Obama says he ‘couldn’t be prouder’ of his daughters for joining protests

Former President Obama said he “couldn’t be prouder” of his daughters for joining protests calling for racial justice over the summer.

Obama tell people in an interview published Tuesday that his daughters Malia, 22, and Sasha, 19, participated in the summer protests following the death of George Floyd after a Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck for at minus eight minutes.

The former president’s daughters, both of whom are students, felt “the need to participate,” Obama said in his interview about his recent memoir “A Promised Land”.

“I didn’t have to give them a lot of advice because they had a very clear idea of ​​what was right and what was wrong and their own agency and the power of their voice and the need to participate,” did he declare.

“Malia and Sasha have found their own ways to get involved in the protests and activism that you have seen with young people this summer, without any prompting from Michelle and myself, on their own initiative,” he added. .

Obama said his daughters did not get involved “in a way they were looking for the limelight”, adding, “They were really in organizing mode.”

“I couldn’t have been more proud of them,” he says.

The 59-year-old former president said his daughters asked him for advice on mobilizing people after protests erupted across the country after Floyd’s death over police brutality against black communities.

“I think on several occasions they asked for very specific suggestions on how best to communicate X or what would be the most useful thing that, if we mobilized a whole group of friends, would have an impact, that should we do? ”he said.

“But they didn’t need to be encouraged,” he added. a day, a week or a walk to remedy it. But we’re here for the long haul. “

Obama said he didn’t think any of his daughters would go into politics, but said he expected “both to be active citizens.”

President Obama also doesn’t expect Malia and Sasha to enter politics like him, but “I think both will be active citizens.”

“They reflect their generation in the sense that they want to make a difference and they think of their careers in terms of: How do I have a positive impact? How do I make the world a better place?” he said. “The particular paths they take to get there, I think they’re going to change and vary between the two.”