0:01

You're listening to Comedy Central. Hi

0:05

there, podcast listener, This is Daisylidic

0:07

from the Daily Show with Trevor Noah letting you know

0:09

that Slow Obama is just one episode

0:11

in The Daily Show Podcast Universe, a new

0:13

mini series from the Daily Show with Trevor

0:16

Noah. To hear all five episodes, search

0:18

for The Daily Show Podcast Universe on

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Apple Podcasts. Most

0:25

people remember where they were when

0:27

President Obama saluted a marine while

0:29

holding a latte. It's

0:31

considered by many of America's step uncles

0:34

to be the biggest scandal in presidential

0:36

history. The Daily Show Podcast Universe

0:39

is proud to introduce the most definitive,

0:42

most caffeinated history of Obama's latte

0:44

salutes from the people who lived

0:46

through it. This is Slow

0:49

Obama. Lauren

0:56

Mills is a barista at the Pizza Coffee

0:58

on Eighth and K in Washington, d See.

1:01

In many ways, she's a typical barista.

1:04

She wears a lot of camouflage vests. She

1:06

knows a weird amount about Bolivian politics.

1:09

She styles her hair and dreadlocks. Despite

1:12

being white. Spiritually,

1:14

I just feel Jamaican, you know. On

1:17

September fourteen,

1:19

Lauren got to work, and she did what she does

1:22

every day. She made coffee,

1:26

a large drip with cream, an Americana

1:28

with four scoops of sugar. And then

1:31

at seven nine am, Lauren

1:34

received an order for a latte.

1:37

And though it was impossible to know it at the time, Lauren

1:40

Mills was brewing a beverage that would change the course

1:43

of presidential history. This

1:54

is The Daily Show presents Slow Bama,

1:57

a podcast about the latte salute, the

1:59

greatest American political scandal of

2:01

the century. Everyone's talking

2:03

about the disrespectful way the president

2:06

saluted a marine yesterday with his

2:08

latte in his hand, two marines after

2:10

Marine one landed in New York with a cup of coffee

2:12

in his hands. That's back fall off from

2:14

what many are calling President Obama's la

2:18

saluted by Obama may serve as a useful

2:20

metaphor for his entire administration, his

2:23

entire administration, his entire administration.

2:25

How did it feel to wake up every morning

2:28

knowing the President saluted a marine with

2:30

a latte? What was it like

2:32

to live through that horror? Has

2:35

America ever truly recovered? Episode

2:42

one? A Cup of Shame? September

2:47

fourteen, Barack Obama is halfway

2:49

through a second term as president. He flies to New

2:51

York for a meeting at the United Nations, and

2:53

the White House releases a video of Obama getting

2:55

off the helicopter. He smiles

2:57

at a small crowd, walks down the stairs. Marine

3:00

salute him. Obama salutes back, a

3:02

typical scene, except

3:05

something isn't right. The

3:11

White House post of this video on Instagram

3:13

on Tuesday shows President Obama

3:15

stepping up Marine one here in New York,

3:17

saluting marines with a coffee copple in

3:20

his hands. Some are now calling this

3:23

disrespectful. But how did the video

3:25

reach the Today Show? One reason

3:27

is Tom Stoneman. Tom is a

3:29

writer for shout Pundit, where he blogs about

3:31

politics and alpha mel testosterone pills.

3:34

Tom is your typical conservative blogger. He's

3:36

five ft seven, lives in a bomb shelter,

3:38

and has never eaten a vegetable. I

3:41

always kept an aisle on President

3:43

Barak said, damn, who's saying?

3:45

Oh, Bungler? The man was corrupt

3:48

and he was also This is based on my

3:50

own reporting. Born

3:52

a lady, Obama's

3:54

two terms in office had already been defined by

3:56

scandal. You probably remember the big ones

3:59

he used poopon instead of regular mustard.

4:01

I hope you enjoyed that fancy burger.

4:04

Mr President. He wore a tan suit to a

4:06

press briefing President Obama's decision

4:08

to wear a light tan suit at yesterday's

4:11

news conference. He droned a wedding a

4:13

US drone strike in Yemen that

4:15

missed its target. He even used a

4:17

selfie stick in the White House. Here's

4:20

the leader of the free world, the guy we trust with

4:22

a button for the nukes, acting

4:24

like a twelve year old. The scandals kept piling

4:26

up, and there were steady calls for impeachment from

4:28

Americans with a o L email addresses, which

4:31

is why Internet salutes like Stoneman were

4:33

on high alert for more missteps. He

4:35

saluted the marine with a coffee cup in his

4:38

hand. I couldn't believe it. He might

4:40

as well have pooped on the American flag and

4:42

wiped his butt with the Constitution. Stoneman

4:45

and many other conservatives on the Internet were

4:47

incensed. The video was soon posted

4:50

at all the major right wing blocks, Patriot

4:52

Shriek, Brainpower, American News, Red

4:55

Anger, Rising Storm Surge,

4:58

The Angry Church Wife, Angry Man's

5:00

Angry Blog, Angriness Today,

5:03

the Anger Report with Dr Mike Angry.

