[cheering]
[Michele Norris] There are a few first ladies
who really are milestones, cultural milestones,
who help us understand what's going on in larger society.
[Michelle Obama] It took me some time
doing a little dreaming to be standing right here today.
[David Axelrod] She hadn't forgotten that journey
and the challenges that she faced.
[Michelle] In this great country,
where a girl from the South Side of Chicago
can go to college and law school,
and the son of a single mother from Hawaii
can go all the way to the White House...
[Van Jones] It's the idea that you can break through,
that much more is possible than you might have thought.
Michelle still carries that forward
every time she walks into a room.
[Michelle] When you've worked hard and done well
and walked through that doorway of opportunity,
you do not slam it shut behind you.
-No, you reach back... -[applause and cheering]
...and you give other folks
the same chances that helped you succeed.
[Leah Rigueur] From the moment they enter into the White House
it becomes historic,
but this is also a representation
of Americans' better selves.
[Michelle] That is the story of this country,
the story that has brought me to this stage tonight.
The story of generations of people
who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude,
the sting of segregation,
but who kept on striving and hoping
and doing what needed to be done.
[applause]
So don't let anyone ever tell you
that this country isn't great,
that somehow, we need to make it great again.
Because this right now is the greatest country on earth!
[applause and cheering]
[theme music plays]
When you were little, did you ever want
to be the First Lady?
No, I didn't.
-I didn't-- I didn't know... -[laughter]
...I could be the First Lady!
Sometimes you can only be what you know exists in the world,
and no one like me was ever
the First Lady of the United States.
[crowd shouting]
[cheering]
[narrator] All first ladies are thrust into the spotlight,
but Michelle Obama will be scrutinized more intensely
than any of her predecessors.
[Michele Norris] We talk about civil rights history,
we talk about all of these series of firsts,
this is within our lifetime.
[CJ Roberts] Are you prepared to take the oath, Senator?
I am.
[Valerie Jarrett] It took my breath away,
and I thought, "Oh, my gosh, this is really happening."
[Barack Obama] I stand here today
humbled by the task before us...
[David Axelrod] The sea of humanity
spread as far as the eye could see.
...mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.
[David Axelrod] The reality of what
they were about to embark on
must have been very, very vivid for her at that moment.
[narrator] Michelle travelled farther
and overcame more on her journey to the White House
than any first lady before her.
[cheering]
[Kati Marton] She knew that she was making history,
and that her movements would be scrutinized ten times,
a hundred times more than any other first lady.
[Leah Rigueur] Everything that Michelle Obama
has been doing in her life
has really been preparing her to walk this tightrope.
[cheering]
[narrator] Michelle was integral
to Barack Obama's presidential campaign from the beginning.
[Michelle] So we're looking forward
to the first day of school, welcome back,
I know that all the parents out here are happy
to have their kids out of their house.
[laughter]
You can admit it. Let's give a cheer for that.
[narrator] Fifteen months before the election,
polls show Barack Obama
trailing Hillary Clinton by double digits.
We've got two beautiful little girls,
and we have a wonderful life.
Nothing would have been more disruptive
than a decision to run for President of the United States.
[laughter]
[Michele Norris] She knew enough about race in America,
about breaking barriers,
to know what that would mean for her:
that she would face constant criticism,
constant scrutiny.
You know, who would raise their hand enthusiastically
and say, "Sign me up for that"?
But, you know, the reason why I said yes,
was because I am tired of being afraid.
The game of politics is to make you afraid,
so that you don't think.
We have a chance to make something real happen.
Think about that...
and help us.
[narrator] In schools, church-halls
and county fairs across Iowa,
Michelle tells their story to voters
month after month after month.
[David Axelrod] For someone who avoided politics
-for much of her life... -[applause]
...she had to take a crash course in it.
His political career was always very separate from her.
[narrator] Michelle has never publicly engaged
in any of her husband's previous political campaigns,
but she was influential behind the scenes.
[David Axelrod] My first meaningful exchange
with Michelle was when we were filming our first ad.
I'm Barack Obama.
I'm running for the United States Senate,
and I approve this message to say, “Yes, we can.”
[David Axelrod] He turned to me and said,
“Yes we can, yes we can. Is that too corny?”
And he turned to Michelle, he said,
“Miche, what do you think?”
She just kind of... “Not corny.”
So right away I saw where I stood
in the pantheon of strategic advisers,
but other than that, she was happy
to keep her distance from all of it.
[Melissa Winter] What many people don't know,
she was actually the breadwinner in the family.
Vice President of Community Affairs and Outreach
at the University of Chicago, and that is a big job
and it is a job that she loved.
[David Axelrod] It all changed, of course,
when he decided to run for President.
I'd say I'm not giving up my career
for my husband, I'm giving up my career
because I'm passionate about this.
[David Axelrod] When we started,
we were pretty casual about it
because Michelle was such an impressive person,
and we thought, she's gonna kill out there.
Let me tell you a little about Michelle Obama.
I'm a Southside girl, very simple.
My parents were working class folks...
[Michelle] What we saw in my household
was hard work and sacrifice firsthand.
[Melissa Winter] She just told them her story,
and her story is not that different
than half the people she would meet in Iowa.
She talked about her parents, and how she was raised.
[Michelle] My father had multiple sclerosis,
but he went to work every single day,
he was never late and he never made excuses.
[Melissa Winter] And then she moved
into the Barack Obama years...
[Michelle] Mixed guy named Barack Obama,
who grew up in Hawaii,
that's what I learned about him on paper,
I thought, this guy's gotta be weird.
[laughter]
[narrator] Michelle knows that her husband
probably seems as unorthodox to her audiences
as he did to her back in 1989.
[Peter Slevin] Michelle was involved in recruiting
at a prominent law firm in Chicago,
and across her desk comes the résumé
of this hot shot from Harvard
who's being brought in as a summer associate.
The firm asked if she would be his mentor.
She meets him on the first day, he shows up late,
but they really hit it off.
At a certain point, Barack is interested
in something more, wants to go out on a date.
She agrees.
[Michelle] I learned that he became a community organizer.
I was impressed that this guy could've been making money,
but he's working on the far South Side
with a bunch of churches!
[Peter Slevin] The entrance of Barack Obama into her life
really shifted where she was headed.
I met Mrs. Obama
in the summer of 1991 when she was Michelle Robinson,
and her résumé was sent to me,
it said, you know, brilliant young lawyer
exploring opportunities of public service.
