First Lady Michelle Obama said her office has been flooded with positive responses since she took Republican nominee Donald Trump to task last week for his treatment of women.
Women have shared their stories of sexual harassment and assault, and men have written to say such behavior shouldn’t be tolerated, Obama said at a campaign rally for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Phoenix on Thursday.
“We shouldn’t tolerate this behavior from any man, let alone one who wants to be president,” Obama said about Trump’s crass comments about women that were caught on video.
She said she is moved but not surprised by the wave of reaction. It’s an “affirmation of our shared values,” she said. “This kind of courage and decency and compassion—this is who we are. This is the America that I know.
“This is what hope looks like … that even in our darkest hours, there is a better day ahead,” Obama continued. “Hope is what keeps our better angels alive.”
She said the hardest part of experiencing the 2016 campaign is seeing Americans become so pessimistic and cynical.
“That’s what’s being lost,” she said. “We’re losing hope.”
She said Trump’s campaign is completely devoid of hope, and depends on painting the worst portrait of America. She said he tells people the U.S. is “desperate and weak,” and that people should fear each other.
“Well, Barack and I and our friend Hillary, we have a very different perspective on this country,” she said.
Obama attributed their positive worldview to being raised by working-class parents, and suggested Trump’s wealth has warped his perception of others.
Living “high up in a tower … perhaps you just develop a different set of values,” Obama said.
Growing up surrounded only by other extremely wealthy people makes it easy to divide the world into “us” and “them,” she said. And when you see the world that way, it’s easy to “dehumanize them,” Obama said. “Because you don’t know them. You can’t even see them.”
