Karl Rove mocks persistent MAGA claims that Michelle Obama will run for president: “This is a weird obsession of the conspiratorial right, and it's just lunacy”
Published
Citation From the February 7, 2024, edition of Fox Business' Varney & Co.
STUART VARNEY (HOST): Can you deal with this quickly -- I keep hearing that Michelle Obama will be shifted into the -- no, you're shaking your head. It's not going to happen?
KARL ROVE (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): No, look, look. She hates politics. Read her autobiography. She didn't want her husband to run for the state Senate. She didn't want him to run for the president. She is not a political animal. And besides, look, Barack Obama was my charge at the White House. I dealt with him for three years. He's a smart guy. He would know that if Michelle Obama woke up tomorrow and said, “You know what, I've decided that after a life of hating politics, I want to be the vice presidential running mate or run for president," people would say, “You know what, that's Barack trying to get a third term as president," and they wouldn't go for it. But the starting point is she hates politics. This is a weird obsession of the conspiratorial right, and it's just lunacy -- pure lunacy.
I had to deal with this in 2020 when this was running through the President Trump's reelection campaign. They thought somehow or another, Biden was going to be pushed aside by Obama. Andrew Cuomo was going to be the Democratic candidate, and his running mate was going to be Michelle Obama. And I told the Trump people, including the president himself this is sheer, utter lunacy, starting with the fact she hates politics, period. She loves the life she's got.