Former first lady Michelle Obama said in an interview with CBS host Gayle King that attending President Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration as one of the few non-white people in the audience was "very emotional" for her.

Obama said it was "very emotional" to "sit at that inauguration and to look around at a crowd that was not reflective of the country, and I had to sit in that audience as one of the handfuls of people of color."

She added: "By the time I got on the plane, it was a release of 8 years of trying to have to show up."

Obama said she was "saddened" by what the Trump presidency "is doing to the country as a whole," adding, "we have to be really conscientious of is what kind of country we're leaving for our children or grandchildren."

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Former first lady Michelle Obama said in an interview with CBS host Gayle King that attending President Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration as one of the few non-white people in the audience was "very emotional" for her.

Interviewed by King at the annual Essence Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana, Obama described how difficult it was for her daughters, Malia and Sasha, to prepare to move out of the White House as inauguration day neared.

Obama said it was "very emotional" to "sit at that inauguration and to look around at a crowd that was not reflective of the country, and I had to sit in that audience as one of the handfuls of people of color, all that I had to hold on to over those last 8 years, and it was a lot emotionally."

She added that, "by the time I got on the plane, it was a release of 8 years of trying to have to show up."

When King asked if Obama was upset over the Trump administration's aggressive efforts to roll back her husband President Barack Obama's legacy on issues including healthcare reform and environmental protections, she said she was more concerned for the future implications of the Trump presidency.

Read more: Michelle Obama said sending her daughters to sleepovers meant warning their friends' parents: 'There is going to be a man with a gun sitting outside all night'

"I can honestly say, our upset wasn't over our legacy. We weren't there to instill our legacy, but the upset it would cause the country," Obama told King.

Obama added: "What saddens me is what it's doing to the country as a whole. What we have to be really conscientious of is what kind of country we're leaving for our children or grandchildren."

When it came to the 2020 election, Obama declined to back a specific candidate in the 26-person Democratic presidential primary field, saying, "the general election is so important and we have to get behind whoever comes out of that primary."

She also declined to weigh in on the ongoing tensions between two of the frontrunners, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, over Biden's record on racial and civil rights issues.

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