5:06

The right wing radio host Mark Levin included

5:08

a segment about the Latte salute during his afternoon

5:10

show. It's about damn time,

5:13

almost six years in office, that you

5:15

show our men and women in military some respect,

5:19

which you do not. And

5:22

when you get off that damn helicopter,

5:25

you salo and you salote

5:27

with respect. A nice crisp right

5:29

hand slot. Got it. Now

5:32

here's something you have to understand about America

5:34

in two thousand fourteen. This was a

5:36

different time, a different place, a

5:39

different country. There were only

5:41

six fast in the Furious Movies. Donald

5:44

Trump wasn't yet the commander in chief.

5:46

He was still a loudmouth businessman with a reality

5:48

show where he pretended to fire mc hammer.

5:51

So there was no telling whether this story would break

5:53

into the mainstream.

5:55

And then this

5:59

is a Fox News alert on Chris Walla.

6:01

Buckley Churnsworth is your typical Fox News

6:03

intern. His father is a GOP mega

6:06

doner, and his mother is not allowed to talk at

6:08

parties. In September, he

6:10

was a seventh year sophomore at Dartmouth. He

6:13

was taking off the false semester due to a

6:15

drunken, disorderly charge out of Panera bread and

6:17

found an internship at Fox News. He

6:20

remembers stumbling on Tom Stoneman's blog

6:22

post we caught up with Buckley

6:24

at his favorite New York City bar, Mick Chuggers.

6:28

Yeah. So, I was reading a ar

6:30

gone epic bro moves dot com

6:33

and an ad caught my eye. It was a link

6:35

to a shout punded story. I'll never

6:37

forget the headline, unbelievable

6:39

Brocko Boner does it again?

6:41

Given Muslim salute while carrying cup

6:44

of Indonesian coffee. I

6:46

immediately told my boss. Alright,

6:48

I told someone on It's pretty

6:50

coked up that day, and

6:53

suddenly the scandal was

6:55

on. Marine

7:02

manual states do not salute

7:04

quote when carrying articles

7:06

with both hands or being otherwise

7:08

so occupied as to make saluting

7:11

impractical, floppy, ill thought

7:13

out, inappropriate, callous,

7:15

selfish, and disrespectful. His heart,

7:18

wasn't it? After all? We gotta chi

7:20

swillen golf, playing basketball,

7:23

trash talking, leading

7:25

from behind. I got no strategy. Osama

7:28

binded Laden is dead, GM is

7:30

alive. A community organizing

7:32

commander in chief. How disrespectful was

7:35

that? There

7:39

are a lot of drinks you can order

7:41

at a coffee shop Latte

7:44

Espresso Americano

7:47

machiato. But

7:49

what Barack Obama received that

7:52

was a large steaming proplamo. After

7:56

the break, President Obama faces the biggest

7:58

White House scandal since William Howard

8:00

Taft got stuck in a bathtub. Hey,

8:12

everyone, if you're enjoying Slow Obama, consider

8:14

subscribing to slow Boma Plus for

8:16

just a month. You'll get exclusive

8:19

access to extra features like a bonus

8:21

four hour interview with the dry cleaner who pressed

8:23

Barack Obama's tan suit. We've also

8:25

got free podcasts where

8:28

we've removed all of thes oz and

8:30

us from all our episodes. And

8:32

for Slow Obama Plus subscribers, the answer

8:34

to this week's trivia question was once again,

8:37

Leon Panetta, And now back

8:39

to the podcast. Do

8:49

you remember where you were when you first

8:51

heard about the latte salute? For

8:54

many Americans, it's like the moon landing,

8:56

except the Lante salute actually happened

8:59

and people were angry. America

9:02

had already been burned by the series finale of

9:05

Lost, and now the Hope and Change

9:07

president was saluting marines with coffee.

9:10

We know that anger on the right was high,

9:12

but what about the left? I

9:15

was on that helicopter with the president. My

9:17

failure to stop him from saluting that marine with the latte

9:19

is my single greatest regret, not just

9:21

of the Obama presidency, but in my entire life.

9:24

Jon Favreau is in many ways your

9:27

typical former aid to Barack Obama. He

9:29

hosts a hit podcast, he sends a hundred

9:32

thirty tweets per day, and he is unable

9:34

to make eye contact for more than three seconds without looking

9:36

at his phone. And

9:38

even now, five years later, he

9:41

can't stop thinking about the latte salute.

9:43

Sometimes late at night, I hear

9:45

a voice whispering in the wind. Latte

9:48

Salude, La salude,

9:51

La salude. It's my

9:53

rosebut it's my white whale. It's

9:55

whatever Tim Burton sees in Johnny depp an

9:58

obsession looking bad.

10:00

It's hard to believe that Barack Obama would salute

10:02

a marine with a latte. But remember

10:05

this was two thousand fourteen. Alright,

10:07

time now for the ice bucket Challenge,

10:09

and a lot of things we enjoyed in two thousand fourteen seemed

10:12

ridiculous today, like The Walking

10:14

Dead or McLemore. But

10:17

another thing that's hard to believe is something John brought

10:19

up that no one on the helicopter

10:22

stopped the president, and

10:26

it made us wonder was it

10:28

really possible for John or

10:30

anyone else on the plane to stop

10:32

the latte salute. To

10:35

find out, we rented a helicopter

10:37

with the exact dimensions and configuration of Marine

10:39

one and ran a little experiment.

10:51

Okay, so I'm here with my producer and the

10:53

helicopter and what are we doing.

10:56

We're gonna find out if no one couldn't stopped

10:58

the latte. Okay. So I'm seated

11:00

where President Obama would have sat. I

11:02

am holding a latte that we got from

11:05

Cab Coffee right. Okay, the

11:07

helicopter door has opened. I am

11:09

walking down the stairs lifting

11:11

my hands. Mr Brady done

11:13

saluta marine with a latte? Okay,

11:19

so what do we think? I don't

11:21

think it was possible to stop it. Back

11:31

in the studio, we called Jon Favreau.

11:35

Hello, John, It's Matt from slo Obama.

11:37

We just got back from the airfield and we

11:39

determined pretty conclusively that

11:42

no one would have been able to stop the latte salute.

11:44

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.

11:47

You know President Trump by be Finnskin semiliterate

11:49

adulters in a serial tax cheat. But

11:51

at least he's never had a scandal as bad as holding a

11:54

couple saluting a marine. And to know

11:56

that I couldn't have prevented that salute, I

11:58

mean, thank you, you're

12:00

you're a real friend of the pot. Thanks

12:02

John sure Thing. And

12:04

hey, you didn't really rent a helicopter and recreate

12:07

this thing, did you? Um? What do you mean?

12:09

I mean, this is just a joke, right, I

12:11

wasn't actually in the plane with Obama.

12:14

I left the White Has a year before this whole thing happened.

12:16

Clearly the trauma from the latte salute

12:19

had left John Favrow confused. After

12:22

all, this was a confusing time in

12:24

American history. I remember,

12:26

for both the left and the right, it

12:29

was hard to put this in context. There's

12:31

plenty more ahead after this short break.

12:35

I'm still on the line.

12:40

Slow Obama is sponsored by we we

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where their underwear and then send them back when you feel

12:56

like you've gotten your bill. If

13:04

you're like me, you probably still have a ton

13:06

of questions about the latte salute. For

13:09

example, what drove President

13:11

Obama to salute with a latte? Did

13:13

President Obama ever salute a marine while holding

13:16

another food or beverage like a bottle of snapple

13:19

or a turkey leg? Has President

13:21

Obama ever been to the Renaissance Fair?

13:24

But mostly I think about

13:26

that marine.

13:30

Imagine you enlist for the U. S. Marine

13:33

Corps. You train, you do your

13:35

push ups, shave your head, you

13:38

run laps while shouting about how butch you are, and

13:40

then, during the defining moment of your

13:43

military career, greeting the presidential

13:45

helicopter, you get

13:47

saluted with a latte. We

13:50

tracked down the marine that President Obama saluted.

13:54

His name is Lieutenant Chris Wheel and he retired

13:56

from the Corps in two thousand and seventeen. He

13:59

agreed to sit down with and in an

14:01

emotional conversation, we

14:03

talked about how it felt to be on the receiving

14:05

end of the latte salute.

14:10

Lieutenant Wheel, I know this must

14:12

be very difficult for you, not

14:14

really, If you ever need to stop.

14:17

If the pain becomes too great, please

14:19

just tell me. I

14:22

really doubt it. So

14:25

how did it feel to get saluted with

14:28

a latte? I

14:30

told you on the phone it was fine,

14:33

wasn't that big a deal. But

14:37

in another sense, it wasn't fine,

14:39

and it was an enormous deal. And

14:42

it didn't seem like America knew how to cope with such

14:44

an offense. It wasn't like George

14:46

W. Bush had ever made a mistake with the U.

14:48

S. Military, But in fact,

14:51

the United States had faced a remarkably

14:53

similar situation a century before.