I gave her a job offer on the spot,
and then a few days later she said,
"I've got bad news,
my fiancé doesn't think it's such a good idea."
And I said, "Well, who's your fiancé,
and why do we care what he thinks?"
When I look back on it,
I think they were very mature before their time.
There's not a step in his career that he took
without her sitting right there as well.
It is a true partnership.
[narrator] In her memoir, Becoming,
Michelle describes their wedding in October, 1992:
“We stood there with our future still unwritten,
whatever was out there, we'd step into it together."
[crowd chanting] Yes we can! Yes we can!
[narrator] Fifteen years later,
their shared future takes a dramatic turn...
Obama surges from behind to win Iowa.
Michelle's months on the stump pay off.
But now the couple must confront a new kind of challenge.
[David Axelrod] There were concerns about his security
that were very real, and very dark.
[narrator] Barack Obama is given a security detail
earlier than any other
presidential candidate in history.
There was a resignation
in the black community,
that you cannot rise up without being shot down.
[Michele Norris] We've seen what has happened
to iconic black leaders in America.
[Van Jones] Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Dr. King.
If you come from the black community,
almost every hero you read about was killed,
and only Michelle, who certainly had more to lose
than the of rest of us in the risk he was taking,
could reassure people that it was worth the risk.
We need a Barack Obama presidency right now!
[cheering]
[Valerie Jarrett] She would go in a room
and she wouldn't leave the room
until every single person in that room was committed.
But because she was so effective,
she came under attack.
[Michelle] Hope is making a comeback!
-It is making a comeback... -[applause]
...and for the first time in my adult lifetime,
I'm really proud of my country,
-and not just because... -[scattered applause]
...Barack has done well,
but because I think people are hungry for change.
[Bill Schneider] It is an unfortunate statement.
I don't think it came out the way she intended.
In the words of Desi Arnaz,
"She's got some splainin' to do."
[Van Jones] Everybody knew exactly what Michelle meant.
This has been a tough country to be black,
to say that, we're on the verge now--
maybe putting some of that behind us,
she got smacked down hard for it.
I just wanted to make this statement that I am--
have and always will be proud of my country.
[cameras click]
A conversation that I didn't think we needed to have,
but apparently, we do.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is called a fist pound.
The reaction to the fist bump was ridiculous.
[newscaster] Could they even be jihadists?
[laughter]
That's what one person suggested
-on Fox News. -[woman] What!
One television network referred to her as
"Barack Obama's baby mama."
[Marcia Chatelain] Michelle Obama was met
with every single negative stereotype
about African American women, magnified by a million,
and I think that there were forces
that felt that if they humiliated her enough,
if they insulted her enough,
maybe she and her entire family would just go away.
But they didn't.
[David Axelrod] I called her in to show her
what people were seeing,
and I turned the sound down and just let her see herself...
...live in a country and a world based on fear.
That is...
[inaudible]
[David Axelrod] She got it, immediately.
[Valerie Jarrett] She was out on the campaign trail
getting more and more passionate,
and she'd been so effective that I didn't see
that it was being perceived as angry.
[Michele Norris] The easy trope of the angry black woman,
when in fact what she was displaying was passion.
[Melissa Winter] Nobody had taken the time
to flag for her sooner,
that she has to stop and pause and smile,
or she has to use her hand gestures in a different way.
[David Axelrod] She felt like she had failed,
and she wasn't used to failing.
[Valerie Jarrett] She had a choice to make:
Go back home and pick up life with her children
and her high-powered job,
or did she just try to figure it out.
[narrator] In her memoir, Michelle remembers the impact
of that moment:
“This was a turnaround point.
No one, I realized, was going to look out for me
unless I pushed for it."
[narrator] After a year and a half
on the campaign trail,
Michelle prepares for her national debut.
[David Axelrod] She was going to be watched
by tens of millions of people,
and this would be their first chance
to really get to know her.
[applause and cheering]
And I come here as a mom,
whose girls are the heart of my heart
and the center of my world.
She practiced her stump over and over and over again.
And that's who she is, she prepares.
[Michelle] And Barack and I were raised
with so many of the same values,
-that you treat people... -[cheering]
...with dignity and respect even if you don't know them,
and even if you don't agree with them.
[applause and cheering]
Her favorable rate jumped 20 points overnight.
[Michelle] And let's stand together
to elect Barack Obama
President of the United States of America.
Thank you.
That was a real watershed event in her public life.
[narrator] Michelle has survived the political trial by fire,
and emerges a star...
Malia, Sasha, how-- how do you think Mom did?
I think she did good.
[narrator] ...boosting her husband's popularity
as well as her own.
[Barack Obama] I think so too.
[cheering]
[newscaster] And here we are, and now CNN can project
at 11 o'clock Eastern Time, that Barack Obama
is the next president of the United States,
the first African American president in US history.
[Oprah Winfrey] It feels like something really big and bold
has happened here, like nothing ever in our lifetime
did we expect this to happen!
[Barack Obama] And I would not be standing here tonight
without the unyielding support
of my best friend for the last 16 years...
[narrator] In her memoir, Michelle describes that night...
[Barack Obama] ...the rock of our family,
the love of my life...
[narrator] "I felt like our family
got launched out of a cannon
and into some strange underwater universe.”
...the nation's next first lady, Michelle Obama.
[cheering]
[David Axelrod] I still get verklempt
thinking about what it meant,
that image of this splendid African American family,
now the first family of the country.
[cheering]
[Michele Norris] The next day, headlines said,
“Change has come to America.”
And I remember thinking at the time,
people will interpret that headline
in very different ways.
[David Axelrod] On inauguration day,
everyone was celebrating,
but there was in the back of everyone's mind
the fact that in the morning,
we were going to come into face a epic financial crisis,
two wars, and more pressures than any president had faced
probably since Franklin Roosevelt.
And Michelle, the God's honest truth is,
I don't think she knew
what she was going to make of the position,
and it took her some time to figure it out.
[narrator] There is, as Michelle puts it,
"No handbook for incoming first ladies."
[reporters clamor]
[Kati Marton] The role of the first lady
is a throwback.
We set up the White House as-- as a royal court in a way,
and I think for Michelle Obama, a modern woman, a career woman,
to suddenly be the great man's wife
was an adjustment.
[narrator] She describes the role as,
“A strange kind of sidecar to the presidency.”
[Kati Marton] The first lady is not a job.
I mean, Hillary Clinton learned that
when she turned it into a job.
We don't want that, that's going too far.
