Michelle Obama has confirmed, once again, that she has no plans or desire to run for president.
The former First Lady sat down for a conversation with award-winning actress Tracee Ellis Ross this past weekend as part of the United State Of Women summit in Los Angeles, Calif. More than 6,000 women attended the second-ever such event, which highlights the activism that is improving the advancement of girls and women.
Obama addressed the constant calls for her to run for office in 2020 — and it still does not interest her.
“When I hear people say, ‘You run!’ It’s part of the problem!” she said. “We still didn’t get ‘Yes We Can’ right. It’s not ‘Yes You Can’ it’s ‘Yes We Can.’ Until we get that right, it doesn’t matter who runs. I don’t think I’m any different from Hillary [Clinton].”
It is important, she emphasized, that we don’t look outside ourselves when seeking change-makers.
“Change starts close to home. So looking for the next person to run, and I don’t mean to cut that off, but that’s been our distraction. We’re just going to wait for the next person to save us,” Obama said.
She added: “We thought it was Barack Obama, and then he didn’t end racism.”
Although public office is not top of mind for Michelle, the result of the last election has her questioning women “and how we think.”
“I think if we want our daughters to dream bigger than we did, then we have more work to do,” she said. “So many of us have gotten ourselves at the table, but we’re still too grateful to be at the table to really shift the thinking. And that’s not a criticism, because for so many of us just getting to the table was so hard, right? So you’re just holding on! But now we have to take some risks for our girls.”
You can watch the full conversation below: