The last time First Lady Michelle Obama appeared on late-night TV it was to sing Carpool Karaoke with James Corden and Missy Elliott. While it was unlikely that she would top that on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week, she did hang out with the host in a blanket fort.
“Hey, Michelle, do you think fruits and vegetables have feelings?” Colbert asked the first lady. “Gosh, I hope not, I eat way too many of them,” she replied.
When she handed him a baby carrot, Colbert told her that “when you eat too many carrots you turn orange.” And “if you turn really orange, you have to start saying crazy things and run for president.” The satire was hardly as cutting as his segment on birtherism from the night before.
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On the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton last week, Michelle Obama called out Donald Trump for perpetuating the birther myth for more than five years after he claims to have “finished” the controversy. She said President Obama answered those conspiracy theories by not only releasing his long-form birth certificate but also by “going high” when his opponents “go low.”
Most of their interview was pretty light on politics, but there was one moment when the first lady let her guard down and her feelings be known about how Melania Trump lifted portions of her 2012 speech for her RNC address this summer.
Asked by Colbert if she has any “sympathy” for the political spouses who have to stand by their partners no matter what during this election cycle, Michelle Obama said, “No, not really.” If she didn’t believe in her husband, she said she would have told him about it and couldn’t have supported his run. “So I stand there proudly, and I hope they are, too, standing with their spouses proudly,” she said. “So no sympathy.”
Colbert told the first lady that he had some “sympathy” for Melania Trump following the plagiarism scandal—though it didn’t stop him from presenting the best parody of her speech on late-night TV. Didn’t Obama feel for her at all?
“Yeah, that was tough,” the first lady said, barely cracking a sly smile.
“Let’s move on,” Colbert said in response.
Michelle also performed her impression of the president for Colbert, something she said she and her two daughters have perfected after listening to Barack drone on about serious issues at the dinner table, usually prompted by a question from Malia. “Well, I’m glad you asked that,” she said, imitating her husband. “Let me just answer that in three points.” Expressing frustration, she added, “Sasha and I want to talk about our favorite song on the Lemonade album. That’s what we want to talk about.”
As for her assertion that the president leaves his job at the door when he enters the family’s residence in the White House, she said he prefers to talk about gossip because “he doesn’t have a life.” To this, Colbert replied, “No, but he’s got the NSA, so he can find out what any of us are thinking.”
