0:01

You're listening to Comedy Central. Most

0:07

people remember where they were when

0:09

President Obama saluted a marine while

0:12

holding a latte. It's

0:14

considered by many of America's step uncles

0:16

to be the biggest scandal in presidential

0:19

history. The Daily Show podcast Universe

0:21

is proud to introduce the most definitive,

0:24

most caffeinated history of Obama's latte

0:26

salute from the people who lived

0:29

through it. This is Slow

0:31

Obama.

0:38

Lauren Mills is a barista at the Pizza

0:40

Coffee on Eighth and K in Washington,

0:42

d C. In many ways,

0:44

she's a typical barista. She

0:46

wears a lot of camouflage vests. She

0:48

knows a weird amount about Bolivian politics.

0:51

She styles her hair and dreadlocks. Despite

0:54

being white, spiritually,

0:56

I just feel Jamaican, you know. On

1:01

fourteen, Lauren got to work and

1:03

she did what she does every day. She

1:06

made coffee,

1:08

a large drip with cream, an Americano

1:11

with four scoops of sugar. And

1:13

then at seven am,

1:16

Lauren received an order for

1:18

a latte. And though

1:20

it was impossible to know it at the time, Lauren

1:23

Mills was brewing a beverage that would change the course

1:25

of presidential history. This

1:37

is The Daily Show presents Slow Obama,

1:39

a podcast about the latte salute, the

1:41

greatest American political scandal of

1:43

the century. Everyone's talking

1:46

about the disrespectful way the president

1:48

saluted a marine yesterday with his

1:50

latte in his hand, two marines after

1:52

Marine one landed in New York with a cup of coffee

1:55

in his hands. That's back all off from

1:57

what many are calling President Obama's latta

2:01

salute. By Obama may serve as a useful

2:03

metaphor for his entire administration. His

2:05

entire administration is entire administration.

2:08

How did it feel to wake up every morning

2:10

knowing the President saluted a marine with

2:12

a latte? What was it like

2:15

to live through that horror? Has

2:17

America ever truly recovered? Episode

2:25

one? A Cup of Shame? September

2:30

Barack Obama is halfway through his second term as

2:32

president. He flies to New York for a meeting at

2:34

the United Nations, and the White House releases

2:37

a video of Obama getting off the helicopter.

2:39

He smiles at a small crowd, walks down the stairs.

2:42

Marine salute him. Obama salutes back,

2:45

a typical scene, except

2:48

something isn't right. The

2:53

White House both of this video on Instagram

2:55

on Tuesday shows President Obama

2:58

stepping off Marine one here in New York's

3:00

saluting marines with a coffee cup in

3:03

his hands. Some are now calling this

3:05

disrespectful. But how did the video

3:07

reach the Today Show? One reason

3:10

is Tom Stoneman. Tom is a

3:12

writer for shout Pundit, where he blogs about

3:14

politics and alpha mel testosterone pills.

3:16

Tom is your typical conservative blogger. He's

3:19

five ft seven, lives in a bomb shelter,

3:21

and has never eaten a vegetable. I

3:23

always kept an aisle. President

3:26

Barak said, damn, who's saying?

3:28

Oh, Bungler? The man was corrupt

3:30

and he was also This is based on my

3:32

own reporting. Born

3:35

a lady, Obama's

3:37

two terms in office had already been defined by

3:39

scandal. You probably remember the big ones.

3:41

He used grape poupon instead of regular mustard.

3:44

I hope you enjoyed that fancy burger.

3:46

Mr. President. He wore a tan suit to a

3:48

press briefing. President Obama's decision

3:51

to wear a light tan suit it Yesterday's

3:53

news conference. He droned a wedding a

3:55

US drone strike in Yemen that

3:58

missed its target. He even used

4:00

a selfie stick in the White House.

4:02

Here's the leader of the free world, the guy we trust

4:04

with a button for the nukes, acting

4:06

like a twelve year old. The scandals kept piling

4:09

up, and there were steady calls for impeachment from

4:11

Americans with a o L email addresses, which

4:13

is why Internet salutes like Stoneman were

4:15

on high alert for more missteps. He

4:18

saluted that marine with a coffee cup in his

4:20

hand. I couldn't believe it. He might

4:22

as well have pooped on the American flag and

4:24

wiped his butt with the Constitution. Stoneman

4:28

and many other conservatives on the Internet were

4:30

incensed. The video was soon posted

4:32

at all the major right wing blogs, Patriot

4:35

Shriek, Brainpower, American News, Red

4:38

Anger, Rising, Storm Surge,

4:40

The Angry Church Wife, Angry Man's

4:43

Angry Blog, Angriness Today,

4:45

the Anger Report with Doctor Mike Angry.

