Lives Matter at all, yesterday made it painfully clear that certain Americans are, in fact, allowed to degenerate the flag and symbols of our nation. They've just got to look the right way."
Throughout Trump's presidency, Obama has given dignified but critical answers when asked to comment on her husband's successor, at several moments along the way choosing not to give him the satisfaction of using his name.
When campaigning for Hillary Clinton in 2016, Obama famously delivered a speech at the Democrat National Convention urging voters: "When they go low, we go high", condemning the former real estate mogul's behaviour and campaign tactics without mentioning him by name in her 15-minute speech.
However, in her bestselling memoir, Becoming, Obama did choose to refer to the president by name when writing about the effects the 'birther' conspiracy he peddled for years during Barack Obama's presidency (claiming that Obama was not born in the US) had on her family.
"Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this I’d never forgive him," she wrote.
Barack Obama also joined the condemnation of Trump - without using his name - following the Capitol riots, writing in a statement: "History will rightly remember today's violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting President who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a great dishonour and shame for our nation. But we'd be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a a total surprise."
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