14:57

Here's presidential historian Douglas

14:59

Brinkley. Well,

15:01

you know a lot of people forget this, but

15:03

actually President Chester A. Arthur

15:06

got into some salute based trouble of

15:08

his own. I'm back in eighty

15:10

three. Arthur was on a whistle stop

15:12

tour. At one of those stops, President

15:14

Arthur saluted some major general

15:17

while he was holding a bottle of root beer,

15:19

which, a course back in those days, was made

15:21

of pure, uncut Mexican cocaine,

15:24

and the scandal became known in the newspapers

15:27

as Chester's cheese up. You

15:29

couldn't open a newspaper without reading about

15:31

Chester's cheese up. Well, the backlast

15:34

of the scandal was so ferocious

15:36

that Chester Arthur was forced to find a

15:38

fall guy, so he fired his

15:40

secretary of locomotive affairs

15:43

and then ended up selling him to the Prussian

15:45

Empire. And you're

15:47

a real historian, Yes, I

15:49

am incredible, a

15:51

real historian with a real story.

15:54

Well, no, no, no, this isn't real. I

15:56

thought we were doing a joke. Obviously, that's ever

15:58

happened. As

16:02

reporters were obliged to

16:04

consider every side of a story. If

16:06

there's a football game, you talked to the home team

16:09

and the visitors. If there's a vote

16:11

on a bill, you talk to Democrats and

16:13

Republicans. If a woman is accused

16:16

of being possessed by the devil, you talked

16:18

to her accuser and to Satan by

16:20

summoning the Prince of darkness and a blood sacrifice.

16:23

That's journalism. And so

16:25

we knew that before this was over, we

16:27

had to talk to the Latte Salute or in chief

16:29

himself, Barack Obama,

16:32

because, and this is weird,

16:35

Obama has never actually talked about the Latte

16:37

salute. Here's the president's press

16:39

secretary in two thousand fourteen, right as the latte

16:42

salute scandal was escalating the president's

16:44

latte salute or coffee salute

16:47

when he was getting off of Marine one, saluting

16:49

the marine with the cup

16:52

of coffee. Have you even asked to respond to this

16:54

or I haven't aware

16:57

of I don't know. If I haven't, I haven't

16:59

talked to him about it. After

17:04

five years, had no one really talked

17:06

to President Obama about it? So

17:09

I did what any podcast journalist would

17:11

do. I requested an interview with

17:14

Barack Obama, and

17:16

his spokesman granted the request on

17:19

the condition that I not asked about the latte

17:21

salute. I was told Obama would

17:23

talk about literally any subject, his

17:26

marriage, what it was like to be born in Kenya,

17:28

any subject at all, except

17:30

the latte salute. I

17:33

declined the interview frankly,

17:35

I told a spokesman, that's some weak

17:37

tea or should I say

17:40

a week lot tea. I

17:45

have been reporting this story for five years

17:47

straight. In that time, I

17:50

have lived and breathed the latte

17:52

salute. I see it when I closed my eyes,

17:54

I think about it when I drift off to sleep. I

17:57

tend to talk about it all the time, and that

17:59

tend to see has frayed, my relationship with the people

18:01

closest to me, with my friends, with

18:04

my wife, with my wife's divorce

18:06

lawyer, with my wife's new boyfriend, Dave.

18:09

But in the end, America

18:11

needs this story because

18:14

the latte salute is the story of America.

18:17

Think about it. A scandal that nearly

18:19

brought down a president started with a humble

18:22

cup of coffee. And so I knew

18:24

that I had to go back and talk to Lauren Mills,

18:27

the barista who made that faithful latte. I've

18:31

got a small latte for Matt.

18:34

Oh God, hello Lauren. Not

18:36

again, Lauren. I just have one

18:38

question. How does it feel to have

18:41

made the coffee that kicked off our nation's greatest

18:43

presidential scandal? Greatest

18:45

scandal? What about

18:47

Chester's cheese up? And didn't

18:49

Andrew Jackson like commit genocide?

18:52

The latte salute? Lauren, Latte

18:54

salute, latte salute.

18:56

I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. Are

18:58

you drooling right now? Yeah? The

19:05

word scandal is derived from the Greek

19:07

word scandalon, which

19:09

means stumbling block. But

19:13

what is a stumbling block? And

19:15

then there's this wrinkle, how

19:18

do we even know that the liquid in his

19:21

cup was a latte? What

19:23

if President Obama was drinking something

19:26

else entirely Did

19:29

we get the latte salute entirely

19:31

wrong? That's

19:34

next week on episode two of The Daily

19:36

Show presents Slow Obama. Archival

19:49

footage in today's episode was provided by shout

19:51

Hunted and The Angry Report Dr Mike Angry.

19:54

The show's music is composed by Dave, my wife's boyfriend.

19:57

Thanks Dave. This

20:18

has been a Comedy Central podcast.