Are Barack and Michelle Obama on the outs? Some conservative commentators sure think so, after Michelle was MIA at Jimmy Carter's funeral and news broke that she won't be attending President-elect Donald Trump's second inauguration.
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00:00If I were able to run for a third term, Michelle would divorce me, so…"
00:06Are Barack and Michelle Obama on the outs? Some conservative commentators sure think
00:10so, after Michelle was MIA at Jimmy Carter's funeral, and after news broke that she won't
00:16be attending President-elect Donald Trump's second inauguration. Politico reports that
00:20the former first lady couldn't make Carter's funeral because of a scheduling conflict,
00:25as she was in Hawaii at the time, on what CNN reported was an extended holiday vacation.
00:30Michelle was meant to sit next to Donald Trump, but her husband took that spot instead, and
00:34the two rivals seemed like they had an okay time, all things considered.
00:38The case of the missing Michelle had the usual pro-Trump figures speculating about a split,
00:43considering the wives of all four other living U.S. presidents were in attendance. Jack Posobiec,
00:48known for his ties to the far right and promoting Pizzagate, posted on X, hearing serious talk
00:53that the reason Michelle isn't at the funeral isn't that she wasn't invited, but that she
00:57and Barack are on the outs.
00:59"...trouble in paradise?"
01:01YouTuber Benny Johnson then grabbed the baton, reading Posobiec's tweet and others like it
01:05to his more than 2 million followers.
01:07"...everyone's like, wait a second, is this some type of divorce situation?"
01:11Like Posobiec, Johnson, fired from BuzzFeed in 2014 for serial plagiarism, doesn't present
01:16any evidence that Barack and Michelle are headed for divorce. But the one-two punch
01:20of her missing Carter's funeral and Trump's inauguration appears to be fuel enough to
01:25keep the baseless rumor ablaze in conservative online circles.
01:28In a statement to the Associated Press, a spokesperson for the Obamas wrote simply,
01:32"...former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th inaugural ceremonies. Former
01:37First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration."
01:41There's no official explanation for Michelle's inauguration absence, which leaves the outspoken
01:45Trump critic vulnerable to accusations that she's going low and skipping the event out
01:50of spite.
01:51"...when they go low, we go high."
01:55Michelle attended Donald Trump's first inauguration in 2017, alongside all the living presidents
02:00and their spouses. But that bipartisan decorum didn't last, as Donald and Melania Trump skipped
02:05Joe Biden getting sworn in in 2021. Michelle was one of Kamala Harris' most influential
02:11backers, so much so that many were calling for her to run for president.
02:15"...we have every right to demand that the men in our lives do better by us."
02:20But Michelle has insisted for years that she'll never run, and now that she's ducking out
02:24of high-profile events like state funerals and presidential inaugurations, her political
02:29opponents are relishing the retreat — and fanning the flames on unsubstantiated rumors
02:34that her marriage is in shambles, adding insult to injury.