Michelle Obama had tense relationship with president’s top advisers, book asserts
By David Nakamura and Anne E. Kornblut,
WashPost
Published: January 7
First lady Michelle Obama’s tough personal criticism of her husband and protectiveness of his public image have routinely irritated, and at times outraged, President Obama’s top advisers as they compete with her for influence inside the West Wing, according to a new book.
The tension provoked Obama’s former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to offer his resignation after determining the president had decided, with his wife’s prodding, to go for broke on passage of the landmark health care reform law. And it led former press secretary Robert Gibbs to unleash a profanity-filled tirade when he thought, mistakenly, that the first lady had criticized him.
In “The Obamas,” New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor describes the first lady as transforming herself from a skeptical Washington outsider, who at first did not want to move into the White House after her husband’s historic victory, into a formidable presence who occasionally bests his staff in policy debates and often makes decisions without regard for political consequences.
On Friday, White House officials strongly disputed the characterizations made in the 329-page book, which will go on sale next week and was excerpted in Saturday’s New York Times. The Washington Post independently obtained a copy Friday.
(More here.)
WashPost
Published: January 7
First lady Michelle Obama’s tough personal criticism of her husband and protectiveness of his public image have routinely irritated, and at times outraged, President Obama’s top advisers as they compete with her for influence inside the West Wing, according to a new book.
The tension provoked Obama’s former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to offer his resignation after determining the president had decided, with his wife’s prodding, to go for broke on passage of the landmark health care reform law. And it led former press secretary Robert Gibbs to unleash a profanity-filled tirade when he thought, mistakenly, that the first lady had criticized him.
In “The Obamas,” New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor describes the first lady as transforming herself from a skeptical Washington outsider, who at first did not want to move into the White House after her husband’s historic victory, into a formidable presence who occasionally bests his staff in policy debates and often makes decisions without regard for political consequences.
On Friday, White House officials strongly disputed the characterizations made in the 329-page book, which will go on sale next week and was excerpted in Saturday’s New York Times. The Washington Post independently obtained a copy Friday.
(More here.)
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