Obama Actually Responds to O’Reilly Saying Lincoln Wouldn’t Have Done Between Two Ferns
President Obama recently graced the set of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis for some laughs and Obamacare plugs, but Bill O’Reilly wasn’t amused and contended that Abraham Lincoln would have never done the same. Au contraire!, Obama shot back today in an interview on ESPN Radio.
O’Reilly said the timing of the video hurt Obama, because he’s deadpanning jokes with a comedian while Vladimir Putin is being macho or something. He asserted, “Abe Lincoln would not have done it.”
Today on ESPN, Colin Cowherd asked Obama about his outreach efforts to young people, specifically pointing out O’Reilly’s bit of criticism. Obama responded by saying O’Reilly shouldn’t be so quick to assume Lincoln was so serious and couldn’t take a joke every now and again.
“First of all, if you read back on Lincoln, he loved telling the occasional bawdy joke, and, you know, being out among regular folks.”
Obama said sometimes presidents need to leave the Washington bubble and show they have a sense of humor or else they come across as a “Washington stiff.”
Watch the video below, via ESPN:
And you can watch O’Reilly’s original complaint here, via Fox News:
[h/t HuffPost]
[photo via screengrab]
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