FULL TRANSCRIPT: Michelle Obama’s Speech At A Rally in Michigan

And y’all know I hate politics. But I hate to see folks taken advantage of even more. So I wanted to do everything in my power to remind the country that I love, that there’s too much we stand to lose if we get this one wrong.

I am deeply concerned, and I’m talking to everybody out there, that too many of us are still confused and buying into the lies and distortions from people who do not have our best interests at heart. So I want to address some of these concerns head on. Because when you lay out the options, this choice isn’t even close.

But whether it’s online or in the media or in our social circles, there are folks who say they’re not sure about Kamala. They accuse her of not providing enough policy detail. Some wonder, do we really know her? Is she too aggressive? Is she not aggressive enough? There are folks sowing seeds of doubt about whether she’s who she appears to be.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Voters have every right to ask hard questions of any candidate seeking office. But can someone tell me why we are once again holding Kamala to a higher standard than her opponent? We expect her to be intelligent and articulate, to have a clear set of policies, to never show too much anger, to prove time and time again that she belongs. But for Trump, we expect nothing at all.

Trump’s Record

No understanding of policy, no ability to put together a coherent argument, no honesty, no decency, no morals. Instead, too many people are willing to write off his childish, mean-spirited antics by saying, well, Trump’s just being Trump. Rather than question his horrible behavior, some folks think he’s funny. And if you remember, that’s exactly how he got elected the first time.

Folks gave him a pass and rolled the dice, betting that he couldn’t possibly be that bad. And then there were those folks who didn’t think it really mattered who the president was, if you can believe that. And still others who thought it’d be a good idea just to blow up our entire democracy. Let us not forget how badly that worked out for all of us.

Let us not forget the incompetence and the corruption, the chaos that was the cornerstone of his entire four years in office. Let’s start with the pandemic. Remember how woefully unprepared he was, how he was sowing seeds of fear and confusion, endangering lives with his lies and ignorance, denigrating the doctors and scientists trying to help us. You want to talk about plans?

Well, my husband left him a very detailed pandemic plan. And you know what he did? He ignored it. He had no clue how to get us out of that crisis. No ability to bring back the millions of jobs we lost so suddenly. No idea how to get our students back into school safely. No attempt to help stem the epidemic of loneliness and isolation that too many of our young people are still dealing with. And his failures had real cost.

America lost 7 million more jobs during the COVID downturn than the European Union. Among wealthy nations, the United States had one of the highest COVID death rates. Again, all of this occurred with Trump in charge.

And sadly, this was just the tragic exclamation point on his disastrous presidency. Installing judges and justices who have now stripped away our reproductive freedoms. Cracking down on protesters marching to protect their sons from being shot because of the color of their skin. Rolling back protections for LGBTQ Americans. Banning conspiracy theories. Unleashing hatred in our communities.

And then, when the American people fired him from a job that was too big for him to begin with, he tried to steal it. Egging on a violent mob that breached our nation’s capital. And when told that his own vice president was in danger, you know what he said? “So what?” So what, y’all? He said, “so what?”

And after all of that, after all of that, and there is more. There are still folks wringing their hands, crossing their arms, tuning out, saying they plan to sit this election out to prove a point.

Well, let me tell you who isn’t tuning out. Many of the folks who served closest to Trump and saw the danger firsthand. His former vice president. Almost half of his former cabinet members. The growing list of four-star generals and Republican governors and senators and former House members. All of whom are not publicly supporting his candidacy the second time around. You all hear what I said? They are saying, no, thank you. Many are speaking out.

His chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for example, said, and these are his words, that “Trump is fascist to the core”. His Joint Chief of Staff.

These folks know that nothing this man says or does is funny in any way. So, I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn. I hope that you’ll forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behavior, his obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon. A known slumlord. A predator found liable for sexual abuse. All of this while we pick apart Kamala’s answers from interviews that he doesn’t even have the courage to do, y’all.

