Politics

First Lady: Secret Service Agents Taught Malia How to Drive

Published

10 years ago

April 9, 2015

In this March 7, 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama and Malia Obama arrive at Air Force One at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. Some teenagers get driving lessons from their parents. Other teens are taught by licensed instructors. But Malia Obama isnt your average 16-year-old: Her driving lessons were provided by the U.S. Secret Service. Thats what Malias mother, Michelle Obama, tells celebrity chef and daytime talk-show host Rachael Ray in an interview scheduled to air Thursday. (AP Photo/Butch Dill, File)

In this March 7, 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama and Malia Obama arrive at Air Force One at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill, File)

DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some teenagers get driving lessons from their parents. Other teens are taught by licensed instructors.

But Malia Obama isn’t your average 16-year-old: Her driving lessons were provided by the U.S. Secret Service.

Asked who taught Malia how to drive, first lady Michelle Obama told celebrity chef and daytime talk-show host Rachael Ray in an interview that it was the armed agents who provide around-the-clock security for the family.

“The Secret Service, actually, because they wouldn’t let me in the car with her,” Mrs. Obama said in an excerpt of the interview that was released by Ray’s program. The full interview is set to air Thursday.

Mrs. Obama hasn’t driven herself in seven or eight years, she said.

She added that driving gives Malia “a sense of normalcy,” helping her feel like the rest of her friends who are also driving. “And my kids have got to learn how to live in the world like normal kids.”

When Ray says that the Obamas seem “so grounded,” the first lady replies that her “hope is just to make sure that they (her daughters) come out of this thing as functioning adults, you know?”

Mrs. Obama, whose younger daughter Sasha is 13, said Malia also drives herself around Washington.

“She always has security around but in order for her to learn how to drive she had to drive on her own,” the first lady said during a separate interview on “Live! With Kelly and Michael” earlier this week. “So once she was legally permitted to drive on her own, she gets in her car.”

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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

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June 7, 2025

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BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

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1 week ago

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Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
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“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

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