Michelle Obama became known as “The Closer” due to her toughness and her ability to close the deal - even more so than Sen. Barack Obama.

But the likely Democratic presidential candidate warned Republicans to back off after the Tennessee GOP posted a video last week hammering his wife.

Several supposedly “unpatriotic” Michelle Obama quotes made while campaigning earlier this year were the primary motivation for the party’s attack ad.

In an interview aired today on Good Morning America, Barack Obama (as has been his custom of late) hit back quickly, warning Republicans:

“The GOP, should I be the nominee, can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record. If they think that they’re going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful because that I find unacceptable, the notion that you start attacking my wife or my family.”

“Whoever is in charge of the Tennessee GOP needs to think long and hard about the kind of campaign they want to run, and I think that’s true for everybody, Democrat or Republican. [Michelle] loves this country. For them to try to distort or to play snippets of her remarks in ways that are unflattering to her is, I think, low class. I think that most of the American people would think that as well.”