You're listening to Comedy Central now from My Heart Radio, it's the Hey Pal podcast. Hey, pal. Hey, pal. Jarrett and Dave, we are going to be talking sports.

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It's a Hey Pal podcast series premieres September 29th on the radio Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. 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 slow, Obama. Lauren Mills is a barista at the Peet's Coffee on 8th 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 and dreadlocks despite being white spiritually.

I just feel Jamaican, you know, on September twenty third, 2014, Lauren got to work and she did what she does every day.

She made coffee, medium cold brew for a large drip with cream and Americano with four scoops of sugar.

And then at seven 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. This is The Daily Show presents Obama a podcast about the latest, the greatest American political scandal of the 21st century.

Everyone's talking about the disrespectful way the president saluted a Marine yesterday with his latte in his head, two Marines after Marine One landed in New York with a cup of coffee in his hands. That's the fallout from what many are calling President Obama's latest salvo.

The latest salvo salute by Obama may serve as a useful metaphor for his entire administration, his entire administration, his entire administration. How did 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? Episode one, A Cup of shame. September 2013, 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 a video of Obama getting off the helicopter, smiles at a small crowd, walks down the stairs.

Marine salute him. Obama salutes back a typical scene, except.

Something isn't right. The White House posted this video on Instagram on Tuesday shows President Obama stepping off Marine One here in New York, saluting Marines with a coffee cup in his hand. Some are now calling this disrespectful. 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.

I always kept an eye on President Barack Saddam Hussein bungler. The man was corrupt and he was also this is based on my own reporting on Lady Obama's two terms in office had already been defined by scandal.

You probably remember the big ones. He used Grey Poupon instead of regular mustard.

I hope you enjoyed that fancy burger, Mr. President. He wore a tan suit to a press briefing.

President Obama's decision to wear a light tan suit at yesterday's news conference, he droned a wedding, a U.S. drone strike in Yemen that missed its target.

He even used a selfie stick in the White House. Here's the leader of the free world, the guy we trust with a button for the nukes acting like a 12 year old.

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, including tampering with a coffee cup in his hand.

I couldn't believe it. He might as well have on the American flag and wipe his butt with the Constitution.

Stoneman and many other conservatives on the Internet were incensed. The video was soon posted at all. The major right wing blogs Patriot Freak Brain Power Americanus, red anger, rising storm surge, the angry church wife, angry man's angry blog. Angriness today, the anger report with Dr Mike angry. The right wing radio host, Mark Levin included a segment about the latte salute during his afternoon show.

It's about damn time, almost six years in office, that you show our men and women in military some respect what 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. 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 M.C. Hammer. So there was no telling whether this story would break into the mainstream. And then. This is a Fox News alert on Chris Buckley Churns Worth 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, Mick Chuggers.

Yeah, so I was reading an article on Epic Pro Moves Dotcom and it ad caught my eye. It was a link to a shout ponded story. I'll never forget the headline. Unbelievable Barocco. Boehner does it again. Given Muslim salute while carrying a cup of Indonesian coffee. I immediately told my boss or I told someone on praecox of that day and suddenly the scandal was on.

A Marine manual states do not salute, quote, when carrying articles with both hands or being otherwise so occupied as to make saluting impractically sloppy, ill thought out, inappropriate, callous, selfish and disrespect his heart, wasn't it? After all, we've got to try a swollen golf playing, basketball, trash talking, leading from behind. I got no strategy. Osama bin Laden is dead. GM is alive. A community organizer and commander in chief.

How disrespectful was that? There are 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. Hey, everyone, if you're enjoying slow Obama, consider subscribing to slow Obama plus for just nine ninety nine a month, you'll get exclusive access to extra features like a bonus for our interview with the dry cleaner who pressed Barack Obama's tansu.

We've also got free podcasts where we've removed all of the homes and us from all our episodes and for Slow Bamma plus subscribers.

The answer to this week's trivia question was, once again, Leon Panetta. And now back to the podcast.

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?

I was on that helicopter with the president. My failure to stop him from saluting that Marine with a latte is my single greatest regret, not just of the Obama presidency, but my entire life.

