Obama Reflects on Presidency, Hope, and Marriage Rumors

Former President Barack Obama revealed “the thing we were good at” during his time in office was making decisions “with the American people in mind.”

The 44th president discussed if there were anything he would’ve done differently as president, knowing what he knows now, during a rare joint interview with his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, on Good Morning America on Wednesday.

“I always used to feel like I was making a mistake a day,” the Democrat said while chuckling.

“The thing that we were good at, and allowed me to sleep at night and get up and go back at it, was...I always felt that when we made decisions, we were making decisions with the American people in mind,” he said.

The Obamas sat down with GMA’s Robin Roberts at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, a museum telling the story of America’s first Black president and First Lady, ahead of its opening this weekend.

“There’s a lot of stuff I’m proud of,” the former president said of his eight years in office. “For all the resistance from our political opposition, the Affordable Care Act has now helped 50-60 million people, and continues to help people even though the current Congress is trying to weaken it and take away some of the subsidies that were really helping a lot of working people.”

“The thing I’m probably most proud of is the tone we set. I’m very proud of the message we sent to the country. We’re representing everybody,” he added.

Roberts then asked the Obamas if the movement of hope that they started — noting the former president’s campaign slogan — could happen again today.

“It could always happen,” the former First Lady insisted. “People just have to be fed up enough. They have to want more. And I think the presidential center will hopefully remind people just how close we are to moving this country in the direction we want to move it in.”

Michelle Obama noted there’s an exhibit in the museum about how many people thought her husband winning the election could never happen, telling Roberts, “That a Black man, a Black family, would never live in the White House. That America would never accept that.”

“Lo and behold, the whole country — the vast majority of the country — believed differently,” she said.

The former president spoke about his decision after leaving office to “pick and choose” when to speak up about things, noting there are “some folks that would like to see me out every day, banging the drum.”

“What I’ve tried to do is move from player to coach,” he said, noting his foundation looks to encourage the next generation of leaders.

He was also asked how it feels seeing so many of his policies being rolled back under the Trump administration.

“There has always been, sort of contesting stories in America. One story is, ‘We find these truths to be self evident,’ that all men — all people — are created equal and endow us certain inalienable rights,” he began. “But there’s always been a part of our story that is about the strong trying to dominate the weak.”

“This country wasn’t designed to be everybody marching in lock-step. The premise of this country is — everybody gets a right to say ‘no, I don’t agree with that. I challenge that. Obama, I think you’re making a mistake.’ And then we have a conversation about it. And then it gets settled in an election and if enough people decide I didn’t know what I was doing, you move on to the next person.”

With midterm elections fast approaching — and both parties having low polling numbers — Obama noted that people “are a little discouraged right now.”

“I believe that we go through these cycles and there is going to be a younger generation that pops up, and there are going to be leaders that pop up” he said.

“Michelle’s mom was always good about saying this: ‘You know how things get better? Us old folks, we kind of fade,” the former president said, with his wife adding: “We gotta get out of the way.”

The Obamas, who have taken on a more private life since the former president left office, have also been the subject of divorce rumors in recent years due to their lack of public appearances together.

The rumors began when Michelle did not attend Jimmy Carter’s funeral and President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year. However, both Barack and Michelle have dispelled the tabloid fodder, with Barack noting during a talk last fall that his presidency took a toll on their relationship, saying, “I was in a deep deficit with my wife. I’ve been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally funny things.”

The former first lady also addressed the rumors with a hint of humor, telling NPR’s Wild Card podcast last year that just because the public doesn’t know what they’re up to, doesn’t mean something’s amiss.

“The fact that people don’t see me going out on a date with my husband sparks rumors of the end of our marriage,” she said. “It’s like, OK, so we don’t Instagram every minute of our lives. We are 60. We’re 60, y’all. You just are not gonna know what we’re doing every minute of the day.”