Michelle Obama Says 2024 Election Worries Keep Her Up At Night

Michelle Obama revealed in an interview Monday that among the things that keep her up at night are her fears about the 2024 election.

“What’s going to happen in this next election? I am terrified about what could possibly happen, because our leaders matter who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit,” the former first lady said on Jay Shetty’s podcast “On Purpose” when he asked what keeps her up at night.

“It affects us in ways that sometimes I think people take for granted,” Michelle Obama said. “You know, the fact that people think the government... doesn’t really even do anything. And I’m like, oh, my God, does government do everything for us? And we cannot take this democracy for granted. And sometimes I worry that we do. Those are the things that keep me up.”

Obama’s remarks on the popular mental health podcast come a week before the Iowa caucuses the kickoff to the 2024 primary election season. Polls show former President Donald Trump is very likely to win the Republican nomination despite being indicted in four cases that total 91 felony charges related to his efforts to subvert the 2020 election results, his mishandling of classified documents since leaving office in 2021 and hush money payments made to an adult film star shortly before the 2016 election. 

Other things that Obama said keep her up at night are war, artificial intelligence, the pace at which we’re addressing environmental threats, the education system, why so many Americans don’t vote and the time people spend on their phones. 

“Those are the things that keep me up, because you don’t have control over them,” she told Shetty, an author, life coach and former monk who has drawn a celebrity following. (Shetty once hosted a digital morning show for Huffington Post, the previous name of HuffPost.) 

Despite being a very well-liked figure among Democrats , the former first lady has repeatedly shot down suggestions that she run for the presidency. 

“I’ve never had the passion for politics,” she told Oprah Winfrey in an interview last year. “I just happened to be married to somebody who has the passion for politics, and he drug me kicking and screaming into the arena.”

You can watch Shetty’s full podcast interview here .