[Robin Givhan] She said the one that she took
the greatest inspiration from was Laura Bush.
[narrator] After a bruising campaign,
Michelle is determined to control her own message.
She starts with a simple statement,
deeper than it first appears.
[reporter] How would you define your role as First Lady?
You know, I-- I joke, uh, that my first job
is going to be “Mom in Chief,"
uh... because with little kids,
I have to make sure that their feet are on the ground.
Obviously, she's going to be "Mom in Chief."
[reporter] She's not shy about being the "Mom in Chief."
Just sort of define her role more as First Lady...
[Robin Givhan] She was concerned about her daughters,
but it was also just a very savvy way of saying,
"Don't worry, this isn't a twofer."
You know, I'm not here to make policy,
despite my executive experience.
[Leah Rigueur] If I want to play the traditional first lady role,
I can play the traditional first lady role,
but don't be fooled.
In a country that consistently demonizes black mothers,
black women as welfare queens, black women as drug addicts,
black women as the cause
of the decline of the black family,
a statement as simple as,
"I'm first mom and that's my priority,"
is something that is profound because...
[exhales] it's something that's been denied
to black women for so long.
[Michele Norris] She decided that in creating her role
as First Lady,
that she was always going to keep in mind
the young Michelle Obama.
[Michele Norris] She says in her memoir,
"I grew up to the sound of striving,"
and that's what the South Side of Chicago was.
One of the biggest receptacles
for people who were leaving Alabama and Mississippi.
[Peter Slevin] Michelle's great aunt and great uncle
bought a house in the neighborhood of South Shore,
and invited Michelle's mother and father
and, of course, Michelle and Craig,
who were then toddlers, to move in with them.
[Michele Norris] She grew up with cousins around the corner
and grandparents around the corner.
[Peter Slevin] Her parents and grandparents were ambitious,
they were smart,
but there were obstacles every step of the way.
[Arne Duncan] I grew up playing basketball
with Michelle's older brother, Craig.
They were shaped by the community,
they were forged by the community,
and I think she acutely felt the inequity;
the inequity in resources,
the inequity in education and opportunity.
[indistinct shouting]
In many ways, Chicago is the place
to create Michelle Obama.
[police sirens]
It's a place that is undergirded by a lot of the racial tensions
and inequality that will shape her viewpoint in the world.
[Van Jones] This is where Dr. King went and was defeated.
[shouting]
[Van Jones] The poverty
and the racism in Chicago is so profound,
that even Dr. King can't move it an inch.
I have never seen, even in Mississippi and Alabama,
mobs as hostile and as hate-filled
as I've seen in Chicago.
Chicago is a place where politicians are corrupt
and idealists go to get defeated.
She grew up in the middle of all of that.
It had been a very long time
since politics had been a source of inspiration for anybody.
[cameras clicking]
[narrator] For many, the Obamas represent the triumph
of inspirational politics,
but Michelle's optimism is tempered
by what she calls, “The ugly red-versus-blue dynamic,”
which has taken over Washington.
[Tim Naftali] She goes to watch her husband
give his first speech to a joint session of Congress.
[Barack Obama] Members of Congress,
the First Lady of the United States.
[Tim Naftali] She's looking over this sea-- as she describes it,
sea of whiteness and maleness.
This is ceremonial.
But it's more than that, it's symbolic.
Now is the time to act boldly and wisely...
[Tim Naftali] And she is very aware of the body language
and the expressions of many Republicans,
the way that their arms are crossed.
[narrator] In her memoir, Michelle recalls
that Republican members of Congress
looked obstinate and angry.
The American people expect us to build common ground.
[narrator] "More than anything," she adds,
"it seemed they just wanted Barack to fail."
Thank you, God bless you,
and may God bless the United States of America!
[narrator] Michelle watches
as all the Republicans remain seated.
But the First Lady is being watched as well.
The next day, she gets a lesson about life in the spotlight.
[newscaster] This may have been
one of the most talked about moments from last night.
Michelle Obama and her sleeveless dress.
[Tim Naftali] It's style over substance.
It's always unfair,
but it was especially unfair for Michelle Obama
because Jackie Kennedy wasn't criticized
for completely changing the look of the first lady.
[reporter] With Michelle Obama showing a liking
for the sleeveless look, even in winter,
"bearing arms" has a whole new meaning inside the beltway.
[Robin Givhan] People zeroed in on her arms
because they were not the arms
of a fragile damsel who was white.
Non-white Americans have for years looked
at a white first lady
and were still able to say that she represented them.
But I think it becomes much more challenging
for some white Americans to look at a black first lady
and see themselves in her.
Instead, they simply saw her as an alien.
[narrator] Four months into the Obamas' first term,
Michelle takes her first official trip abroad
accompanying her husband to London for the G20 summit.
[cameras click]
[Tina Tchen] That level of scrutiny
is unlike anything you have ever experienced
and will ever experience.
Everything that's going on camera
could at any given point become a thing.
[Michele Norris] The First Lady is a hugger,
she hugs all kinds of people, and she hugged the Queen,
and people clutched their pearls.
[Charles Mosley] The big deal is that the Queen
is an almost sacred person,
which is perhaps not known in republics.
[Michele Norris] The Queen seemed perfectly--
I think she hugged her back!
[Charles Mosley] But the Queen made the first move,
and for all I know, this is a breach of White House protocol.
[narrator] The next day, while her husband
huddles with other G-20 leaders, the cameras follow Michelle
as she meets with their spouses.
[Melissa Winter] But she wasn't just going to go as a figurehead
and just as a spouse.
She actually wanted to interact with real people.
[narrator] And so Michelle makes a solo visit to a girls' school
a few miles across London
but worlds away from Buckingham Palace.
[Winnie Mac] Everyone had rumors going around.
Whispers in the playground.
[Latrishika Anthony] And I remember seeing snipers
on the roof and thinking,
"Okay, this is someone really important."
[teacher] We welcome to the stage,
the First Lady of the United States of America.
[cheering]
[narrator] Michelle writes that, "Looking at those London girls,
I almost felt myself falling backwards into my own past.”
[singing]
[Michele Norris] She said, "I see myself in them."
And I'm not sure that we've heard
a first lady speak like that before.
[Michele Norris] She grew up surrounded by a lot of people
who weren't able to go as far as their talents would take them.
They were placing all their hopes
and their dreams in their children.
[Leah Rigeuer] You have to be stronger,
you have to be smarter,
you have to be twice as good with half the resources.
