The White House Tried Very Hard to Get on Jon Stewart's Good Side
Over the last few years, the White House has taken Jon Stewart very seriously, Politico reports, quietly summoning the comedian to the Oval Office on at least two occasions and routinely backchanneling with Daily Show writers and producers.
Citing Stewart’s viral influence—and popularity with the male 18-34 demographic—Obama’s administration tried to use Stewart and his show to help sell the White House agenda in the 2011 budget fight and the 2014 Russia-Ukraine conflicts. Via Politico:
Jon Stewart slipped unnoticed into the White House in the midst of the October 2011 budget fight, summoned to an Oval Office coffee with President Barack Obama that he jokingly told his escort felt like being called into the principal’s office.
In February 2014, Obama again requested Stewart make the trip from Manhattan to the White House, this time for a mid-morning visit hours before the president would go before television cameras to warn Russia that “there will be costs” if it made any further military intervention in Ukraine.
To engage privately with the president in his inner sanctum at two sensitive moments — previously unreported meetings that are listed in the White House visitor logs and confirmed to POLITICO by three former Obama aides — speaks volumes about Stewart and his reach, which goes well beyond the million or so viewers who tune into The Daily Show on most weeknights.
The report doesn’t suggest Stewart covered topics because he was asked to, though the White House was reportedly pleased by a mocking segment on Putin in his “first show after his February 2014 visit to the White House.”
And of course the White House paid attention when Stewart criticized them, David Axelrod tells Politico.
“I can’t say that because Jon Stewart was unhappy policy changed. But I can say that he had forceful arguments, they were arguments that we knew would be heard and deserved to be answered,” Axelrod said.
Which is not to say they didn’t know when the segments were coming—White House chief economist Austan Goolsbee “acknowledged he would stay in touch with The Daily Show staff,” like his former classmate and improv partner, executive producer Scott Budow.
That’s showbiz, baby.
