Michelle Obama: Not an “angry black woman”

Michelle Obama

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. first lady  Michelle Obama shot down any notion of infighting between her  and the president’s top aides in a television interview yesterday, downplaying her role and influence in the White  House.

Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama defended her role as one of dozens of  advisers to President Barack Obama after the publication of “The  Obamas,” a new book by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor that  paints the popular first lady as a tough political player.

“That’s been an image that people have tried to paint of me  since, you know, the day Barack announced (he was running for  president in 2008), that I’m some angry black woman,” Obama told  CBS’s “This Morning,” adding that she hasn’t read the book.

She said she rarely steps into the West Wing, which houses  the president’s office, and never sparred with either her  husband’s former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel or former Press  Secretary Robert Gibbs.

“I don’t have conversations with my husband’s staff,” she  said. “I don’t go to meetings.”

According to Kantor’s book there was tension between the  first lady and Gibbs, who worried about public missteps and  reportedly cursed at her and spoke in less than flattering terms  about her.

Obama said Gibbs was a trusted adviser and remained a good  friend.

“I’m sure that we could go day to day and find things people  wish they didn’t say to each other,” she told CBS. “People  stumble, people make mistakes, people every day – in families,  in churches, in schools all over the country – they say things  they don’t mean sometimes.”

Kantor has drawn some criticism for her book, which cites  numerous sources but not any interviews with the Obamas  themselves.