Former first lady Michelle Obama joked Monday that “at this point everybody is qualified and everyone should run” when it comes to the White House.
“I might even tap Sasha,” Obama joked, referring to her 17-year-old daughter, who technically isn’t qualified to run for president in 2020 given her age.
As the audience listening to her interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts laughed, Obama cupped her hand and turned her head, mockingly talking to her daughter.
“‘Sasha, you’ve got some free time. I think you’d do a great job,'” she said during the interview on “Good Morning America.”
{mosads}Obama made the comments after Roberts noted that the former first lady had no interest in running for the White House herself and after the host mentioned the possibility that 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton could run again for the White House.
In her response, Obama seemed to point at an exasperation with who the president is today, and where politics is at.
“Are you saying that because of what we currently have?” Roberts asked.
“What I am saying is that—” said Obama, before cutting herself off and chuckling.
She and Roberts then pointed to one another, with Roberts saying, “You went there,” and Obama saying, “No, you went there.”
Obama has made no secret of her disillusion with the presidency of Donald Trump during her book tour. She said earlier this week that she stopped even trying to smile during Trump’s inauguration, when she and her husband, former President Obama, shared a stage to watch his coronation.
She’s also said that she never forgave Trump for putting her children in danger by raising the conspiracy theory that her husband was not a natural-born citizen of the United States.
But the former first lady, widely popular in opinion polls, made no indication of whether she has a favored candidate in what is expected to be a crowded 2020 race.
“Anybody who feels the passion to get in this race, we need them in there. And I think that process will play itself out,” she told Roberts.
Obama added that she hasn’t been paying that close of attention.
“I think there’s just a lot a noise and a lot of talk. It’s still pretty early,” she said.
“Let’s see who wants to roll up their sleeves and get in the race,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of great candidates that get in there and treat each other respectfully.”
“That’s the thing that I’m going to be looking out for, personally,” she added. “I don’t want people of either party tearing each other up in the process of getting to the nomination.”
“So I think this is open to any and everybody who has the courage to step up and serve.”