A Call to Action

So, I am praying that those of us contemplating voting for Trump or not voting at all will snap out of whatever fog we are in. I am praying that we consider the decades of sacrifice and struggle by all of our ancestors, the folks who marched and sacrificed and shed their blood for us. We have to ask ourselves, is a vote for Trump or no vote at all the way we honor their lives? And if that’s the case, well that surely doesn’t sound like freedom to me.

Because let me tell you, in any other profession or arena, Trump’s criminal track record and amoral character would be embarrassing, shameful, and disqualifying. So, I hope that you will forgive me if I am worried that we will blow this opportunity to finally turn the page on the ugliness once and for all.

Because believe me, if Donald Trump is president again at some point or another, that ugliness will touch all of our lives. And it will not matter what you look like, how you worship, who you love, or how you vote. If you don’t make 6 or 8 or 12 figures, if you’re not famous, if you criticize or disagree with him in any way, if he doesn’t view you as his equal or relevant to his ambitions, I promise you, he will not think about you when he gets into the Oval Office. And that will have real consequences for all of us.

If your town gets hit by a natural disaster, who do you want looking out for you? Is it Donald Trump who’s spreading so many lies and conspiracy theories about climate change in FEMA that the workers in North Carolina trying to help folks clean up after the last hurricane were fearing for their safety? Or is it Kamala Harris, who has been meeting with local officials, comforting the families in that state and doing everything she can to get folks the help they need?

If you’re saving up to buy a house or pay off student loans, if you’re caring for your kids or your parents or both, if you are a farmer, a factory worker, a paralegal, anyone whose job may be changed or replaced by technology, who will actually be thinking about you?

Is it Donald Trump who’s howling around with billionaires that want a puppet in the White House who will let him run unchecked? Or is it Kamala Harris, who has been fighting for working people her entire life?

If you’re one of our service members, our veterans or military families, who is going to value your service and sacrifice? Is it Donald Trump who has called those who gave their lives for our country suckers and losers? Or is it Kamala Harris, who I guarantee you will honor your commitment to the ideals we all share with every fiber in her being?

And if you are a mother who has lost sleep worrying if your son could be the victim of a nightmare traffic stop gone bad, if you’ve ever been out there marching and weeping for justice, who do you think is going to have your back? Is it Donald Trump who once took out a full-page ad to demonize innocent young black teenagers in New York City, who has dreamed openly about his own version of a purge, where in his words he has said, for one day, one real, rough, nasty day, he says, he will allow cops to use violence indiscriminately, who I am sure has never spent a single second thinking about the lives on the other end of those batons? Or is it Kamala Harris, who understands the anguish in these interactions and has the experience that shows us that yes, it is possible to keep our community safe and keep innocent people out of harm’s way?

And finally, y’all, who could possibly think that this man would care more about our men and boys more than Kamala Harris?

Women’s Reproductive Health

And while we’re at it, I want to think about who do you think possibly would care more about our reproductive health? And I just want to take a moment with this particular question, because there is so much that gets lost in the conversation about women’s reproductive rights, and I want the men in the arena to bear with me on this, because there’s more at stake than just protecting a woman’s choice to give birth.

And sadly, we as women and girls have not been socialized to talk openly about our reproductive health. We’ve been taught instead to feel shame and to hide how our bodies work. Some young girls enter puberty not knowing what to expect. Too many of us suffer with severe cramps and nausea for days on end, every single month. And then on the other end of the reproductive timeline, too many women my age have no idea what’s going on with our bodies as we battle through menopause and debilitating hot flashes and depression.

See, fellas, most of us women, we suck up our pain, and we deal with it alone. We don’t share our experiences with anyone, not with our partners, or our friends, or even our doctors. Look, a woman’s body is complicated business, y’all. Yes, it brings life, and that’s a beautiful thing. But even when we are not bearing children, there is so much that can go wrong at any moment. Every woman here knows what I’m talking about. An unexpected lump, an abnormal pap smear or mammogram, an infection, a blockage, all of which could be early signs of a variety of life-threatening cancers.

And in those terrifying moments when something goes wrong, y’all, which will happen at some point to the vast majority of women in this country, let me tell you, it feels like the floor falls out from under us. In those moments, all we have to rely on is our medical system. In those dark moments, all we have to rely on is our faith in a higher power and the experience of doctors to get us the care we need in a timely manner.