4:48

The right wing radio host Mark Levin included

4:50

a segment about the Latte salute during his afternoon

4:53

show. It's about damn

4:55

time, almost six years in office,

4:57

that you show our men and women in military

5:00

respect, which

5:02

you do not. And

5:04

when you get off that damn helicopter,

5:07

you salot, and you salote

5:10

with respect. A nice crasp right

5:12

hand slot. Got it. Now

5:14

here's something you have to understand about America

5:17

in two thousand fourteen. This was a

5:19

different time, a different place, a

5:22

different country. There were only

5:24

six fast in the Furious Movies. Donald

5:26

Trump wasn't yet the commander in chief.

5:28

He was still a loudmouth businessman with a reality

5:31

show where he pretended to fire EMC. Hammer. So

5:34

there was no telling whether this story would break into

5:36

the mainstream. And then

5:41

this is a Fox News alert on Chris Walla.

5:44

Buckley Churnsworth is your typical Fox News

5:46

intern. His father is a GOP mega

5:48

doner, and his mother is not allowed to talk

5:50

at parties. In September, he

5:53

was a seventh year sophomore at Dartmouth. He

5:55

was taking off the false semester due to a

5:57

drunken disorderly charge out of Panera bread and

6:00

found an internship at Fox News. He

6:02

remembers stumbling on Tom Stoneman's blog

6:04

post we caught up with Buckley

6:06

at his favorite New York City bar, Mick Chuggers.

6:11

Yeah. So I was reading an article

6:13

on epic bro moves dot com

6:15

and an ad caught my eye. It was a link

6:17

to a shout punded story. I'll never

6:19

forget the headline, unbelievable,

6:22

Brocko Boner does it again?

6:24

Given Muslim salute while carrying a cup

6:26

of Indonesian coffee. I

6:28

immediately told my boss alright,

6:31

I told someone on It's pretty

6:33

coked up that day, And

6:35

suddenly the scandal was

6:37

on. Marine

6:45

manual states do not salute

6:47

quote when carrying articles

6:49

with both hands, or being otherwise

6:51

so occupied as to make saluting

6:54

impractical. Floppy, ill thought

6:56

out, inappropriate, callous,

6:58

selfish, and disrespectful. His heart

7:00

wasn't it? After all? We gotta chi

7:02

swilling, golf plan, basketball,

7:05

trash talking, leading

7:07

from behind, I got no strategy. Osama

7:11

bin died lotting his dead GM is alive,

7:13

a community organizing commander in chief.

7:16

How disrespectful was that? There

7:21

are a lot of drinks you can order

7:23

at a coffee shop Latte,

7:26

espresso, Americano,

7:29

makiato. But

7:32

what Barack Obama received that

7:35

was a large steaming problamo. After

7:38

the break, President Obama faces the biggest

7:41

White House scandal since William Howard Taft

7:43

got stuck in a bathtub. Hey

7:54

everyone, if you're enjoying slow Obama, consider

7:57

subscribing to Slow Bama plus for

7:59

just nine d nine a month, you'll get exclusive

8:01

access to extra features, like a bonus

8:04

for our interview with the dry cleaner who press Barack

8:06

Obama's tan suit. We've also got

8:09

free podcasts where we've removed all

8:11

of the hoos, oz and us from all

8:13

our episodes, and for Slow Obama

8:15

Plus subscribers, the answer to this week's

8:17

trivia question was once again, Leon Panetta,

8:20

And now back to the podcast. Do

8:32

you remember where you were when you first

8:34

heard about the latte salute? For

8:36

many Americans, it's like the moon landing,

8:39

except the latte salute actually happened,

8:42

and people were angry. America

8:45

had already been burned by the series finale of

8:47

Lost, and now the Hope and Change

8:49

president was saluting marines with coffee.

8:52

We know that anger on the right was high, but

8:55

what about the left. I

8:57

was on that helicopter with the president. My

8:59

failure to stop him from saluting that marine with a latte

9:02

is my single greatest regret, not just

9:04

of the Obama presidency, but in my entire life.

9:07

Jon Favreau is in many ways your

9:09

typical former aid to Barack Obama. He

9:12

hosts a hit podcast, He sends a hundred

9:14

thirty tweets per day, and he is unable

9:16

to make eye contact for more than three seconds without looking

9:18

at his phone. And

9:20

even now, five years later, he

9:23

can't stop thinking about the latte salute.

