First Lady Michelle Obama will make her debut delivering the presidential weekly address on Saturday, expressing the “outrage and heartbreak” she and President Barack Obama share over the kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian girls, the White House said.
Obama hopes “the courage of these young girls will serve as an inspiration for every girl and every boy in our country to recommit themselves to their own education and a call to action for people around the world to fight to ensure that every girl receives the education that is her birthright,” said White House spokesman Eric Schultz.
The president generally tapes the address during the week and it is released early Saturday morning, on radio and video.
“Clearly this was an opportunity for the first lady, as a mother of two young daughters, to speak out, to share the heartbreak that she and her husband feel for these 200 girls and express the country’s unity for them,” Schultz said.
The address will be Michelle Obama’s first solo turn on the address; she has previously joined Obama, Schultz said.