And look, I don’t expect any man to fully grasp how vulnerable this makes us feel. To understand the complexities of our reproductive health experiences. In all honesty, most of us as women don’t fully understand the breadth and depth of our own reproductive lives. You know? And that’s because our experiences are often neglected by science. There’s a huge disparity in research funding for women’s health. And if you happen to look like me and report pain, you’re more likely to be ignored. Even by your own doctors, studies show.

So let me take a minute to help folks, especially the men in our lives, to get a better sense of what could happen if we keep dismantling parts of our reproductive care system piece by piece as Trump intends to do. I want folks to understand the chilling effect, not just on critical abortion care, but on the entirety of women’s health. All of it.

There are good reasons why so many women and physicians are horrified by what’s happened since Donald Trump’s justices overturned Roe v. Wade. We’re seeing women scrambling across state lines to get the care they need. Just this week, a major medical journal reported that after Roe was overturned, infant mortality in this country rose, in large part because women are being forced to carry fetuses that won’t survive to term. One woman spent 22 days in jail on murder charges after she miscarried in her own bathroom. We are seeing doctors unsure if they can treat ectopic pregnancies. Doctors being told they can’t treat a woman until she becomes so close to death that only a life-of-the-mother exception will allow them to act.

So just imagine the profound effects for all of us if Donald Trump wins this election. In states that are already putting abortion bans into effect, his FDA could further outlaw patchwork systems of telehealth appointments and mail-order pills, thereby eliminating the last remaining protections for women in those states. He could take actions that effectively ban abortion nationwide, which would put all of us in danger, no matter what state we live in. We will see more doctors hesitating or shying away from providing life-saving treatments because they are worried about being arrested.

More medical students reconsidering even pursuing women’s health at all. More OB-GYN clinics without enough doctors to meet demand closing their doors. Leaving untold numbers of women in communities throughout this country without a place to go for basic gynecological care, which in turn will leave millions of us at risk of undiagnosed medical issues like cervical and uterine cancers. This is real.

So do you think Donald Trump is thinking about the consequences for the millions of women who will be living in medical deserts? Does anyone think he has the emotional maturity and foresight to come up with a plan to protect us? Y’all, we are teetering on the edge. Even before these state bans, America was already lagging behind every other wealthy nation on measures like maternal mortality and paid leave.

So we could be right back to the days before Roe, which many young people here don’t even remember. The days when abortion wasn’t as safe as it is today. The days when the number of mothers of color dying in childbirth was 30 to 40 percent higher than when it was under Roe.

So to the men who love us, let me just try to paint a picture of what it will feel like if America, the wealthiest nation on earth, keeps revoking basic care from its women and how it will affect every single woman in your life. Your girlfriend could be the one in legal jeopardy if she needs a pill from out of state or overseas or if she has to travel across state lines because the local clinic closed up. Your wife or mother could be the ones at higher risk of dying from undiagnosed cervical cancer because they have no access to regular gynecological care. Your daughter could be the one too terrified to call the doctor if she’s bleeding during an unexpected pregnancy. Your niece could be the one miscarrying in her bathtub after the hospital turned her away.

And this will not just affect women. It will affect you and your sons. The devastating consequences of teen pregnancy won’t just be borne by young girls, but also by the young men who are the fathers. They too will have their dreams of going to college. Their entire future is totally upended by an unwanted pregnancy.

If you and your partner are expecting a child, you will be right by her side at the checkup, terrified if her blood pressure is too high or if there’s an issue with the placenta or if the ultrasound shows that the embryo was implanted in the wrong place and the doctors aren’t sure that they can intervene to keep the woman you love safe. If your wife is shivering and bleeding on the operating room table during a routine delivery gone bad, her pressure dropping as she loses more and more blood or some unforeseen infection spreads and her doctors aren’t sure if they can act, you will be the one praying that it’s not too late. You will be the one pleading for somebody, anybody, to do something. And then there is the tragic but very real possibility that in the worst case scenario, you just might be the one holding flowers at the funeral. You might be the one left to raise your children alone.