And this is something that Michelle's family,
her community, her experiences really instill in her.
[Michele Norris] There's a little bit of vertigo in that,
in being told,
"You're going to bust through that glass ceiling
or burst through that wall and take us forward."
[Michelle] All of you are jewels,
you are precious and you touch my heart.
And it is important for the world
to know that there are wonderful girls like you
all over the world.
[Melissa Winter] She started reading her remarks,
and then she stopped reading her remarks
and she just talked.
[Michelle] We are counting on every single one of you
to be the very best that you can be,
because the world is big and it's full of challenges,
and we need strong, smart, confident young women
to stand up and take the reins.
We know you can do it. We love you.
Thank you so much.
[applause]
[Michele Norris] That simple statement,
"I see myself in them."
There is so much in that and not just saying that
but then figuring out how to act on that.
My name is Alex Acosta, and I'm 12 years old.
And I just wanted to ask,
what is your job as the First Lady?
[Michelle] What's my job?
I don't know, that's a good question.
[chortles]
[Tim Naftali] Every first lady is expected
to have at least one crusade. Barbara Bush, literacy.
Nancy Reagan, say no to drugs.
What can I do that is useful with this role?
[narrator] Michelle wants to focus on young people
but that still leaves a lot of options.
[Tina Tchen] Mrs. Obama sets some ground rules for us.
One was that there's only one elected person in the building
and that's the President,
and so whatever we do should be in service of his agenda,
because, otherwise, why are we doing it?
[Tim Naftali] Michelle's crusade was to empower children
and their parents to eat better.
[Michelle] The President and Congress
are going to begin to address health care reform.
Nearly a third of the children in this country
are either overweight or obese.
[Tim Naftali] There'll be less of a burden on healthcare
if people did eat better.
[narrator] The scope of Michelle's initiative
is strategically masked by her simple opening move,
which she describes as, "A harmless
and innocent undertaking by a lady with a spade."
Oh, hi!
Elmo and his friends are here with someone very, very special,
the First Lady, Mrs. Michelle Obama!
Hi everyone!
We're here digging up soil
because we're about to plant a garden!
Let's get up and get some shovels.
Come on, let's go, let's go!
[Sam Kass] I came to help do dinner,
but also to help her develop a big health initiative.
When you have one in three kids on track
to have diabetes in their lifetime, like,
doesn't matter what we do with healthcare
if we don't solve that side of the problem,
and the garden was step one.
When we were doing our first planting,
there's kids-- everybody's running around
and you can just hear all the cameras clicking constantly...
[cameras clicking]
...she just looked at me, she's like, "This better work."
[chuckles]
[Campbell Brown] There they are, it's all pretty cute, of course,
we're all in favor of healthy eating.
But is this really the best way
for the First Lady to use her considerable influence?
Let's Move! Let's Move!
[Wolf Blitzer] Now to the First Lady, Michelle Obama,
she's out promoting her "Let's Move" campaign,
and taking the motto to heart.
[cheering]
[Sam Kass] Every time we saw her jumping rope
and playing football, or hula hooping,
all those fun things were very strategic ways
that we were working to weave in these values
through our culture.
[Michelle] Instead of just talking about this problem,
and worrying and wringing our hands,
it's time for us to get going and do something about this.
[Van Jones] Helping kids get healthier,
that seems like a solvable problem.
The United States was entering a very partisan,
very polarized environment,
and even something as innocuous as eating better
became politicized.
[narrator] Many of Michelle's actions have been symbolic,
but when she openly supports a legislative agenda,
the gloves come off and the attacks ramp up.
[Michelle] Thirty-one million American children
participate in the federal school meals program,
and many of these kids consume
as many as half of their calories
daily, uh, at school.
[Van Jones] She has the audacity to say,
"Maybe kids should eat good food."
Now this strikes me as a non-controversial thing
for a mom to say.
We'll start by updating the law
that sets nutrition standards for what our kids eat at school.
And yet, you would have thought she was ushering in Stalinism
through the lunchroom.
Who should be making the decisions
what you eat and school choice and everything else,
should it be the government or should it be the parents?
-It should be the parents! -[applause and cheering]
[Tim Naftali] There are Conservatives
and Republicans who always are looking for evidence
that Democrats want to tell them how to live.
-It is indeed the nanny state. -It is not a nanny state.
[Tim Naftali] Some Republicans and Conservatives believe
that Democrats would love the federal government
to be involved in all aspects of your life.
[reporter] It's no longer father knows best or mother knows best,
it's what government knows best.
[narrator] Despite the pushback, Michelle stays on message...
What we were doing was creating a new normal for them,
where there just wasn't junk food in their schools.
[applause]
[narrator] ...and 18 months after launching her garden,
she enjoys her first legislative victory...
Hello, hello, hello.
[narrator] ...the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act
passes through the White House with bipartisan support.
In December 2010, the President signs it into law.
My husband worked very hard
to make sure that this bill was a priority,
and I am grateful to you.
Because I would have been sleeping on the couch!
[laughter]
But I am-- I am thrilled to be here... We won't go into that!
[laughter]
Let's just say, it got done!
[narrator] It's a big win
but the food industry fights back,
doubling spending on lobbyists,
to undermine the law's implementation.
[reporter] Well now, one of the First Lady's
major health initiatives is in jeopardy.
[Ann Thomson] Congress says a slice of pizza
qualifies as a vegetable because it has two tablespoons
of tomato paste.
[Sam Kass] There is a lot of money at stake
in selling people a lot of really unhealthy food.
But our top priority was to take these issues
and put them directly in the mainstream of our culture,
and that's what we did.
[narrator] Michelle knows how to handle the political fire
that her nutrition campaign draws,
but personal attacks are different.
When people started to hit her,
hit the family, hit him, it hurt her.
[narrator] The more confident Michelle grows in her role,
the more intense these attacks become.
[David Axelrod] It was part of a strategy, it was a strategy
that tapped into a kind of nativism
that we see to this day.
[Tim Naftali] In the beginning of his story,
Barack Obama's the star,
she's in the sidecar.
But at a certain point in the presidency,
something changed.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome Michelle Obama!
[applause and cheering]
[Anderson Cooper] I don't think there has been a first lady
in recent memory who so many people are fascinated by.
[Tim Naftali] What she is, who she is,
her passions, they are real,
at least they come across as real,
and it makes her a star in her own right.
[applause]
[narrator] Michelle embraces pop culture
in a way that no other first lady has ever done before.
