Michelle Obama reveals ‘nightmare' navigating daughters' teenage years in public eye
Speaking on SixiusXM's 'Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa', she recalled: 'They had to drive and they had to go to prom and they were on teams and they traveled to other schools and they had to do college searches, and they went to parties and they had drinks, and they tried out smoking and they did all the things.
'And every weekend was a nightmare, because we had to work to make sure that them being regular teenagers didn't wind up on Page Six.'
Michelle, 61, admitted keeping her daughter's experimentation behind closed doors was tough.
There was also a lot to consider when it came to something as simple as 'play dates' with other children from school.
She explained: 'When your kids are under the security of the Secret Service, you almost have to work twice as hard to make their life normal.
'Imagine setting up the first play date or the first time the kids get invited to a play date.
'The process of having my children at your house meant that an advanced team had to come and question and search your house and ask if you had drugs and guns.'
Michelle joked that her children still have 'the Obama tax' in their lives as kids of a former US President, while there is a balancing act to strike.
She quipped: 'We call that the Obama tax for them. You'll have it the rest of your life, but you also have a lot of benefits.
'I'm trying to make this feel normal to them, because you don't want them to start thinking, number one, they're full of themselves, that any of this is about them and that their job is to go about their lives.
'This world is not about you. This is just your dad's job.'
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RNZ News
17-05-2025
- RNZ News
Ex-FBI director meets with Secret Service after Trump supporters claim he threatened president
By Daniel Trotta and Doina Chiacu , Reuters Former FBI Director James Comey. Photo: AFP / Dia Dipasupil Former FBI director James Comey met with the US Secret Service on Friday, after he was called in to discuss a social media post that Donald Trump's supporters claimed was a threat against the president, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. Noem, in a post on X, said there was "an ongoing investigation" but gave no indication of whether Comey might be subject to further action. The Secret Service, which is in charge of presidential security and is part of the Department of Homeland Security, interviewed Comey at the Washington field office on Friday afternoon, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The meeting began around 6 pm EDT (2200 GMT) and lasted about an hour, the official said. Comey appeared voluntarily after being asked to come in, the source said. Federal law enforcement agencies were investigating an Instagram post by Comey on Thursday with a photo of the number 8647 formed by seashells on sand with the comment, "Cool shell formation on my beach walk." In US slang, the number 86 can be used as a verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly. Trump is the 47th president of the United States. Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, took down the post after a backlash from Trump supporters, saying on Instagram, "It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down." Some Trump supporters interpreted the message as a call to violently remove Trump from office, including through assassination. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says on its website that one recent meaning of the term 86 was "to kill" but that it had not adopted it "due to its relative recency and sparseness of use". "Today, federal agents from @SecretService interviewed disgraced former FBI Director Comey regarding a social media post calling for the assassination of President Trump," Noem said. "I will continue to take all measures necessary to ensure the protection of @POTUS Trump. This is an ongoing investigation." Trump himself on Friday accused Comey of calling for his assassination, rejecting the former FBI director's explanation that he was not aware of any violent connotation. "He knew exactly what that meant," Trump said in an interview with Fox News before leaving Abu Dhabi while on a four-day Middle East trip, adding that he would leave further action on the matter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and others. Comey was not available for comment. The "8647" and "8646" themes have been used as political slogans and on T-shirts during the administrations of both Trump and his predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden, the 46th US president. Early in his first term, Trump fired Comey, who as FBI director had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign's possible collusion with Russia. Comey has been a sharp critic of his former boss, calling him "morally unfit" to lead in a 2018 interview. Trump himself was accused of using Twitter posts to incite rioters, who attacked the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021, to prevent the certification of Biden's election victory. Trump last year also posted on social media a video that featured an image of Biden, who was then president, with his hands and feet tied together in the back of a pickup truck. - Reuters
NZ Herald
17-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Comey under investigation for ‘threat' to Trump on social media, officials say
'If you're the FBI director and you don't know what that meant, that meant assassination,' Trump told Fox News in an interview scheduled to air on Friday evening (local time). 'And it says it loud and clear.' Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem also accused Comey of calling for Trump's assassination, writing on X on Thursday that her department and the Secret Service were 'investigating this threat and will respond appropriately'. FBI director Kash Patel said his agency would 'provide all necessary support' as part of the investigation. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Fox News that she believes Comey should be in jail because of the post and accused him of 'issuing a hit' on Trump. Asked what he wanted to happen to Comey, Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier it was up to 'Pam and all of the great people', referring to Attorney-General Pam Bondi. It is the job of the Secret Service, which is part of DHS, to explore potential threats to the President, but in general such inquiries are launched only when a person is believed to be actively threatening harm. David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University, said there is 'absolutely no basis' to investigate Comey for allegedly threatening Trump's life. The Supreme Court has set a 'very high standard' in such cases, Cole added, and there is 'no way in the world that a photo of this beach arrangement constitutes that'. 