Jon Stewart: Those 'Secret' Obama Meetings Weren't Secret

'I went through the normal White House entrance like everybody else'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 30, 2015 7:32 AM CDT

Jon Stewart only has a few more days until his final signoff on Aug. 6 as host of The Daily Show, but he's not going quietly. The most recent noise revolves around what Politico has labeled Stewart's "secret" meetings with President Obama, a "sinister" description that last night on his show Stewart said "sounds so much more awesome than what happened." First, he explains why he was there in the first place. "The president asked me to come to Washington, and I did, because if the president tells you and you don't, who the f--- knows what would happen." He also took issue with his visits reportedly being shrouded in secrecy, noting, "It was openly listed [on the White House log], and I went through the normal White House entrance like everybody else, and I told my mom. Something is not a secret just because you don't know about it."

So what happened during these supposedly clandestine presidential get-togethers? "We spent about five to seven minutes with Obama kind of scolding me not to turn young Americans cynical," Stewart says. "And then I spent about five to seven minutes explaining to him, 'I'm actually skeptically idealistic.' And then we spent about 45 minutes arguing about, 'Really? The VA can't be fixed any quicker?' Or 'HealthCare.gov can't come online without crashing my son's Minecraft game?'" He also added that this all took place "over some of truly the best salmon you have ever had." (The president said his goodbyes to Stewart on The Daily Show last week.)

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