First Lady Michelle Obama Responds To New Book, Denies White House Tensions

Video of CBS interview: First Lady says "I love this job," and she is tired of "angry black woman" stereotype...
First Lady Michelle Obama says that depictions of White House friction in Jodi Kantor's new book "The Obamas" aren't true. In a wide-ranging interview with CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King that aired on Wednesday, Mrs. Obama spoke out against the story that characterizes her as a behind-the-scenes force with strong views that drew her into conflict with President Obama's Senior Advisers. The First Lady said she's tired of people stereotyping her as "some kind of angry black woman," and that the story of tensions between the East and West Wings are fictitious. Kantor, a New York Times correspondent, did not interview the President and Mrs. Obama for the book.

King visited the White House on Tuesday, and spoke to the First Lady in her East Wing office. Mrs. Obama said she hasn't read the book, but characterized Kantor's reporting as "a game, in so many ways, that doesn't fit."



"I never read these books. There are so many books that have my picture on the cover, my name on it, I don't even know what's going on," Mrs. Obama said. "Who can write about how I feel? What third person can tell me about how I feel?"

The First Lady has had little contact with her husband's Senior Advisors, she said, and put to rest the idea that there were problems with two in particular, former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

"I do care deeply about my husband," Mrs. Obama said. "I am one of his biggest allies. I am one of his biggest confidants." But she debunked "this notion that I sit in meetings."

"I don't have conversations with my husband's staff. I don't go to the meetings," Mrs. Obama said. "I guess it's more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here, a strong woman. But that's been an image that people have try to paint of me since the day that Barack announced, that I'm some angry black woman."

King asked specifically about an assertion of trouble between the First Lady and Emanuel, now the Mayor of Chicago. Mrs. Obama said she has "never had a cross word" with Emanuel.

"Rahm is -- and Amy, his wife, are some of our dearest friends," Mrs. Obama said.

Mrs. Obama joined Emanuel in Chicago last October for the first-ever Let's Move! Food Desert Summit.

The book reports that Gibbs cursed Mrs. Obama during a meeting dealing with the fallout from a book written by her French counterpart, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, which claimed that Mrs. Obama said living in the White House "was hell."

Mrs. Obama says she hadn't heard that at the time, and that Gibbs "is a trusted advisor. He's been a good friend and remains so."

"I can count the number of times I go over to the West Wing, period," Mrs. Obama said.

Kantor includes a chapter titled "The Lady Who Did Not Lunch," devoted to portraying Mrs. Obama as a reluctant First Lady who bristled at the demands and constraints of life in the White House, and writes that she did not want to attend events that are typically part of the First Lady's job, such as the annual Congressional Spouses Luncheon, which Mrs. Obama has attended each year since her husband became President, and will attend again this Spring.

"I love this job. It has been a privilege from day one," Mrs. Obama said.

She told King that there are plenty of challenges for the First Family, however.

"Now, there are challenges with being a mother and trying to keep your kids sane," Mrs. Obama said. "And I worry a lot about that. I mean, if there's any anxiety that I feel, it's because I want to make sure that my girls come out of this on the other end whole. But me, Barack, we're grown-ups. You know, all the ups and downs, we take it on."

Speaking with her co-anchors after the interview, King did not conceal that she is a personal friend of Mrs. Obama's, and praised the First Lady for not canceling the interview, which King said was scheduled months ago.

"We reached out to the First Lady before Christmas," King said.

The White House issued a statement last week characterizing the book as an "overdramatization of old news," and a briefing on Monday was devoted largely to battling the idea that parts of the Presidential Halloween party in 2009 were kept secret from the media. Not so, said the White House.

Kantor interviewed Gibbs for the book, along with 32 other current and former White House aides, including Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Mrs. Obama's then-Chief of Staff Susan Sher.

*CBS video