[Tina Tchen] She was not a creature of DC.
She didn't consume cable news, she consumed HDTV and Ellen.
[Tim Naftali] She takes to TV and TV takes to her.
[narrator] Then two years into the first term,
Michelle steps into a brave new world.
So now I just press tweet? Do I press this?
She is the first first lady
in the age of social media,
and-- and that too has transformed the landscape.
-I did it! -Yay!
[cheering]
[Michele Norris] I'm pretty certain
that there was some consternation
about the use of social media by the East Wing
because it was not done.
It was not in anybody's playbook.
[Tim Naftali] There are all kinds of people
in the White House, who are there to say,
"No, don't do this. Don't take a risk.
It's never been done before."
Fairly or unfairly, people pay a lot of attention
to what the First Lady looks like,
what the First Lady is wearing,
and, of course, what the First Lady says,
and you could easily see how a phrase
could be twisted around.
[Tina Tchen] As a lawyer, I was one of the strong naysayers
against the President or the First Lady
ever having a Twitter account, because words matter.
Every presidential statement is heavily vetted.
That's it.
[Melissa Winter] But we had a young staff
who realized that social media was where a lot of the people
that we were trying to reach were going.
[Michelle] Don't waste your time
trying to connect with your kids via email.
[laughter]
That antiquated method is as useless as Morse code.
[laughs] If you really want to get
their attention, use symbols!
-Little symbols! -[laughter]
-[Michelle] Aww! -You look good again.
[Tim Naftali] The First Lady was in a sense the guinea pig.
-Can you guys do... -[laughter]
...a little Dougie? Oh yeah, there we go.
[Michele Norris] The West Wing came to realize
that there is an energy vortex over in the East Wing,
that is a little bit different than they'd seen
in previous administrations.
[narrator] After seeing Michelle's success,
the West Wing follows suit.
There we go, my tweet has been posted,
-that's what I'm talking about. -[laughter]
[Melissa Winter] They realized how incredibly effective
a medium social media was for getting points across.
That's going viral.
Happy fourth of July everyone.
[Tim Naftali] Social media is apparent transparency.
It's constructed. Michelle Obama understood that.
[narrator] Michelle now has a direct line
to millions of people around the country,
eager to hear her message.
But social media is a two-way street.
Careful what you wish for.
[Michele Norris] Social media allows people to say things
in a public square that they normally would share
with people at the lunch table.
Now in so many cases, if I'm thinking it,
I'm saying it, I'm going to type it out with my thumbs
and I'm going to put it out there
for the whole world to read with the hashtag, "just saying."
[whistle notification]
[Kati Marton] There's so much anger and pure hate
every time a public person says anything.
[man] Did you see the picture of his wife yesterday?
[caller] Like she's a little girl dressing up
in her mama's clothes.
-[whistle notification] -[Peter Slevin] The trolling
that happened anytime there was coverage of her
was unlike anything any first lady had faced before.
Michelle faced racism.
There's no other way to describe it.
[Tina Tchen] She wasn't engaging in it
which I think was the right thing to do.
[Michele Norris] She would get up really,
really early in the morning, and she would work out,
and she uses that as a way to find the strength
to take on life's challenges.
[woman] That's who he's married to.
-What does that tell you? -[man laughs]
[male] Did you even see that picture,
I mean, what is that?
You could not go to a reputable website,
The Washington Post, The New York Times,
and look at the comment section,
and scroll down more than an inch
and not see N word, N word, N word,
monkey, monkey, monkey,
on any article about Michelle Obama.
[man] What Michelle Obama is trying to tell us...
[woman] ...into that weird fake accent.
[Leah Rigueur] We're in this moment
where a good portion of the American public declares
that we are in a post-racial America.
And then to be hit with wave after wave after wave
of just viciousness.
I'm focused on what's in front of me.
[Michelle] We've got trash in the White House.
She didn't blink.
It is my responsibility to work with all Americans,
-and I want to stay focused... -[Larry King] All right.
...on the work, rather than, you know...
-[Larry King] Other things. -Other things.
[Michele Norris] She tried to ignore most of it,
but you can't ignore all of it.
I feel strongly about the fact
that Barack Obama should provide the public
with a birth certificate, and he should do it soon.
Look, his birth certificate...
The birther movement was an excellent example
of where something was completely made up,
and then used to try to incite hate.
[Mark Meadows] We're going to send Mr. Obama home to Kenya
or wherever it is, we're gonna do it.
He's not even a citizen of the United States,
and they're hiding that.
More than one in four believe
President Obama definitely or probably
was not born in the United States.
It was ludicrous but at the same time,
it was in keeping with something that was growing in the country.
[Tim Naftali] It was more than just finding a reason
to disqualify Barack Hussein Obama.
It was about finding a reason to disqualify
more than ten percent of the American population.
[narrator] In her memoir, Michelle describes these attacks
as “Crazy and mean-spirited but also dangerous.”
I have to say that every single day,
it was in the back of my mind
that it just takes one crazy person.
[narrator] She adds: “What if someone
with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington?
What if that person went looking for our girls?"
This was something that Michelle lived with
in a really intense way.
[narrator] “Donald Trump,” Michelle continues,
“with his loud and reckless innuendos,
was putting my family's safety at risk,
and for this, I could never forgive him."
[Valerie Jarrett] She understood
that the consequences could be fatal for her husband,
for her children, for herself.
[narrator] One night in the first term,
Michelle has a dream.
A man leads her family to the South Lawn
to see some animals he has gathered, for them to admire.
[growling]
Michelle is apprehensive.
[growling intensifies]
[gasps]
[narrator] Michelle lives day and night
knowing that her family is a target for violence.
[helicopter whirring]
[Melissa Winter] I think we were coming back
from a trip to Hawaii,
somebody had shot a rifle from Constitution Avenue
into one of the windows in what is known as the Yellow Oval.
[narrator] Seven bullets hit the White House,
one smashing a window by the living room.
Sasha and Michelle's mother are inside.
[narrator] The shooter proclaimed that President Obama
“had to be stopped.”
[Valerie Jarrett] Her thought was,
they could have been out on the Truman balcony.
Her children played all over.
She'd been assured it was safe out there.
[Melissa Winter] You know, that wasn't the only incident,
but she put her head down, and she trusted the men
and women of the Secret Service to protect her children,
because she was not going to let undisciplined people tell her
how to lead her life, ever.
[commotion]
[Melissa Winter] She was the First Lady of the United States,
she was the First Lady to all people of the United States
whether they liked her or not.
