'This isn't a game': Michelle Obama urges Republicans to honor election results
The Instagram post comes as Trump continues to refuse the results showing Biden won the presidential election.
By MATTHEW CHOI
11/16/2020 03:38 PM EST
Updated: 11/16/2020 06:05 PM EST
politico.com
Former first lady Michelle Obama implored Republicans on Monday to acknowledge Joe Biden's electoral victory in a candid Instagram post that touched on her experiences in the 2016 transition.
"The presidency doesn’t belong to any one individual or any one party,” Obama wrote. “To pretend that it does, to play along with these groundless conspiracy theories — whether for personal or political gain—is to put our country’s health and security in danger. This isn’t a game."
The post comes as President Donald Trump continues to refuse the results of this year's presidential election, and several of his Republican allies continue to uphold his claims. Trump and his surrogates have launched a litany of legal challenges asserting that the election was stolen from him — even though nonpartisan and Republican election officials from numerous states have attested to there being no widespread irregularities.
In her post, Obama admits that she had difficulty accepting Trump's victory in 2016 over Hillary Clinton, particularly in light of Trump's support for the racist birther theory that claimed Barack Obama was not born in the United States (the former president was born in Hawaii, and Trump has since renounced the claim). Still, Michelle Obama wrote, she tried to be as helpful as possible to the incoming Trump administration — offering both memos for staffers and personal advice for the Trump family — because "I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do."
"Our democracy is so much bigger than anybody’s ego,” she wrote. “Our love of country requires us to respect the results of an election even when we don’t like them or wish it had gone differently."
Barack Obama put it in even blunter terms during an interview with “60 Minutes“ that aired on Sunday: "We would never accept that out of our own kids behaving that way if they lost, right? I mean, if my daughters, in any kinda competition, pouted and then accused the other side of cheating when they lost, when there was no evidence of it, we'd scold them."
Michelle Obama's post touched on a sense of urgency in pushing for Americans to accept the election results. According to a recent POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, 70 percent of Republicans do not think the election was "free and fair," in spite of election officials and observers assuring that it was.
The Trump administration has also yet to recognize Biden as the electoral victor, stonewalling his team from federal resources to set the transition process fully in motion. Those delays can have serious consequences, particularly as the new administration takes the reins on the nation's coronavirus pandemic response. Biden said during a Monday news conference that "more people may die" if the current administration refuses to coordinate with his team.
"I want to urge all Americans, especially our nation’s leaders, regardless of party, to honor the electoral process and do your part to encourage a smooth transition of power, just as sitting presidents have done throughout our history," Michelle Obama wrote.
She wrote her message as a caption to a photo of her and her husband on Inauguration Day in 2017.
FILED UNDER: JOE BIDEN, JOE BIDEN 2020, MICHELLE OBAMA, REPUBLICAN PART
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