(urgent, steady music)
- [Trevor] Most people remember where they were
when President Obama saluted a Marine while holding a latte.
It's considered by many of America's step-uncles
to be the biggest scandal in presidential history.
"The Daily Show Podcast Universe"
is proud to introduce the most definitive,
most caffeinated history of Obama's Latte Salute,
from the people who lived through it.
This is "Slowbama."
- [Matt] Lauren Mills is a barista
at the Peet's Coffee on Eighth and K in Washington, D.C.
In many ways, she's a typical barista.
She wears a lot of camouflage vests.
She knows a weird amount about Bolivian politics.
She styles her hair in dreadlocks,
despite being white.
- [Lauren] Spiritually, I just feel Jamaican, you know?
- [Matt] On September 23rd, 2014, Lauren got to work,
and she did what she does every day.
She made coffee.
- [Lauren] Medium cold brew for Ray?
- [Matt] A large drip with cream,
an Americano with four scoops of sugar, and then,
at 7:19 a.m., Lauren received an order for a latte.
And though it was impossible to know it at the time,
Lauren Mills was brewing a beverage
that would change the course of presidential history.
(serious keyboard music)
This is "The Daily Show Presents Slowbama,"
a podcast about the Latte Salute,
the greatest American political scandal of the 21st century.
- [Sean Hannity] Everyone's talking about
the disrespectful way the president saluted
a Marine yesterday with his latte in his hand.
- [Female Commentator] Saluting two Marines after Marine One
landed in New York with a cup of coffee in his hands.
That's bad!
- [Megyn Kelly] The fallout from what many are calling
President Obama's Latte Salute.
- [Female Commentator] The Latte Salute.
- [Female Commentator] This salute by Obama may serve
as a useful metaphor for his entire administration,
(echoes) his entire administration,
his entire administration.
- [Matt] How does it feel to wake up every morning
knowing the president saluted a Marine with a latte?
What was it like to live through that horror?
Has America ever truly recovered?
(thoughtful music with acoustic guitar and hand claps)
Episode One, "A Cup of Shame."
September 23rd, 2014.
Barack Obama is halfway through
his second term as president.
He flies to New York for a meeting
at the United Nations, and the White House releases
(helicopter rotors whir) a video of Obama
getting off the helicopter.
He smiles at a small crowd, walks down the stairs,
Marines salute him, Obama salutes back.
A typical scene.
Except something isn't right.
(urgent, ominous dance music)
- [Matt Lauer] The White House posted this video
on Instagram on Tuesday.
It shows President Obama--
- Hey! - Stepping off Marine One
here in New York, saluting Marines
with a coffee cup in his hand.
Some are now calling this disrespectful.
- [Matt] But how did the video reach the "Today" show?
One reason is Tom Stoneman.
Tom is a writer for Shout Pundit, where he blogs
about politics and alpha male testosterone pills.
Tom is your typical conservative blogger.
He's five-foot-seven, lives in a bomb shelter,
and has never eaten a vegetable.
- [Tom] I always kept an eye on
President Barack Saddam Hussein O-Bungler.
The man was corrupt, and he was also,
this is based on my own reporting, born a lady.
- [Matt] Obama's two terms in office
have already been defined by scandal.
You probably remember the big ones.
He used Grey Poupon instead of regular mustard.
- [Sean Hannity] I hope you enjoyed
that fancy burger, Mr. President.
- [Matt] He wore a tan suit to a press briefing.
- [Female Reporter] President Obama's decision to wear
a light tan suit at yesterday's news conference--
- [Matt] He droned a wedding.
- [Brian Williams] A U.S. drone strike in Yemen
that missed its target--
- [Matt] He even used a selfie stick in the White House.
- [Gerri Willis] Here's the leader of the free world,
the guy we trust with the button for the nukes,
acting like a 12-year-old.
- [Matt] The scandals kept piling up,
and there were steady calls for impeachment
from Americans with AOL email addresses,
which is why Internet sleuths like Stoneman
were on high alert for more missteps.
- [Tom] He saluted a Marine with a coffee cup in his hand!
I couldn't believe it!
He might as well have pooped on the American flag
and wiped his butt with the Constitution!
- [Matt] Stoneman and many other conservatives
on the Internet were incensed.