I now have the privilege of introducing
the star of the show, Michelle Obama.
[cheering]
[narrator] Michelle writes in her memoir:
“I understood that it was better for all of us
not to acknowledge the hate or dwell on the risk."
[Michele Norris] She threw open the doors at the White House
as a place where Americans were allowed to see themselves.
Tonight's event is really just another way
for us to open up the White House
and once again make it the people's house.
[Tim Naftali] The idea of the People's House is not new.
Andrew Jackson talked about the White House
as the People's House.
But after 9/11, the White House became a fortress...
Have fun, be loose...
[Tim Naftali] ...and Michelle Obama
calling the White House the People's House was one element
of a much larger effort to move us forward.
[Tina Tchen] Mrs. Obama said we want to make sure
that people who have perhaps previously
never been to the White House
have an opportunity to do so in a meaningful way.
[Michelle] Just get comfortable here, right?
Get comfortable with a little greatness!
We want to bring in diverse voices,
diverse bodies, diverse people, diverse genders, like everybody,
we just said, "Come on in."
If you feel like this day was special,
it's because we think you all are special.
[Deesha Dyer] Whether they're kids that have
gotten in trouble before or whether it's college dropouts.
So today, I want all of you to know that you belong
right here in the White House.
[Deesha Dyer] That's a game changer
because then they could see themselves there in the future.
[Michelle] Remember this moment,
and remember that the First Lady of the United States
told you that you can do anything you want to.
[applause]
[narrator] The 2012 election is only a year away,
and the President's approval rating
is worryingly low.
But the First Lady's popularity is soaring.
[David Axelrod] People responded to her.
She became far more popular than the President himself.
[cheering]
So I get speak first while he stands
and watches, I love this.
[laughter]
-Look at me adoringly. -[laughter]
One of the useful roles that she played
in the White House was to keep him grounded.
She was a part of a very contemporary marriage,
not a marriage that served one man's ego,
the way so many other White House marriages have.
[narrator] Heading towards the election,
Americans are worried about the economy
and unemployment,
and frustrated by gridlock in Washington.
[Tim Naftali] Re-elections are the President's to lose.
There is a power that comes from incumbency
that is hard to defeat in American history.
That was not how people looked
at Barack Obama's chances in 2012.
[narrator] Michelle's popularity is now essential
to his re-election campaign.
[David Axelrod] He genuinely viewed her as a friend
who had his interests at heart and deep, deep insights.
[cheering]
[Michelle] Thank you so much. Thank you.
Michelle was the President's lifeline
to humanity.
[Michelle] So many people had a hand in our success,
from the teachers who inspired us
to the janitors who kept our school clean.
[David Axelrod] She had an innate common-sensical quality
that helped ground these kind of lofty discussions.
[Michelle] Being president doesn't change who you are.
No, it-- it reveals who you are.
[David Axelrod] And that was enormously valuable.
[Michelle] Let me tell you today,
I love my husband even more than I did four years ago.
Even more than I did 23 years ago,
when we first met.
[cheering]
[crowd chanting] Four more years!
[narrator] Barack Obama comes from behind in the polls
to secure a definitive victory and a second term as president.
[Valerie Jarrett] We often said
that the first election was aspirational,
the second one was affirmational.
[cheering]
[narrator] Watching the thousands of performers
on inauguration day,
Michelle doesn't know that one of them,
a high-school majorette from Chicago,
will drastically impact what she fights for
in her second term.
[reporter] First Lady, Michelle Obama,
is returning to her hometown to attend the funeral
of 15-year old Hadiya Pendleton,
a bystander shot dead in a Chicago park
a week after she performed at the President's inauguration.
[reporter] Hadiya Pendleton became the 42nd person
killed this month in the President's hometown.
[Arne Duncan] I ran the Chicago public school
for seven and a half years.
On average we had a child killed every two weeks
due to gun violence.
Hadiya just reminded me of Michelle.
[Hadiya's mother] No mother, no father,
should ever have to experience this.
[Melissa Winter] Hadiya was a straight-A student,
and she was a casualty of a stray bullet
walking to home from school
and Mrs. Obama knows,
there by the grace of God go I,
that could have been her at any moment at any time
as a little girl on the South Side of Chicago.
It affected her deeply.
[pastor] We thank you for our First Lady
and the other officials who have come to comfort.
[narrator] A shooting on the streets of Chicago
rarely sparks national outrage,
but a mass shooting in an elementary school does.
In April 2013, the Senate votes on two gun control bills
brought about by the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Ninety percent of the public back the measures.
[narrator] Both bills are defeated.
It begs the question, who are we here to represent?
So, all in all this was a pretty shameful day for Washington.
[narrator] With the President's legislative efforts blocked,
Michelle is tackling gun violence
the way she knows best.
We read that story day after day,
month after month, year after year in this city
and around this country...
[Michele Norris] While her husband was fighting
his own battle about gun rights
and trying to reduce the number of guns
that fall into American hands, she used her own platform.
[Michelle] I'm not talking about something
that's happening in a warzone halfway around the world.
I am talking about what's happening
in the city that we call home.
And to use her voice in a way
that would lift those young people up.
And let me tell you, it is hard to know what to say
to a room full of teenagers
who are about to bury their best friend.
[Arne Duncan] Michelle understood on a very visceral,
very personal level, how horrific the violence was.
She couldn't solve gun violence by herself,
but she had to try and create some hope
and some inspiration for kids and communities
that were living on a daily basis
with a level of fear and trauma that's untenable,
that's unacceptable, that's not right.
[Michelle] What it takes to build strong,
successful young people isn't genetics,
or pedigree, or good luck. It's opportunity.
[Michelle] Oh, I love you guys!
[cheering]
[narrator] Michelle has been spending time
with young people traumatized by gun violence
and they provide the motivation for her next initiative.
Every scar that you have
is a reminder not just that you got hurt,
but that you survived.
[Arne Duncan] It's about creating a sense of opportunity
when that opportunity is unseen.
[Michelle] Instead of letting those feelings defeat you,
let them motivate you.
[Arne Duncan] She could've gone eight years
and never talked about education.
But there was probably no better spokesman on the planet,
literally, than her, for this issue.
It was like a match made in heaven.
[singing lyrics]
[Eric Waldo] I never thought I would be at the White House
trying to get approved a script for the First Lady
to do a rap video with someone from Saturday Night Live.
People... were a little worried,
are we going to make Mrs. Obama look foolish?
