Barack Obama has been praised for his handling of a heckler, who interrupted his recent campaign rally speech to tell him he’s “fine”.
The interaction took place while the former president was speaking to supporters in the Detroit Renaissance High School gym in Detroit, Michigan, on Saturday.
During his speech, Obama acknowledged that, “sometimes going on a campaign trail feels a little harder than it used to, not just because I am older and grayer…”
The former president’s remark prompted a response from a woman in the crowd, who interjected: “You fine as a motherf***er,” according to a video of the exchange shared on Twitter.
The response was met with laughter and cheers from the crowd, while Obama turned to face the woman in question, before turning back to the podium with a smile.
The 61 year old then questioned whether the entire audience had heard the woman’s statement, addressing the crowd: “I don’t know if y’all heard that,” before asking the heckler to repeat herself. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” Obama asked.
Obama then turned back to the podium and told the assembled crowd: “She said I was still fine.”
As the audience continued to cheer over the exchange, the former president turned back to the woman in question once more, to jokingly inform her he had no plans to tell his wife Michelle Obama about her compliment.
“I’m not going to tell Michelle you said that,” he said, before adding: “Although, Michelle does agree. She knows.”
The politician, who could be seen continuing to laugh over the comment, then attempted to regain focus, as he acknowledged “we’re getting distracted”.
However, Obama wasn’t entirely done, as he then told the crowd “squirrel,” an apparent reference to the Pixar movie Up, in which a distracted dog often yells out “squirrel!”
On social media, the exchange has been met with amusement from Obama’s supporters, with many agreeing with the woman’s assessment, while others appreciated the laidback way the former president handled the heckling.
“Damn right. And look at him blush and grin like a bashful teenager,” one person tweeted, while another said: “Not a lie was spoken.”
According to someone else, it is “so fun” to see Obama interacting with the crowd. “So fun to see relaxed, semi-retired, having-the-time-of-his-life Obama. He is funny and he is FINE,” they wrote, while one person revealed that it “still brings [them] so much joy to watch him work a crowd”.
“He has such a rare gift with people. I love it,” another person wrote.
This is not the first time that Obama has spoken candidly about his and Michelle’s affectionate relationship, as he referred to the former first lady as “fine” himself after their portraits were revealed during a White House ceremony in September.
“I want to thank Sharon Sprung for capturing everything I love about Michelle. Her grace, her intelligence, and the fact that she’s fine,” Obama joked at the time.
The former president was in Michigan to encourage voters to support Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer in the upcoming elections against Republican candidate Tudor Dixon.
Elsewhere during his speech, Obama was heckled by a man in the crowd, which prompted the 61 year old to remind the individual behind the interruption who was talking. “Right now, I’m talking. You’ll have a chance to talk sometime later. You wouldn’t do that in a workplace,” he said.
