No Evidence Michelle Obama Regrets Backing Harris

A rumor that former first lady Michelle Obama said she regretted publicly backing U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election circulated online in the weeks after the election. Obama and her husband, former President Barack Obama, both supported Harris’ unsuccessful campaign, including speaking at her rallies and the Democratic National Convention.

We received reader mail asking about the rumor. Also, several X users shared a link to a story promoting the claim on the news mobile app SmartNews. The article displayed the headline, “Michelle Obama Regrets Backing Kamala Harris.” Facebook and Threads users shared the story, as well.

One user on X posted (archived), “Interesting that Michelle Obama now regrets backing the wrong horse i.e. Kamala Harris? You were her best friend. You and your husband stuck it down our throat. NO MORE OBAMAS!!” Another person said (archived), “I don’t believe it! Unless she’s only worried about her own selfish reputation!”

This article originated on Nov. 21 from SoapSpoiler.com. It began:

If she could turn back time, she probably would. There’s heavy speculation that suggests Michelle Obama is regretting her decision to back Kamala Harris. But at this point, there’s really not much that she can do about it. Keep reading below for everything you need to know.

Michelle Obama regrets backing Kamala Harris. She now feels like she should have trusted her gut instinct before deciding to pull all of her support behind Kamala, who ultimately lost the presidential election to none other than Donald Trump.

But then again, Michelle did have her own chance at running for president but she decided not to shoot her shot. She’s been there and done that when her own husband Barack Obama was president and didn’t want to return to the White House with the stress of being the Commander in Chief herself.

However, if Michelle would have known that Kamala would have performed so terribly in so many of her sit down interviews and at her campaign rallies, Michelle wouldn’t have backe [sic] her in the way that she did.

However, we rated the rumor that Michelle Obama expressed regret for backing Harris’ campaign as unfounded, seeing as the article’s author did not cite any sources — even anonymous sources — and mentioned only “heavy speculation” with no attribution.

The SoapSpoiler.com story displayed the author’s name as Bernice Emanuel. The picture shown for the author was a stock photo labeled on Alamy.com as “Close-up portrait of a healthy older woman smiling outside.” A reverse-image search found the same picture on online pages for a coaching endeavor, dentistry and law office.

SoapSpoiler.com also published a different article on the same day naming the same author below the headline “Michelle Obama Wants To Run For President In 2028?” Once again, the story mentioned only “heavy speculation” and cited no sources.

Snopes contacted MLRP Media Group — the owner of SoapSpoiler.com — by email to ask about the inclusion of the stock image for the author, as well as whether there was a real person on staff with that name. We received an initial response that asked questions about our article. We will update this fact check if we receive any further details.