Are people going to say
that that's not what a first lady should be doing?
[Michelle singing lyrics]
[Eric Waldo] We get the edit back
and people in the office were like...
"I don't know, is this going to be okay?"
-[message alerts beeping] -[Eric Waldo] I knew something
was going right when it was trending in Italian,
and it had like 23 million views in 24 hours.
[narrator] Michelle's campaign is aimed at kids
who might think that college is out of reach.
[Michelle] Tell us where you're going next
with the hashtag Reach Higher.
[narrator] While the administration offers grants,
loans and tax-credits...
Education is the economic issue of our time.
[narrator] ...Michelle's approach is more personal.
I want you all to succeed, and I want you to understand
how-- how do people like me go from being kids like you
to standing here as First Lady of the United States?
[cheering]
Mrs. Obama feels that sense of luck
and that sense of privilege.
If I can do it, you can do it.
[Eric Waldo] And that's why she's spent her life and career
trying to make sure that everyone
has the same opportunities that she's had.
[Valerie Jarrett] She was visceral and emotional,
and it stems from her own life experience.
I set my sights high.
I decided I was going to Princeton.
She was that public-school kid
who had a college counsellor
who said, "You're not good enough to get into Princeton."
They told me I was never going
to get into a school like Princeton,
and I still hear that doubt ringing in my head.
So if there is anybody telling you
that you are not college material,
I want you to brush them off, prove them wrong.
[Arne Duncan] This was not just some issue
that was important to her,
this was her life story.
This defined her. This was who she was.
[Michelle] I remember it like it was yesterday,
and feeling like, "What am I doing here?"
[narrator] In her memoir,
Michelle recalls arriving at Princeton from the South Side
and feeling, quote, "Like a poppy seed in a bowl of rice.
I'd never stood out in a crowd or a classroom
because of the color of my skin."
[Peter Slevin] Princeton in 1981 was very white.
It was also, until recently, entirely male.
[Michele Norris] Princeton was a wonderful
but not always welcoming environment,
where she was viewed as someone who was probably there
because of affirmative action
and was seen through somewhat suspicious eyes.
[Peter Slevin] When it came time for Michelle
to write her senior thesis in sociology,
she said that Princeton made her more aware of her blackness
than anything else in her life,
and that, at times, she felt other students saw her
as a black person first and a student second.
[Marcia Chatelain] Her thesis was very obvious
about the ways that racial exclusion
shapes educational experience.
But during the 2008 campaign, it was used to fuel a narrative
that Michelle Obama is racist, that she's anti-white,
that she's essentially angry.
[Hugh Hewitt] It was impenetrable, it was gibberish.
[Christopher Hitchens] It was lugubrious, boring,
resentful and I have to add, slightly sinister.
[Marcia Chatelain] Qualities that I think
in a white potential first lady would have been celebrated,
a deep intellectual curiosity,
an Ivy League education,
all of these qualities were degraded.
[narrator] Michelle's response to these attacks
is mirrored in the message she shares with the students:
Work harder, reach higher.
[indistinct chanting]
[narrator] But some young African Americans
are being attacked by more than words.
We begin tonight with the latest in the Trayvon Martin case...
...the investigation into the deadly police shooting of...
...the Ferguson unarmed teen...
Michael Brown.
[reporter] ...Eric Garner's death
at the hands of a New York police officer...
A cop did wrong!
[reporter] His last words...
[all] I can't breathe.
-[man] What do we want? -[all] Justice!
-When do we want it? -Now!
[Michelle] The road ahead is not going to be easy.
It never is, especially for folks like you and me.
[narrator] Michelle doubles down on her message of hope.
[Leah Rigueur] After the 2012 election,
the kind of caution that really defined the Obamas
during the first administration
some of that goes by the wayside.
No matter how far you rise in life,
how hard you work to be a good person,
a good parent, a good citizen,
for some folks, it will never be enough.
And we see in Michelle Obama
that is less coy about race.
It can make you feel
like your life somehow doesn't matter...
[indistinct shouting]
[Michelle] ...and those feelings are playing out
in communities like Baltimore and Ferguson
and so many others across this country.
[Leah Rigueur] You can say,
it would've been a massive opportunity
to really say something transformative.
[protesters] Black lives matter!
But at the same time,
she's still operating within the boundaries of the White House.
[chanting] Black lives matter!
[Van Jones] She's quite clear about the role of poverty
and sexism and racism.
But she also is not going to let anybody off the hook.
She's gonna tell you, "Look, y'all, it sucks, it's bad,
but you are born for more than that."
Today, I want to be very clear
that those feelings are not an excuse
to just throw up our hands and give up,
not an excuse,
they are not an excuse to lose hope!
[applause]
Five, four, three, two, one.
[sirens]
[narrator] One month later, the spirit of "Yes we can"
that has taken the Obamas so far will be brutally challenged.
At 9:05, uh, this evening,
we received a call of, uh, a shooting
that had occurred at the church here on Calhoun Street.
[narrator] In the summer of 2015,
a 21-year old white man joins a bible study
at the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church
and then starts shooting.
[Gregory Mullen] It is unfathomable
that somebody in today's society would walk into a church,
when people are having a prayer meeting,
and take their lives.
[narrator] The shooter reportedly accused
the all-black congregation of “taking over the country.”
Nine people are killed.
[Barack Obama] For too long we've been blind
to the way that past injustices continue to shake the present.
-[woman] Yeah! -[scattered applause]
Perhaps this tragedy causes us to ask some tough questions.
[Marcia Chatelain] What does it mean to be proud
to be the first African American inhabitants
of the White House,
and know that it's linked to movements,
it's linked to individuals, who see that as an affront
to things that are rightfully theirs.
Their progress riled up
some of the worst forces in our world.
It really does create, I think,
this deep existential sense
of our presence may lead
to the absence of others.
[Tim Naftali] The way to defeat hope
is to make people angry and resentful.
We're gonna make you angry
that these people are in the White House,
and we're gonna make you certain
that every problem you face, every misfortune,
is the fault of people like that.
Hatred is really just fear in a different octave.
[clapping and singing]
[Michele Norris] And so at the end of her term,
she was using her voice to speak to the hatred
and to speak to the fear that people had.
[Michelle] Here in America, we don't give in to our fears,
we don't build up walls to keep people out
because we know that our greatness...
[cheering]
...has always depended on contributions
from people who were born elsewhere...
[applause and cheering continues]
...but sought out this country and made it their home.
