Michelle Obama joked Saturday night about the public relations hits she took during the 2008 campaign, telling an audience in New Orleans of her path to the White House, “I don’t remember how many punches we took to get there.”

“For a minute there, I was an angry black woman who was emasculating her husband,” Obama said, laughing during an interview with “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King at the Essence Festival.

“As I got more popular, that’s when people of all sides — Democrats and Republicans — tried to take me out by the knees,” she said.

“And the best way to do it was to focus on the one thing people were afraid of — the strength of a black woman.”

Asked by a doting King, “Do you have any idea how much you are missed?” Obama quipped, “I miss us too.”