The White House cancelled President Barack Obama’s appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” likely because of the potential for bad optics.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Tuesday that they were in talks with Kimmel, but decided to call the interview off to deal with “more serious matters.”
Earnest didn’t state that it was because of the image problem the administration has been having lately, but he didn’t totally rule it out in response to a question Tuesday.
“That is, at least in part, related to the challenges of doing a comedy show in the midst of some of these other more serious matters that the president is dealing with on the international scene,” Earnest said.
Obama became the first sitting president to appear in-studio on a late night talk show when he appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in March 2009. He followed that up with appearances on “Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” He has not ever appeared on Kimmel’s show.
Kimmel seems to have gotten the short end of the stick. Those “more serious matters” might be keeping Obama from the interview, but they haven’t stopped him from a series of high-dollar fundraisers or from playing pool and drinking beer in Colorado.