9:26

Sometimes late at night, I hear

9:28

a voice whispering in the wind. Latte

9:31

Salude, lad Salude,

9:33

La salude. It's my

9:35

rosebut it's my white whale. It's

9:38

whatever. Tim Burton season, Johnny Depp an

9:40

obsession. Looking back,

9:42

it's hard to believe that Barack Obama would salute

9:45

a marine with a latte. But remember

9:47

this was two thousand fourteen. Alright,

9:50

time now for the ice Bucket Challenge,

9:52

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

9:54

ridiculous today, like The Walking

9:56

Dead or McLemore. But

10:00

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

10:02

up that no one on the helicopter

10:05

stopped the president, and

10:08

it made us wonder was it

10:10

really possible for John or

10:13

anyone else on the plane to stop

10:15

the latte salute. To

10:17

find out, we rented a helicopter

10:19

with the exact dimensions and configuration of Marine

10:21

one and ran a little experiment.

10:33

Okay, so I'm

10:35

here with my producer and the helicopter and

10:37

what are we doing. We're gonna find out if

10:39

one could have stopped the latte stilly. Okay,

10:42

So I'm seated where President Obama

10:44

would have sat. I am holding a latte

10:46

that we got from Cab

10:48

Coffee, right. Okay, the helicopter door has

10:50

opened. I am walking down the stairs

10:53

lifting my hand. Is it bad yet?

10:56

Done? The line with the latte?

11:01

Okay? So what do we think? I

11:03

don't think it was possible to stop it. Back

11:13

in the studio, we called Jon Favre.

11:17

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

11:20

We just got back from the airfield, and we

11:22

determined pretty conclusively that

11:24

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

11:27

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.

11:29

You know, President Trump by be finnskin semiliterate

11:32

adulteress and a serial tax sheet. But

11:34

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

11:36

a couple saluting a marine. And to know

11:38

that I couldn't have prevented that salute, I

11:40

mean, thank you. You're

11:42

you're a real friend of the pod. Thanks

11:45

John, sure thing, and

11:47

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

11:49

this thing? Did you m? What do you mean?

11:51

I mean? This is just a joke, right, I

11:54

wasn't actually in the plane with Obama.

11:56

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

11:59

Clearly the tru from the latte salute

12:01

had left John Favre confused. After

12:04

all, this was a confusing time in

12:06

American history. Remember,

12:09

for both the left and the right, it

12:11

was hard to put this in context. There's

12:14

plenty more ahead after this short break.

12:17

I'm still on the line.

12:22

Slow Obama is sponsored by WES.

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with a photo and brief biography of the owner. Simply

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where their underwear and then send them back when you feel

12:38

like you've gotten your fill. If

12:46

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

12:48

of questions about the latte salute? For

12:51

example, what drove President

12:53

Obama to salute with a latte? Did

12:56

President Obama ever salute a marine while holding

12:58

another food or beverage like a bottle of snapple

13:01

or a turkey? Leg? Has President

13:03

Obama ever been to the Renaissance fair,

13:06

but mostly I think about

13:08

that marine.

13:13

Imagine you enlist for the U. S.

13:15

Marine Corps. You train, you

13:17

do your push ups, shave your head,

13:20

you run laps while shouting about how butch you are,

13:23

and then, during the defining moment of

13:25

your military career, greeting the

13:27

presidential helicopter, you

13:29

get saluted with a latte. We

13:33

tracked down the marine that President Obama saluted.

13:36

His name is Lieutenant Chris Wheel and he retired

13:38

from the Corps in two thousand seventeen. He

13:41

agreed to sit down with me and in an

13:43

emotional conversation, we

13:45

talked about how it felt to be on the receiving

13:47

end of the latte salute. Lieutenant

13:53

Wheel, I know this must be very difficult

13:55

for you, not really.

13:58

If you ever need to stop, if the pain

14:00

becomes too great, please just tell me. I

14:04

really doubt it. So

14:08

how did it feel to get saluted with

14:10

a latte? I

14:13

told you on the phone it was fine,

14:15

wasn't that big a deal. But

14:19

in another sense, it wasn't fine,

14:22

and it was an enormous deal, and

14:24

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

14:26

an offense. It wasn't like George

14:28

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

14:31

S. Military, But in fact,

14:33

the United States had faced a remarkably

14:36

similar situation a century before.