The video was soon posted at all the major right-wing blogs.
Patriot Shriek, Brainpower America News, Red Anger Rising,
Storm Surge, The Angry Churchwife, Angry Man's Angry Blog,
Angriness Today, The Anger Report with Dr. Mike Angry.
The right-wing radio host Mark Le Vin
included a segment about the Latte Salute
during his afternoon show.
- [Mark] It's about damn time,
almost six years in office, that you show
our men and women in the military some respect!
Which you do not!
And when you get off that damn helicopter, you salute!
And you salute with respect, a nice, crisp
right-hand salute, got it?
- [Matt] Now here's something you have
to understand about America in 2014.
This was a different time, a different place,
a different country.
There were only six "Fast and the Furious" movies.
Donald Trump wasn't yet the commander in chief.
He was still a loudmouth businessman with a reality show
where he pretended to fire MC Hammer.
So there was no telling whether this story
would break into the mainstream.
And then...
(urgent news bell fanfare with air whooshes)
- [Chris Wallace] This is a Fox News alert.
I'm Chris Wallace.
- [Matt] Buckley Churnsworth
is your typical Fox News intern.
His father is a GOP mega-donor, and his mother
is not allowed to talk at parties.
In September 2014, he was a seventh-year
sophomore at Dartmouth.
He was taking off the fall semester due to
a drunk-and-disorderly charge at a Panera Bread,
and found an internship at Fox News.
He remembers stumbling on Tom Stoneman's blog post.
We caught up with Buckley at his favorite
New York City bar, McChugger's.
- [Buckley] Yeah, so, I was reading an article
on EpicBroMoves.com, and an ad caught my eye.
It was a link to a Shout Pundit story.
I'll never forget the headline.
"Unbelievable!
"Barack O-Boner does it again, giving Muslim salute
"while carrying a cup of Indonesian coffee."
I immediately told my boss.
Or, I told someone.
I don't know, I was pretty coked up that day.
- [Matt] And suddenly, the scandal was on.
(intense synthesizer music)
- [Male Commentator] A Marine manual states,
do not salute, quote, "when carrying articles
"with both hands or being otherwise so occupied
"as to make saluting impractical."
- [Female Commentator] Sloppy, ill thought out,
inappropriate, callous, selfish, and disrespectful.
- [Male Commentator] His heart wasn't in it.
- [Karl Rove] After all, we got a chai-swilling,
golf-playing, basketball-trash-talking,
leading-from-behind, "I got no strategy,"
"Osama bin Laden is dead, GM is alive"
community organizer commander in chief.
How disrespectful was that?
(intense synthesizer music)
- [Matt] There a lot of drinks
you can order at a coffee shop.
Latte, espresso, Americano, macchiato.
But what Barack Obama received?
That was a large, steaming problemo.
After the break, President Obama
faces the biggest White House scandal
since William Howard Taft got stuck in a bathtub.
(ominous percussive music)
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(ominous synthesizer music)
Do you remember where you were when you
first heard about the Latte Salute?
For many Americans, it's like the moon landing,
except the Latte Salute actually happened.
And people were angry.
America had already been burned
by the series finale of "Lost,"
and now, the hope-and-change president
was saluting Marines with coffee?
We know that anger on the right was high,
but what about the left?
- [Jon] I was on that helicopter with the president.
My failure to stop him from saluting that Marine
with the latte is my single greatest regret.
Not just of the Obama presidency, but of my entire life.
- [Matt] Jon Favreau is, in many ways,
your typical former aide to Barack Obama.
He hosts a hit podcast, he sends 130 tweets per day,
and he is unable to make eye contact for more
than three seconds without looking at his phone.
And even now, five years later,
he can't stop thinking about the Latte Salute.
- [Jon] Sometimes, late at night,
I hear a voice whispering in the wind.
"Latte Salute, Latte Salute, Latte Salute."
It's my Rosebud.
It's my white whale.
It's whatever Tim Burton sees in Johnny Depp.
An obsession.
- [Matt] Looking back, it's hard to believe
that Barack Obama would salute a Marine with a latte.
But remember, this was 2014.
- [Larry King] All right, time now
for the Ice Bucket Challenge.
