Michelle Obama has spent years complaining about her time at Princeton.
Megyn Kelly just caught her making an argument that Democrats called racist.
And Michelle Obama utterly humiliated herself when she accidentally made this Charlie Kirk argument.
Kelly caught what the Left doesn’t want anyone to notice
Megyn Kelly dropped a bombshell on her show that had Democrats squirming.
While the Left spent months attacking Charlie Kirk for his comments about affirmative action, Kelly found something they desperately wish would stay buried.
Michelle Obama made essentially the same argument about herself years ago.
"There she is saying almost exactly what Charlie said, that she did not have the scores, another way of saying it would be brain power, it is an aptitude test to get into Princeton on her own, that they had to lower the standards for her," Kelly explained on her show.¹
Back when Michelle Obama wrote her memoir "Becoming," she openly discussed wondering if people thought she got into Princeton because of affirmative action.²
"Back in college, I was one of the few black students on my campus, and I was proud of getting into such a respected school. I knew I’d worked hard for it. But still, I sometimes wondered if people thought I got there because of affirmative action," Obama wrote.³
She called it a "shadow" that followed her throughout college.⁴
But here’s where it gets interesting – Obama herself acknowledged that Princeton made "special dispensations" to admit students "whose grades or accomplishments might not measure up to the acknowledged standard."⁵
She specifically mentioned minority students in this category alongside legacy students and athletes.⁶
Kirk got destroyed for saying what Obama admitted
In July 2023, after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, Kirk pointed out that several prominent black women – including Michelle Obama – had essentially admitted they benefited from racial preferences.
"If we would have said three weeks ago that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative-action picks, we would have been called racist," Kirk said on his podcast. "But now they’re comin’ out and they’re saying it for us!"⁷
Kirk got absolutely hammered by the media for those comments.
The Left called him racist, said he was questioning the intelligence of black women, and turned his assassination into an opportunity to dredge up these remarks as proof of his supposed bigotry.
But Megyn Kelly nailed the hypocrisy perfectly.
"Charlie’s being called a racist for saying exactly what she said in that clip," Kelly pointed out. "She’s still complaining… She’s still bitter."⁸
The timing couldn’t be more revealing.
Obama herself wrote that she "sometimes wondered if people thought I got there because of affirmative action."⁹
Then when Kirk made the same observation after the Supreme Court ruling, suddenly it became racist to notice what she had admitted.
The bitterness never ends despite living high on the hog
Kelly also zeroed in on something else that drives conservatives crazy about Michelle Obama – her endless complaints despite decades of elite privilege.
"The color of her skin is the reason she got into Princeton and got a lifetime of advantages that she’s still living high on the hog from, but she’s still bitter about it, still to this day," Kelly said.¹⁰
Obama graduated from Princeton and then Harvard Law School.
She married a man who became President of the United States.
She lived in the White House for eight years, wrote bestselling memoirs, commands massive speaking fees, and enjoys universal celebrity status.
Yet she’s still talking about how hard it was and how people looked at her funny at Princeton four decades ago.
"You would think, if you’re Michelle Obama, you’re universally beloved, you call your book ‘Becoming,’ you’re on the cover," Kelly noted. "It’s so difficult to be Michelle, because you’re just so super famous and everyone loves you."¹¹
The contrast with what gratitude might look like is stark.
Kelly pointed out that someone in Obama’s position should be saying "I’m just so damn lucky to have been born in the United States of America, where I could go from living growing up in relative poverty and sharing a room with my brother on the south side of Chicago, and go up to become the first lady of the United States."¹²
Instead, decades later, she’s still processing hurt feelings from college.
The double standard Democrats can’t escape
This whole situation exposes the absurdity of how the Left polices speech about affirmative action.
When Michelle Obama discusses her own doubts about whether she belonged at Princeton because of racial preferences – that’s celebrated as honest and vulnerable.
When Charlie Kirk points out that prominent liberals have essentially admitted they benefited from lowered standards – that’s racist and beyond the pale.
The reality is they’re making the same observation about the same policy.
Affirmative action created exactly the dynamic Michelle Obama described – minority students wondering if they truly belonged or if they were just filling a quota.
That’s the poisonous legacy of racial preferences in admissions.
Princeton likely used Michelle Obama’s race as a factor in her admission, which is what affirmative action policies did for decades.¹³
Obama herself acknowledged feeling the "shadow" of that policy.¹⁴
Kirk said essentially the same thing after these women publicly discussed how affirmative action helped them.
The only difference is Kirk is a conservative white man, so the same words become unforgivable.
Democrats have painted themselves into a corner on this issue.
They can’t defend affirmative action without acknowledging it gave racial preferences – which is exactly what Kirk said.
And they can’t attack Kirk without implicitly attacking Michelle Obama’s own words about her Princeton experience.
The hypocrisy is glaring and impossible to explain away.
¹ Ian Schwartz, "Megyn Kelly: Michelle Obama Sounded Like Charlie Kirk When She Accidentally Made The Case Against Affirmative Action," RealClearPolitics, October 18, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Izz Scott LaMagdeleine, "Michelle Obama Reacts To Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling In Powerful Statement," Romper, February 20, 2024.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ "Michelle Obama Felt ‘the Shadow of Affirmative Action’ as Princeton Undergrad," Reason.com, November 13, 2018.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ "Fact Check: Charlie Kirk once said prominent Black women didn’t have ‘brain processing power’ to be taken seriously," Snopes, September 18, 2025.
⁸ Ian Schwartz, "Megyn Kelly: Michelle Obama Sounded Like Charlie Kirk When She Accidentally Made The Case Against Affirmative Action," RealClearPolitics, October 18, 2025.
⁹ Izz Scott LaMagdeleine, "Michelle Obama Reacts To Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling In Powerful Statement," Romper, February 20, 2024.
¹⁰ Ian Schwartz, "Megyn Kelly: Michelle Obama Sounded Like Charlie Kirk When She Accidentally Made The Case Against Affirmative Action," RealClearPolitics, October 18, 2025.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ "Michelle Obama Felt ‘the Shadow of Affirmative Action’ as Princeton Undergrad," Reason.com, November 13, 2018.
¹⁴ Izz Scott LaMagdeleine, "Michelle Obama Reacts To Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling In Powerful Statement," Romper, February 20, 2024.
