Probably because it happens to him seemingly all the time, President Obama at this point doesn’t even get mad about hecklers, or at least not his constant harasser, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin. Michelle Obama, on the other hand, apparently has far less patience for the practice. When Ellen Sturtz, an activist with the gay-rights group GetEqual, interrupted the first lady at a private fund-raiser Tuesday to demand Barack Obama sign an executive order prohibiting contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation or identity, Michelle Obama became downright steely, and threatened to walk out.
BuzzFeed kindly excerpted the pool report describing the incident, in which the exact words of the heckler were inaudible:
“One of the things I don’t do well is this,” replied FLOTUS to loud applause. She left the lectern and moved over to the protester, saying they could “listen to me or you can take the mic, but I’m leaving. You all decide. You have one choice.”
Crowd started shouting that they wanted FLOTUS to stay.
“You need to go!” said one woman near the protester.
The protester was then escorted out, shouting “…lesbian looking for federal equality before I die.” (First part of the quote was inaudible.)
The Washington Post caught up with Sturtz after the dust up: “She came right down in my face,” Sturtz told the paper. “I was taken aback.” Heckling at fund-raisers is a fairly common practice, but it’s almost always directed at the president, which is why Michelle Obama must have been somewhat taken aback. Imagine what she’ll do if someone ever calls her the “antichrist.”
