Anita McBride: ‘There’s no position description for a first lady.’ They can ‘make it their own.’

“U.S. First Ladies: Making History and Leaving Legacies” is a new college textbook that focuses on the impact of American first ladies on the policies and politics of their times. One of the book’s authors, American University’s First Ladies Initiative director Anita McBride, joins Andrea Mitchell to discuss how first ladies have each defined their role. “There's no position description for a first lady. They get to pick and choose. They make it their own,” McBride tells Andrea. “But we have, in modern times, come to expect the visibility of the president's spouse; to be out there, whether it's not supporting a policy initiative advocating for it, being on the campaign trail, and then, once they leave office, you know, continuing to support the issues they worked on. That's part of their legacy, too.”Sept. 25, 2023