Published : Jan. 12, 2012 - 10:27
WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama is challenging assertions she's forcefully imposed her will on White House aides, saying she's tired of people portraying her as "some kind of angry black woman."
Mrs. Obama tells CBS News she hasn't read New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor's new book that characterizes her as a behind-the-scenes force in the Executive Mansion, whose strong views often draw her into conflict with President Barack Obama's top advisers.
First lady Michelle Obama, center, poses for a photo with U.S. Army Staff Sergeants Keisha Whitmore, left, and Tyeir Pritchard-Davis after Obama announced an initiative for more research on veterans medical care during a visit at Virginia Commonwealth University, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012, in Richmond, Va. The staff sergeants are based at Fort Lee in Petersburg, Va. (AP)
"I never read these books," she told CBS's Gayle King in an interview broadcast Wednesday. "So I've just gotten in the habit of not reading other people's impressions of people."
In the book, Mrs. Obama is said to have occasionally bristled at some of the demands and constraints of life in the White House.
In the interview, Mrs. Obama said, "I love this job. It has been a privilege from day one."
"Now there are challenges," she added. "If there's any anxiety that I feel, it's because I want to make sure that my girls (Malia and Sasha) come out of this on the other end whole."
The Kantor book portrays a White House where tensions developed between Mrs. Obama and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and former press secretary and presidential adviser Robert Gibbs. The book, titled "The Obamas," describes Mrs. Obama as having gone through an evolution from struggle to fulfillment in her role at the White House, while labeling her an "unrecognized force" in pursuing the president's goals. Neither the president nor his wife agreed to be interviewed for the book.
"I do care deeply about my husband," Mrs. Obama said in the CBS appearance. "I am one of his biggest allies. I am one of his biggest confidants." But she sought to put aside "this notion that I sit in meetings."
"I guess it's just more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here," she said. "That's been an image people have tried to paint of me since the day Barack announced, that I'm some kind of angry black woman."
"There will always be people who don't like me," Mrs. Obama added, and said she could live with that.
Mrs. Obama said that she's "just trying to be me, and I just hope that over time, that people get to know me."
Asked specifically about an assertion of dissension between herself and Emanuel, now the mayor of Chicago, the first lady said she has "never had a cross word" with him. The same, she said, applies to Gibbs, whom she described as "a good friend, and remains so."
"I'm sure we could go day to day and find things people wished they didn't say to each other," Mrs., Obama said. "And that's why I don't read these books. ... It's a game, in so many ways, that doesn't fit. Who can write about what I feel? What third person can tell me what I feel?"
Mrs. Obama said that when questions or conflicts arise involving her and the White House staff, her East Wing staff resolves the issue with her husband's staff in the West Wing.
"If there's communication that needs to happen, it's between staffs," she said. "I don't have conversations with my husband's staff."
미셸 "난 '성난 흑인여성' 아냐"
"이매뉴얼과 말다툼조차 해본 적 없어"
미국 버락 오바마 대통령의 부인 미셸 오바마가 자신의 백악관 생활을 그린 한 언론인의 책 내용을 직접 부인하고 나섰다.
미셸 여사는 11일(현지시간) 미 CBS방송에 출연, 그녀가 백악관 보좌진과 갈등 을 겪었다는 책 내용을 부인하고 사람들이 자신을 '성난 흑인 여성'으로 묘사하려 한다고 주장했다.
조지 캔터 뉴욕타임스(NYT) 기자가 집필한 책 '오바마 가(家)'에는 미셸을 백악 관의 강력한 배후세력으로 묘사하며 그녀의 확고한 견해가 대통령 보좌진들과 종종 충돌했다는 내용이 담겨 워싱턴 정가에서 화제가 됐다.
미셸은 자신을 둘러싼 논란에 대해 "'성난 흑인 여성'이라는 이미지는 남편이 대통령으로 당선됐을 때부터 사람들이 내게 덧씌우려던 이미지였다"고 일축했다.
그녀는 "나를 싫어하는 사람은 언제든 있을 수 있고 그래도 나는 살아갈 수 있 다"며 "단지 나 다우려고 노력하며, 시간이 지나면 사람들도 나를 알게 되길 희망한 다"고 덧붙였다.
미셸은 이 책에서 자신이 백악관의 요구 사항과 제약에 종종 발끈한 것으로 묘 사된 데 대해 "나는 이 직업을 사랑한다. 처음부터 이것은 영광이었다"며 부인했다.
이어 "나는 내 남편을 정말 진심으로 보살핀다. 나는 그의 중요한 동맹자와 친 구들 가운데 하나"라고 강조했다.
미셸은 자신과 람 이매뉴얼 백악관 전 비서실장 간의 불화설에 대해 "작은 말다 툼조차 해본 적 없다"며 강하게 부인했다. 로버트 기브스 전 대변인에 대해서도 "좋 은 친구였고 여전히 그렇다"며 마찬가지로 갈등이 없었다고 말했다.
그녀는 "이런 종류의 책은 많은 면에서 맞지 않는다"며 "어떤 제 3자가 내가 느 끼는 것을 직접 작성하고 또 내게 말할 수 있겠는가"라고 반문했다.
미셸은 백악관 보좌진과 그녀가 관계된 문제나 갈등이 생겨나면 이스트 윙(대통 령부인 사무실) 관계자들이 문제를 해결한다며 "필요시 의사소통은 보좌진들 간 문 제이지 내가 그들과 대화하는 것은 아니다"라고 일축했다.