Michelle Obama: ‘People with power are trying to quiet the voices of people they disagree with’

Former first lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday said women need to stand up against those who might seek to silence them.

In an interview with People magazine, Obama reflected on her life and explained how she embraced entering her 60s. She talked about how her father raised her to be proud of her height.

"I’m still working on, every day, waking up, looking in the mirror and telling myself that I am smart and beautiful, and kind and worthy," Obama said. "I don’t think that work ever stops for women, particularly women of color, because sometimes you don’t always hear it back."

"Women today, we’re facing a time now, where people with power are trying to quiet the voices of people they disagree with," she continued. "And I think now more than ever, it’s a time when we have to fight to remind ourselves that we matter, that we count."

At no point during the interview is Obama quoted mentioning the current president. The former first lady discussed the pressures of being in her role that was a  "job, non-job" from 2009 to 2017, and how even her style choices were political. Obama said she "liked the fact that, in hindsight, people identified with what I was wearing."

"Because if I wore something and it could sell out, that meant that most women could afford to buy it. And I thought that’s a good thing," she said. "I wanted the people of America, all people of all races, of all political persuasions, to be able to connect with me."

In analyzing her life now, which includes dinner dates with the former president and keeping herself healthy, Obama said she's putting herself first.

“This is the first time where every decision that I make is for me," she told People.

Former President Obama was more explicitly political during a recent interview on the last episode of Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast, criticizing Trump's deployment of National Guard troops into his home state of Illinois.

“If I had sent in the National Guard into Texas and just said, ‘You know what? A lot of problems in Dallas, a lot of crime there, and I don’t care what Gov. Abbott says, I’m going to kind of take over law enforcement, because I think things are out of control,’ it is mind boggling to me how Fox News would have responded,” Obama said, referencing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R).