14:39

Here's presidential historian Douglas

14:41

Brinkley. Well,

14:43

you know, a lot of people forget this, but

14:46

actually President Chester A. Arthur

14:48

got into some salute based trouble of

14:50

his own. I'm back in three

14:53

Arthur was on a whistle stop tour. At

14:55

one of those stops, President Arthur saluted

14:58

some major general while he was holding

15:00

a bottle of root beer, which, a course,

15:02

back in those days, was made of pure uncut

15:05

Mexican cocaine. And the scandal

15:08

became known in the newspapers his Chester's

15:10

Cheese Up. You couldn't open a newspaper

15:13

without reading about Chester's Cheese Up.

15:15

Well, the backlast of this scandal was

15:17

so ferocious that Chester Arthur

15:20

was forced to find a fall guy, so

15:22

he fired his secretary of locomotive

15:24

affairs and then ended up selling him

15:26

to the Prussian Empire. Wow,

15:29

and you're a real historian. Yes,

15:31

I am incredible, a

15:33

real historian with a real story.

15:36

Well, no, no, no, this is a real I

15:38

thought we were doing a joke. Obviously, that's never

15:41

happened. As

15:44

reporters were obliged to

15:46

consider every side of a story. If

15:49

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

15:51

and the visitors. If there's a vote

15:53

on a bill, you talk to Democrats and

15:56

Republicans. If a woman is accused

15:58

of being possessed by the devil, he talked to

16:00

her accuser and to Satan by

16:02

summoning the prince of darkness and a blood sacrifice.

16:05

That's journalism. And so

16:07

we knew that before this was over, we

16:09

had to talk to the latte salute or in chief

16:11

himself, Barack Obama,

16:15

because and this is weird,

16:17

Obama has never actually talked about the latte

16:20

salute. Here's the president's press

16:22

secretary in two thousand fourteen, right as the latte

16:24

salute scandal was escalating, the president's

16:27

latte salute or coffee salute

16:29

when he was getting off of Marine one,

16:31

saluting the marine with the

16:35

cup of coffee. Have you even asked to respond

16:37

to this or I haven't present

16:39

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

16:41

I haven't talked to him about it. After

16:46

five years, had no one really talked

16:49

to President Obama about it. So

16:52

I did what any podcast journalist would do.

16:54

I requested an interview with Barack

16:57

Obama, and

16:59

his spokesman granted the request

17:01

on the condition that I not ask about the

17:03

latte salute. I was told Obama

17:06

would talk about literally any subject,

17:08

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

17:11

any subject at all, except

17:13

the latte salute. I

17:15

declined the interview frankly,

17:18

I told a spokesman, that's some weak

17:20

tea, or should I say

17:23

a week lot tea.

17:27

I have been reporting this story for five

17:29

years straight. In that

17:31

time, I have lived and breathed

17:34

the latte salute. I see it when

17:36

I closed my eyes, I think about it

17:38

when I drift off to sleep. I tend

17:40

to talk about it all the time, and that tendency

17:42

has frayed my relationship with the people closest

17:44

to me, with my friends, with my

17:46

wife, with my wife's divorce lawyer,

17:49

with my wife's new boyfriend, Dave. But

17:52

in the end, America needs

17:54

this story because

17:56

the latte salute is the story of America.

18:00

Think about it. A scandal that nearly

18:02

brought down a president started with a humble

18:04

cup of coffee and so I knew

18:07

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

18:09

the barista who made that faithful latte.

18:13

I've got a small latte for Matt.

18:16

Oh God, hello Lauren. Not

18:19

again, Lauren. I just have one

18:21

question. How does it feel to have

18:23

made the coffee that kicked off our nation's greatest

18:25

presidential scandal? Greatest

18:28

scandal? What about

18:30

Chester's cheese up? And didn't

18:32

Andrew Jackson like commit genocide?

18:34

The latte salute, Lauren, latte

18:36

salute, latte salute.

18:38

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

18:41

you drooling right now? The

18:47

word scandal is derived from the Greek

18:49

word scandal on, which

18:51

means stumbling block. But

18:55

what is a stumbling block? And

18:58

then there's this wrinkle, m how

19:01

do we even know that the liquid in his

19:03

cup was a latte? What

19:06

if President Obama was drinking something

19:09

else entirely? Did

19:11

we get the latte salute entirely

19:14

wrong? That's

19:16

next week on episode two of The Daily

19:18

Show Presents Slow Obama.

19:31

Archival footage in today's episode was provided by

19:33

Shout Hunted and The Angry Report Dr Mike

19:36

Angry. The show's music is composed by Dave

19:38

my wife's boyfriend. Thanks Dave M.

20:00

This has been a Comedy Central podcast.