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 sometimes late at night, I hear a voice whispering in the wind that he's alone, but I salute that salute. It's my rosebud. It's my white whale.

It's whatever Tim Burton sees and Johnny Depp and obsession. Looking back, it's hard to believe that Barack Obama would salute a Marine with a latte, but remember, this was 2014.

All right. Time now for the Ice Bucket Challenge.

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 John brought up that no one on the helicopter stopped the president.

And it made us wonder, was it really possible for John McCain 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. OK, so I'm here with my producer in the helicopter and what are we doing? We're going to find out if someone could have stopped the Lactaid. OK, so I'm seated where President Obama would have said I am holding a latte that we got from Cariboo.

Carter, he right. OK. The helicopter door has opened. I am walking down the stairs lifting my hand. I don't know who to believe that. OK, so what do we think? I don't think it was possible to stop it.

Back in the studio, we called Jon Favreau. Hello, Jon, it's Matt from Alabama. We just got back from the airfield and we determined pretty conclusively that no one would have been able to stop the latte salute. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. You know, President Trump might be thin skinned semiliterate, adulterants in a serial tax cheat, but at least he's never had a scandal as bad as holding a couple saluting a Marine and to know that I couldn't have prevented that talent. I mean, thank you. You're you're a real friend of the party. Thanks, John. Sure thing. And, hey, you didn't really rent a helicopter and recreate this thing to do.

What do you mean? I mean, that's just a joke, right? I wasn't actually in the plane with Obama. I left the White House a year before this whole thing.

Clearly, the trauma from the latte salute had left Jon Favreau confused. After all, this was a confusing time in American history.

I'm on the phone still. Remember, for both the left and the right for hang out was hardly at this in context. There's plenty more ahead after this short break.

I'm still on the line. Alabama is sponsored by wee undies, wee undies is the first ever community underwear sharing program. Ever wonder what it's like to walk a mile in someone else's skivvies? Wee undies sends you another member's underwear, along with a photo and brief biography of the owner. Simply wear their underwear and then send them back when you feel like you've gotten your bill.

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. Imagine you enlist for the U.S. Marine Corps, you train, you do your pushups, shave your head, you run laps shouting about how butch you are.

And then during the defining moment of your military career, greeting 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 Weale, I know this must be very difficult for you.

Not really if you ever need to stop, if the pain becomes too great. Please just tell me. I really doubt it. So. How did it feel to get saluted with a latte?

I told you on the phone it was fun, wasn't that big a deal, but in another sense it wasn't fine and it was an enormous deal and it didn't seem like American 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.

Well, you know, a lot of people forget this, but actually President Chester Arthur got in some salute based trouble of his own back in 1883. Arthur was on a whistle stop tour. And 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 the scandal was so ferocious that Chester Arthur was forced to find a fall guy. So he fired his secretary of Lokomotiv affairs and then ended up selling them to the Russian empire.

Wow. And you're a real historian. Yes, I am incredible. A real historian with a real story.

Oh, no, no, no. This is a real I thought we were doing a joke. Obviously, this never. 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, salute her 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, the president's latte salute or coffee salute when he was getting off of Marine One, saluting the Marine with the the cup of coffee.

Have you been asked to respond to this or is I haven't the president aware of I don't know if I haven't I haven't talked to him about it 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 a spokesman that some weak tea. Or should I say. A week lot te. 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.

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 lottery.

I've got a small latte for Matt. Oh, God. Hello, Lauren. Not again, Lauren.

I just have one question. How does it feel to have made the coffee that kicked off our nation's greatest presidential scandal, greatest scandal?

What about Chester's cheese up and in Andrew Jackson like commit genocide?

The latte salute. Lauren, latte salute. Latte salute.

I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Are you drooling right now? The word scandal is derived from the Greek word scandalous, 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 Alabama.

Archival footage in today's episode was provided by Shout Pundit and the Unger report. Dr Mike Angry. The show's music is composed by Dave, my wife's boyfriend. Thanks, Dave. This has been a Comedy Central podcast now.