- [Matt] And a lot of things
we enjoyed in 2014 seem ridiculous today,
like "The Walking Dead," or Macklemore.
But another thing that's hard to believe
is something Jon brought up, that no one
on the helicopter stopped the president.
And it made us wonder.
Was it really possible for Jon,
or anyone else on the plane,
to stop the Latte Salute?
To find out, we rented a helicopter
with the exact dimensions and configuration
of Marine One and ran a little experiment.
(urgent, building synthesizer music)
(helicopter rotors whir)
Okay, so, I'm here with my producer
in the helicopter, and, what are we doing?
- [Producer] We're gonna find out
if someone could've stopped the Latte Salute.
- [Matt] Okay, so I'm seated where
President Obama would have sat.
I am holding a latte that we got from--
- [Producer] Caribou Coffee.
- [Matt] Caribou Coffee, right, okay.
The helicopter door has opened.
I am walking down the stairs, lifting my hand--
- [Producer] Mr. President!
Don't salute a Marine with a latte!
- [Matt] Okay, so, what do we think?
- [Producer] I don't think it was possible to stop it.
(thoughtful synthesizer music)
- [Matt] Back in the studio, we called Jon Favreau.
(phone rings)
- [Jon] Hello?
- [Matt] Jon, it's Matt from "Slowbama."
We just got back from the airfield.
- [Jon] And?
- [Matt] We determined pretty conclusively
that no one would've been able
to stop the Latte Salute.
- [Jon] Thank you.
Thank, thank you so much.
You know, President Trump might be thin-skinned,
semi-literate, adulterous, and a serial tax cheat,
but at least he's never had a scandal
as bad as holding a cup while saluting a Marine.
And to know that I couldn't have prevented
that salute, I mean, thank you.
You're, you're a real Friend of the Pod.
- [Matt] Thanks, Jon.
- [Jon] Sure thing.
And hey, you didn't really rent a helicopter
and re-create this thing, did you?
- [Matt] What do you mean?
- [Jon] I mean, this was just a joke, right?
I wasn't actually in the plane with Obama.
I left the White House a year before this whole
thing happened. - Clearly, the trauma
from the Latte Salute had left Jon Favreau confused.
After all, this was a confusing time in American history.
- [Jon] Hey, I'm on the phone still.
- [Matt] Remember, for both the left and the right--
- [Jon] Should I hang up
and leave? - It was hard
to put this in context.
There's plenty more ahead after this short break.
- [Jon] I'm still on the line.
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when you feel like you've gotten your fill.
(lively electronic music)
If you're like me, you probably still have
a ton of questions about the Latte Salute.
For example, what drove President Obama
to salute with a latte?
Did President Obama ever salute a Marine
while holding another food or beverage,
like a bottle of Snapple, or a turkey leg?
Has President Obama ever been to the Renaissance fair?
But mostly, I think about that Marine.
(Marines march to indistinct call-and-response chant)
Imagine you enlist for the U.S. Marine Corps.
You train, you do your push-ups, shave your head.
You run laps while shouting about how butch you are.
And then, during the defining moment
of your military career, greeting
(stately military music) the presidential helicopter,
you get saluted with a latte.
We tracked down the Marine that President Obama saluted.
His name is Lieutenant Chris Wheel,
and he retired from the Corps in 2017.
He agreed to sit down with me, and,
in an emotional conversation, we talked about
how it felt to be on the receiving end of the Latte Salute.
Lieutenant Wheel, I know this must
be very difficult for you.
- [Chris] Not really.
- [Matt] If you ever need to stop,
if the pain becomes too great, please just tell me.
- [Chris] (laughs) I really doubt it.
- [Matt] So, how did it feel to get saluted with a latte?
- [Chris] I told you on the phone, it was fine.
Wasn't that big a deal.
- [Matt] But in another sense, it wasn't fine,
and it was an enormous deal.
And it didn't seem like America
knew how to cope with such an offense.
It wasn't like George W. Bush had ever
made a mistake with the U.S. military.
But, in fact, the United States had faced
a remarkably similar situation a century before.
Here's presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.
- [Douglas] Well, you know, a lot of people forget this,
but, actually, President Chester A. Arthur
got into some salute-based trouble of his own.
Back in 1883, Arthur was on a whistle-stop tour.
