Michelle Obama said during her speech on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Tuesday that her parents “were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed.”
But critics quickly pointed out how she conveniently omitted that the Obamas have an estimated net worth of $70 million, as well as luxury real estate holdings in Chicago, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.
The former first lady began her DNC speech by saying the last time she was in her hometown of Chicago was to memorialize her mother, the woman “who showed me the meaning of hard work and humility and decency” and “who set my moral compass high and showed me the power of my own voice.”
“She and my father didn’t aspire to be wealthy. In fact, they were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed,” Michelle Obama said. “They understood that it wasn’t enough for their kids to thrive if everyone else around us was drowning. So my mother volunteered at the local school.”
Her mother “always looked out for the other kids on the block” and “was glad to do the thankless, unglamorous work that for generations has strengthened the fabric of this nation,” Michelle Obama continued. “The belief that if you do unto others, if you love thy neighbor. If you work and scrape and sacrifice, it will pay off. If not for you, then maybe for your children or your grandchildren.”
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Former First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“You see, those values have been passed on through family farms and factory towns, through tree-lined streets and crowded tenements, through prayer groups and National Guard units and social studies classroom. Those were the values my mother poured into me until her very last breath,” she said. “Kamala Harris and I built our lives on those same foundational values. Even though our mothers grew up an ocean apart, they shared the same belief in the promise of this country.”
One X user, who goes by ProudArmyBrat, decried the perceived hypocrisy to her more than 463,600 followers.
“The Obama’s have a net worth of $70 million. They own 4 luxurious properties: – Washington DC home bought for $8.1M – Martha’s Vineyard home bought for $11.75M – Beachfront home in Hawaii bought for $8.7M – Chicago home bought for $1.65M,” she wrote. “Getting really tired of multi-millionaires preaching about the evils of money and greed.”
Trump War Room, the official account of former President Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, also shared a clip of Michelle Obama’s speech.
“Michelle Obama says her parents ‘were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed.’ She has a net worth of $70 million and lives in a mansion in Martha’s Vineyard,” the account wrote to its 2 million followers.
Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume said “the speech of the night was Michelle Obama,” but also noted the disconnect from the former first lady’s message and her elite lifestyle.
Former President Barack Obama gestures to former first lady Michelle Obama as he arrives to speak on stage during the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“She is an extraordinarily impressive woman, former first lady of the United States. You can see why members of the Democratic Party always kind of hoped that maybe she’d step in and run for president,” he said. “It does however, I have to say this, get a little rich when she starts talking about hope.”
“Remember she famously said when her husband was on the cusp of winning his party’s nomination it was the first time in her life that she had felt hope because of what he brought and what he was bringing,” Hume said. “Here she is tonight saying it again. I can’t imagine why somebody who’s had the life she had, a product of Princeton and Harvard Law School, an elite law firm, the first lady of the United States, with a magnificent house on Martha’s Vineyard worth about $12 million and another one going up in Hawaii, why it is that she’s so hopeless all the time and has to have her hope revived by the goings-on in the Democratic Party.”
MIchelle Obama declared in her speech Tuesday: “America, hope is making a comeback.”
Former President Barack Obama greets former first lady Michelle Obama as he arrives to speak on stage during the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
She then tore into Trump, a sharp shift from the 2016 convention speech in which she told her party, “When they go low, we go high.”
“His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be Black,” Michelle Obama said of Trump.
She was followed by her husband, Barack Obama, the first Black president in U.S. history. He insisted the nation is ready to elect Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian heritage and would be the nation’s first female president. He also called Trump “a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”
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“It’s been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually gotten worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