See, these are just some of the ways women die during childbirth. And I don’t want to be a downer, y’all. But in many cases, there is no warning and things go bad very quickly. And when it happens, every second of hesitation or delay can lead to devastating outcomes. So I am asking y’all from the core of my being to take our lives seriously. Please do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men who have no clue or do not care about what we as women are going through, who don’t fully grasp the broad-reaching health implications that their misguided policies will have on our health outcomes.

A Personal Plea

The only people who have standing to make these decisions are women with the advice of their doctors. We are the ones with the knowledge and experience to know what we need. So please, please do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump. Who knows nothing about us. Who has shown deep contempt for us. Because a vote for him is a vote against us. Against our health. Against our worth.

And let me tell you all, to think that the men that we love could be either unaware or indifferent to our plight is simply heartbreaking. It is a sad statement about our value as women in this world. It is both a setback in our quest for equity and a huge blow to our country’s standing as a world leader on issues of women’s health and gender equality.

So fellas, before you cast your votes, ask yourself, what side of history do you want to be on? Now I recognize that there are a lot of angry disillusioned people out there upset with the slow pace of change. And I get it. It is reasonable to be frustrated. We all know we have a lot more work to do in this country.

But to anyone out there thinking about sending out this election or voting for Donald Trump or a third party candidate in protest because you’re fed up, let me warn you, your rage does not exist in a vacuum. If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage.

So are you as men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them that you supported this assault on our safety? And to the women listening, we have every right to demand that the men in our lives do better by us. We have to use our voices to make these choices clear to the men that we love. Our lives are worth more than their anger and disappointment. And we are more than just baby-making vessels.

And if you are a woman who lives in a household of men that don’t listen to you or value your opinion, just remember that your vote is a private matter. Regardless of the political views of your partner, you get to choose. You get to use your judgment and cast your vote for yourself and the women in your life.

Remember, women, standing up for what is best for us can make the difference in this election. So let us use our voices in these final days to make it plain to the men in our lives that we need to stand not with Trump, but with us. We need them to vote for the only candidate in this race who will protect our lives. We need them to vote for Kamala Harris.

Kamala’s Promise

Kamala, she will fight to restore our reproductive freedoms and defend our health. Kamala will fight for our access to life-saving emergency care and maternal care in every state. Kamala will veto any abortion ban or bill that restricts access to contraception or IVF. Kamala will expand access to birth control and abortion pills. And she will do all of this not because she’s a woman, but because she’s a decent human being. She will do this because she cares about the lives of people other than herself.

And that’s really what this election is about, Michigan. This isn’t just about what we have an obligation to say no to. It’s about what we have the opportunity to say yes to. And we can elect someone who has the experience, the character, and the strength to look at all these challenges and still see a brighter day on the other side. Kamala Harris will see us, all of us. Kamala Harris will listen to us, all of us. She will protect our freedoms. She’ll stand up for all of our lives. She will have our backs for the folks trying to get ahead and those just trying to get by.

And in doing so, she will usher in a new generation of American leadership and send the ugliness of Donald Trump and his politics back where it belongs, the past. But Michigan, she cannot do any of this alone. So I’m asking you one last time, let us not just sit around and complain, let’s do something.

If your brother or your son or boyfriend needs to hear your perspective, are you willing to talk to them? Are you willing to send a video of what I’ve just said? Are you willing to do something? If you have an aunt who’s thinking about sitting this one out or voting for a third party, are you willing to have an uncomfortable conversation? Are you willing to do something? If you have an extra hour or extra weekend, are you willing to knock on doors and talk to your neighbors? Are you willing to do something?

Look, Michigan, we’ve just got ten more days to make it happen. Ten more days to wave goodbye to the incompetence and hatred and division. Ten more days to welcome in a leader with the character and the heart and the strength worthy of the office she seeks and worthy of the country that we all love.

Michigan, let’s give Kamala everything we’ve got. Can we get this done? Can we get this done, Michigan? We need you. Every last one of you. Get this done. Get this done.

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