'Anyone who has studied any First Amendment law would realise this was protected speech,' said Cole, the former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. 'It might not have been the most discreet or professional post, but it's 100% protected. If anyone should understand the value of indiscreet and irresponsible but nonetheless protected posts on social media, it's Donald Trump.' Used as a verb, '86' originated in hospitality, meaning to refuse service to a customer or that a menu item was not available, and its use expanded over time to broadly refer to rejecting, dismissing or removing, according to its dictionary definition. It can also refer to killing something or someone. 'I didn't realise some folks associate those numbers with violence,' Comey said in his follow-up post. 'It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.' A spokesman for the Secret Service, Anthony Guglielmi, said in a social media statement that the agency investigates anything that could be taken as a threat. 'We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI Director & we take rhetoric like this very seriously,' he added. Comey, who began as FBI director under President Barack Obama, has long had a contentious relationship with Trump. Trump ousted Comey in 2017 as he was leading a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether associates of Trump may have coordinated with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election. Around the time of his firing, Trump accused Comey of giving Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, 'a free pass for many bad deeds' when he decided not to recommend criminal charges over her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state. Neither investigation led to charges. The probes made Comey unpopular in both parties, although Trump and his allies in Congress continued to target Comey long after his ouster, scrutinising his conduct around the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Justice Department in 2019 declined to prosecute Comey over his handling of memos that documented his interactions with Trump, although the FBI inspector general criticised Comey for his actions and said he violated agency policy. Advertise with NZME. On social media, Trump has bashed Comey as a 'DIRTY COP' and 'Leakin' Lyin' James B. Comey'. He revived those attacks in the interview with Fox News, suggesting the administration officials probing Comey's seashell post should consider his past as a 'dirty cop'. 'If he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency, but I'm going to let them make that decision,' Trump said. In 2019, Comey was among the former FBI officials Trump accused of treason – a crime punishable by death in the US legal code. Trump has also been accused of violent rhetoric. In 2023, in reference to calls to Chinese officials by General Mark A. Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump wrote on Truth Social: 'This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.' In an interview with Tucker Carlson in November, Trump said of former congresswoman Liz Cheney, whom he called a war hawk: 'Let's see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.' During his 2016 campaign, he said that if Clinton were in a position to appoint judges, there is 'nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know'. Advertise with NZME. And during the 2024 election, Trump shared a video on social media that showed a supporter's pickup truck driving down a road with a graphic on its tailgate that depicted President Joe Biden tied up. In response, Biden's campaign accused Trump of 'regularly inciting political violence'. At least one other well-known Republican official has used the term '86' before. In February 2024, Republican Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) boasted on X that his political allies had '86'd' three party leaders in recent months. He was responding to the news that Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell would step down from his leadership post in November of that year. In 2022, the far-right activist Jack Posobiec wrote an X post that said only, '86 46.' Biden was serving as the 46th President at the time. Posobiec is a vocal Trump supporter who has been promoted by Trump on social media and invited to participate in a 'new media' briefing at the White House during his second term. Republicans previously singled out Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) with allegations of violent rhetoric after he said in 2020 that two Supreme Court justices would 'pay the price' if they voted to restrict abortion rights. Chief Justice John G. Roberts jnr issued a rare rebuke of Schumer over the language, and Schumer later admitted he 'should not have used the words I used'. Ed Martin, Trump's former interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, had planned to investigate Schumer over the incident after Martin took office this year. But the Washington Post reported in March that Martin had abandoned the probe, finding it unfounded.
NZ Herald
16-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Blake Lively allegedly asked Taylor Swift to delete texts amid legal battle with Justin Baldoni
Blake Lively allegedly asked Taylor Swift to delete their text messages as part of her ongoing legal battle with actor and director Justin Baldoni. The actor, 37, has been locked in a legal battle for months with 41-year-old film-maker Baldoni after accusing him of harassment on the set of their film It Ends With Us. Her and Swift's relationship became entangled in the lawsuit earlier this year. According to newly filed court documents revealed by Page Six, lawyers representing Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, cite an anonymous source 'who is highly likely to have reliable information', alleging that Lively made the text deletion request to Swift, 35 – though the exact timing of the apparent conversation was not disclosed. According to the filing, Baldoni's legal team further alleged Lively's lead attorney, Michael Gottlieb, had approached Swift's law firm, Venable, to request a 'statement of support' from the pop star. The court document claims the request carried an implied threat: 'If Ms Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms Lively's possession would be released.'
