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On his podcast Stay Free with Russell Brand, which aired on Rumble on May 2, Russell Brand questioned Michelle Obama's remarks on On Purpose with Jay Shetty. During the interview, she expressed deep concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump's deportation policies, stating that "they keep her up at night."
In the podcast, Brand revisited English journalist Piers Morgan's comments, which highlighted contradictions in Michelle Obama's remarks.
On April 29, 2025, Morgan took to X to point out that over three million people were deported under Barack Obama's presidency, questioning:
"Did THAT keep her up at night?"
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Building on Morgan's response, Russell Brand questioned whether Michelle Obama had expressed similar concerns during her husband's presidency, or if her recent remarks reflect a shift in perspective.
He further claimed that the mainstream media is filled with "extraordinary biases" and does not provide an accurate portrayal of events.
Brand further stated:
"So there you go, whether it's deportations or tariffs, it seems that the legacy media and vested interests, both current and former, are incapable of rendering the truth without it being lacquered and layered with almost insurmountable bias."
"That's the ideas of yesteryear,"—Russell Brand comments in response to Michelle's remarks on racism
While revisiting Michelle Obama's accounts of experiences with racial prejudice and discrimination as a person of color, on On Purpose with Jay Shetty, the Get Him to the Geek star expressed his frustration with racism, stating:
"No time for that crap no more, that's the ideas of yesteryear."
He elaborated that overcoming such negative emotions requires both individual and collective effort.
"If we are to make straight the ways for the returning redeemer, then we're going to have to cast from our hearts all hatred and all darkness while acknowledging that the evil one has always had access to us through mentality, through the flesh, and through worldliness," he stated.
Later in the podcast, Russell Brand revisited former U.S. President Barack Obama's 2014 speech on new immigration policies. In the speech, the former president stated that both criminals and illegal immigrants now face higher chances of being apprehended and deported.
Barack Obama further noted:
The actions I'm taking are not only lawful, they're the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican president and every single Democratic president for the past half century."
Brand expressed concern over the deportation of individuals based on their exercise of free speech. He argued that such actions are unjust regardless of who is in power.
He urged consistency in political and ethical standards, stating:
"You have to have a perspective that's verifiable and reliable, and you'll never get that if the tribe you belong to is one of coalesced human interests bound together in order to achieve power and domination," Brand remarked.
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, born on January 17, 1964, became the First Lady of the United States in 2009 following the election of her husband, Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. The couple married in 1992 and have two daughters.