[Michele Norris] There was an expectation that they,
in particular, would lead a conversation about race.
That is the American story.
There are people who felt that they just didn't do it enough.
[Michelle] It's the story that I witness every single day
when I wake up in a house that was built by slaves,
-and I watch my daughters... -[man] Woo!
...two beautiful black young women,
waving goodbye to their father,
the President of the United States.
[applause and cheering]
[Michele Norris] They kind of talked about it all the time,
in subtle ways, and often in ways
that just kind of went right over people's heads.
[Michelle] You are the living,
breathing proof
that the American dream endures in our time. It's you!
[Barack Obama] You might have heard that someone jumped
the White House fence last week,
but I have to give Secret Service credit,
they found Michelle, brought her back,
she's safe back at home now.
[laughter]
[laughs] It's only nine more months, baby.
[laughter continues]
Settle down.
[narrator] The Obamas' time in the White House
is coming to a close.
Last question. Make it a good one!
[narrator] Michelle makes no secret of her relief.
[child] Where are you gonna work
after you done being the First Lady?
-I don't know! -[Melissa Winter] She was ready.
I'm gonna work in my house.
[Melissa Winter] Her kids were growing up.
In her opinion, it was time to go.
[applause and cheering]
[Michelle] It's hard to believe
that it has been eight years.
[narrator] In Michelle's final Convention appearance,
she delivers a rebuke to candidate Donald Trump's
attacks on her family,
sharing the mantra they used
through their years in the White House.
[Michelle] I told you about our daughters,
how we urge them to ignore those...
-[applause] -who question their father's
...citizenship or faith.
How we explain that when someone is cruel
or acts like a bully, you don't stoop to their level.
No, our motto is,
"When they go low, we go high."
[applause and cheering]
[Tim Naftali] For two terms, for eight years,
she had been criticized for tiny little things.
Both of them bent over backwards to respect presidential norms.
And yet in the 2016 campaign,
they see somebody who doesn't care about these norms.
[Donald Trump]
[narrator] One month before the election,
an old video surfaces.
[Trump]
[man laughs]
[Michele Norris] She felt that she had to say something,
knowing that people looked to her for inspiration.
[Michelle] I-- I can't believe that I'm saying
that [scoffs] a candidate for President of the United States
has bragged about sexually assaulting women.
[Kati Marton] She shook off her supreme caution
that she had exercised for eight years.
Too many are treating this
as just another day's headline.
[Kati Marton] She became a great first lady,
because she spoke for so many.
As if our outrage is overblown or unwarr--
unwarranted.
As if this is normal, just politics as usual.
[Kati Marton] And I think she reached
Eleanor Roosevelt territory.
But New Hampshire, yeah, be clear: This is not normal.
This is not politics as usual.
[cheering]
[narrator] Michelle spends election night watching a movie.
[buzzes]
[narrator] As the messages start coming in, she heads off to bed.
[Wolf Blitzer] CNN projects,
Donald Trump wins the presidency.
[Melissa Winter] The day after election day
was extremely difficult,
and I think none of us wanted to go to work,
but we all picked ourselves up and we came into the office,
and Mrs. Obama emailed the chief of staff and I
at the time and said, "I'd like to talk to the staff."
[Deesha Dyer] The First Lady brought us all together
and she said, "I want to hear from you all. How do you feel?"
[Melissa Winter] People were afraid
that a lot of the work that we had poured
our hearts and souls into would be unwound.
[Deesha Dyer] She assured us that what we did was remarkable,
and to go on and continue that.
This house was just the beginning for some of us
but it's not the end.
[Deesha Dyer] The Trumps came to the White House the next day.
It was the same day that we had LeBron James
and the Cleveland Cavaliers were coming too,
so we didn't have that much time to think until it was done.
[Melissa Winter] We celebrated
those last few months of the White House.
We accomplished more than we could have ever imagined
with a spotlight on us
that no other administration had ever had.
[Barack Obama] Maybe you still can't believe
we pulled this whole thing off.
[applause and cheering]
[Barack Obama] Let me tell you, you're not the only ones.
-Michelle... -[cheering]
...you took on a role you didn't ask for
with grace and with grit and with style,
and with humor.
You made the White House a place that belongs to everybody,
and a new generation sets its sights higher
because it has you as a role model.
[applause and cheering continue]
She was exhausted. We were all exhausted.
I mean, the dogs were probably exhausted.
It's like you're running a marathon for eight years
and then all of a sudden, it stops.
[narrator] On January 20th, 2017,
Michelle Obama walks out of the White House
for the last time.
[David Axelrod] One of things that struck me,
knowing her as I do,
was how chilly Michelle was toward the new president,
and she sent a very strong message,
I thought, through her body language.
[Leah Rigueur] On Inauguration Day, 2017,
we see a Michelle Obama who has slicked back her hair
and shows none of the usual care
that we see in moments of political import.
It's such a clear moment... [laughs]
It's such a clear moment that she is over it and done.
[plane engine whirring]
[narrator] Michelle stays out of the limelight for a time...
and then bursts back onto the scene.
[applause and cheering]
[laughter]
Yes, that's exciting.
[narrator] More than any other first lady,
Michelle Obama has become a symbol of hope
and possibility for millions
across the United States and beyond.
[Michele Norris] She redefined the role of first lady
on her own terms.
[Marcia Chatelain] Her background is something
that she celebrates as much as her accomplishments,
and I think that is one of the reasons
why she is such a unique first lady.
Each of us has a mission in this world.
[Arne Duncan] She gave lots of kids around the country
permission to be themselves.
Walk a little taller. Think a little bit bigger.
Dream a little bit higher.
My story can be your story.
[Arne Duncan] I think that's her greatest legacy.
[Michelle] Are you listening to me?
[crowd] Yes!
Do you hear what I'm telling you?
[crowd] Yes!
[Van Jones] As great as Michelle Obama was
in the White House, she's free now,
and you have not heard or seen anything yet.
[applause and cheering]
[Valerie Jarrett] I always knew from the first time I met her,
she was special.
She always had this inner strength and tenacity,
and conviction and compassion.
[Michelle] So don't be afraid,
do you hear me, young people? Don't be afraid.
Be determined.
Lead by example with hope, never fear.
[Valerie Jarrett] Yes, she's grown mightily
but the core essence of Michelle Robinson,
who I met in 1991, is still there today.
Being your First Lady has been the greatest honor of my life,
and I hope I've made you proud.
-[woman] Thank you. -[all] Yes!