Michelle Obama says she has ‘low-grade depression’ partly due to George Floyd unrest

Former First Lady Michelle Obama said on her podcast Wednesday she’s dealing with “low-grade depression,” partly due to the racial unrest following George Floyd’s death.

Obama spoke with Michele Norris, former anchor of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

“Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting,” Obama said on the podcast.

Obama also pointed to the response from the Trump administration as contributing to her depression.

“I don’t think I’m unusual, in that,” Obama said. “But I’d be remiss to say that part of this depression is also a result of what we’re seeing in terms of the protests, the continued racial unrest, that has plagued this country since its birth. I have to say that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or a Black person somehow being dehumanized, or hurt or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting. And it has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life, in a while.”

George Floyd, 46, was an unarmed Black man who died while in police custody on May 25 and his death sparked an avalanche of protests across the nation. He died after now-fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for about eight minutes, as three other officers didn’t intervene. Chauvin has since been charged with murder, while the three other officers are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

Trump said in an interview with Fox News in June that Floyd’s death was “a terrible thing” and a lot of protesters “really were there because they’re following the crowd.”

“At the same time, you also know that we have incredible people in law enforcement that we have to cherish them and take care of them,” Trump continued. “And we can’t let something like this, we have a bad apple go out and, you know, destroy the image of a whole of millions of people that take really good care of us. And then you have a movement where they say, let’s not have a police department. And you say, where are these people coming from?”

Trump has called out Oregon lawmakers who have criticized sending federal agents to Portland during protests.

“As far as Portland is concerned, we’ve taken a very strong stance. They are anarchists, they’re radical, crazy people and they’re either going to straighten it out themselves — Portland, the police and maybe if the state gets involved,” Trump said, according to The Hill.

“We’re not leaving until they’ve secured their city,” Trump said. “If they don’t secure their city soon, we have no choice, we’re going to have to go in and clean it out. That means the governor and the mayor; they’re very weak people.”

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said on July 29 that the federal government has agreed to withdraw officers, but acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said that federal officers would remain in Portland ”until we are assured that the Hatfield Federal Courthouse and other federal properties will no longer be attacked and that the seat of justice in Portland will remain secure,” NBC News reported.

Outrage has grown over the presence of those federal officers in Portland after videos and first-hand accounts detail how they are using unmarked vehicles and arresting people without explaining the reason why, NPR reported. Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli confirmed that federal officers were using unmarked vehicles and taking people to a “safe location for questioning.”

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, spoke out against the practice, saying “there is no place for federal troops or unidentified federal agents rounding people up at will.”

Obama said she’s managing her mental health in light of recent events by reaching out to friends and family.

“I reach out to my family, and to my friends, even in this time of quarantine,” she said. “You know, I fought to continue to find a way to stay connected to the people in my life who bring me joy, and my girlfriends, my husband, my kids; it’s the small things ... because you have to recognize that you’re in a place, a bad place, in order to get out of it.

“So you kinda have to sit in it for a minute, to know, oh, oh, I’m feeling off. So now I gotta, I gotta feed myself with something better.”

This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 12:48 PM with the headline "Michelle Obama says she has ‘low-grade depression’ partly due to George Floyd unrest."