At one of those stops, President Arthur saluted
some major general while he was holding
a bottle of root beer, which, of course,
back in those days was made of pure,
uncut Mexican cocaine, and the scandal
became known in the newspapers as Chester's Cheese-Up.
You couldn't open a newspaper without
reading about Chester's Cheese-Up.
Well, the backlash to this scandal was so ferocious
that Chester Arthur was forced to find a fall guy,
so he fired his secretary of locomotive affairs,
and then ended up selling him to the Prussian Empire.
- [Matt] Wow, and you're a real historian?
- [Douglas] Yes, I am.
- [Matt] Incredible, a real historian with a real story.
- [Douglas] Well, no, no, no, this isn't real.
I thought we were doing a joke.
Obviously, this never happened.
(phone receiver slams down)
(upbeat electronic music)
- [Matt] As reporters, we're obliged
to consider every side of the story.
If there's a football game, you talk
to the home team and the visitors.
If there's a vote on a bill, you talk
to Democrats and Republicans.
If a woman is accused of being possessed by the Devil,
you talk to her accuser and to Satan,
by summoning the Prince of Darkness in a blood sacrifice.
That's journalism.
And so, we knew that before this was over,
we had to talk to the Latte Saluter
in chief himself, Barack Obama.
Because, and this is weird, Obama has never
actually talked about the Latte Salute.
Here's the president's press secretary in 2014,
right as the Latte Salute scandal was escalating.
- [Andrea Mitchell] The president's Latte Salute
or coffee salute when he was getting off of Marine One,
saluting the Marine with the cup of coffee,
have you been asked to respond to this, or--
- [Josh Earnest] I haven't, but look--
- [Andrea Mitchell] Is the president aware
of the controversy? - I don't know, because
I haven't talked to him about it.
(upbeat pop music)
- [Matt] After five years, had no one
really talked to President Obama about it?
So I did what any podcast journalist would do.
I requested an interview with Barack Obama.
And his spokesman granted the request,
on the condition that I not ask about the Latte Salute.
I was told Obama would talk about literally any subject,
his marriage, what it was like to be born in Kenya,
any subject at all, except the Latte Salute.
I declined the interview.
"Frankly," I told his spokesman,
"that's some weak tea, or should I say, a weak lat-tea."
(clock ticking) I have been reporting
this story for five years straight.
In that time, I have lived and breathed the Latte Salute.
I see it when I close my eyes.
I think about it when I drift off to sleep.
I tend to talk about it all the time,
and that tendency has frayed my relationship
with the people closest to me, with my friends,
with my wife, with my wife's divorce lawyer,
with my wife's new boyfriend, Dave.
But in the end, America needs this story.
(patriotic synth fanfare) Because the Latte Salute
is the story of America.
Think about it.
A scandal that nearly brought down a president
started with a humble cup of coffee.
And so, I knew that I had to go back and talk
to Lauren Mills, the barista who made that fateful latte.
- [Lauren] I've got a small latte for Matt?
Oh, God.
- [Matt] Hello, Lauren.
- [Lauren] Not again.
- [Matt] Lauren, I just have one question.
How does it feel to have made the coffee that kicked off
our nation's greatest presidential scandal?
- [Lauren] Greatest scandal?
What about Chester's Cheese-Up?
And didn't Andrew Jackson, like, commit genocide?
- [Matt] The Latte Salute, Lauren!
Latte Salute!
(Lauren sighs) Latte Salute!
- [Lauren] I'm gonna have to ask you to leave.
Are you drooling right now?
(classical music - Shostakovich's "Waltz No. 2")
- [Matt] The word scandal is derived from the Greek word
skandalon, which means stumbling block.
But what is a stumbling block?
And then, there's this wrinkle.
How do we even know that the liquid in his cup was a latte?
What if President Obama was drinking
something else entirely?
Did we get the Latte Salute entirely wrong?
That's next week, on Episode Two
of "The Daily Show Presents Slowbama."
(steady, thoughtful music)
Archival footage in today's episode
was provided by Shout Pundit
and The Angry Report with Dr. Mike Angry.
The show's music is composed by Dave, my wife's boyfriend.
Thanks, Dave.
(steady, thoughtful music with hand claps)
("Daily Show" theme music - "Dog on Fire")