1/23/2015
GloZell took her star turn, before suggesting Obama was headed for divorce, to ask him about race relations, gay marriage and Cuba.
The president confirmed he was 'really big on sports' and often watches football or basketbal while he works out.
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How's your first wife, Mr President? Obama's YouTube interview with woman who eats Fruit Loops from a bathtub turns into PR disaster as his bid to get down with the digital kids backfires
- GloZell Green was one of three YouTube stars granted interviews with Obama in a White House that welcomes few journalists for sit-downs
- She's famous for a comedy video where she declares she loves Obama because: 'He black! He black he black he black! Yes, I said it!'
- GloZell's videos include hot-pepper eating, bathing in breakfast cereal, and Nicky Minaj parodies
- She said Cuban strongman Raul Castro 'puts the "dic" in "dictator"'
- Two other YouTube 'celebs' with millions of followers joined in with more mundane questions, with one admitting 'I don't follow politics that much'
President Obama was asked about his 'first wife' in a PR-disaster interview on Thursday after picking three of the most popular YouTube content creators to interview him.
GloZell Green, a popular YouTube fixture known for her extreme acts like eating a ladle full of cinnamon, offered the president three samples of her trademark green lipstick as gifts for his daughters – and for the woman she called Obama's 'first wife.'
'You know something I don't?' Obama cracked before Green corrected herself and referred to Michelle Obama as 'first lady.'
But the PR disaster that was the White House's 50-minute-long 'YouTube interview' was a national joke before it was half-over.
Another YouTube star, 19-year-old Bethany Mota, asked the leader of the free world, 'If you had any super power, what would it be?'
Obama's answer: the ability to speak to anyone in their native language. And flying.
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'DO YOU KNOW SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW?' Obama was taken aback when YouTube celebrity GloZell Green gave him a tube of green lipstick 'for your first wife' – instead of saying 'for the first lady'
NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME: 19-year-old Bethany Mota asked the leader of the free world what super power he would like to have
OBAMACARE COMMERCIAL: Hank Green got a presidential autograph on a photo showing how cheap his monthly medication got after he bought medical insurance
The Thursday afternoon event, staged on three miniature video sets erected in the East Room of the White House less than an hour after the president's return from speaking in Lawrence, Kansas about his State of the Union goals, included some serious issues.
But GLoZell's green lipstick and Obama's 'first wife' will be what's remembered.
The married Los Angeles-based video blogger, usually sporting her green lipstick, starts each of her videos with a cheery: 'Hello! This is GloZell! Is you ok? Is you? Good, 'cause I wanted to know!'
The White House press corps, accustomed to toiling for a decade or more before ever getting to ask a sitting president a question, was unimpressed when the administration announced the plan to give Mota, GloZell and Hank Green (no relation) a cozy afternoon with Obama following the annual State of the Union address – and a giant platform.
One CNN correspondent asked White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest during a daily biefing: 'I'm just curious – was "Charlie Bit My Finger" or "David After Dentist" not available?'
GloZell screamed to her fans when she heard that she would be included in the mini-cattle-call that she was 'so happy I watched all those episodes of "Veep"!'
The White House intended for the event to draw a younger audience – Americans who get their news from Twitter and Facebook – in the hope of bringing public policy down to the level of the personal.
But it's unclear who actually watched.
At its peak, slightly more than 84,000 were viewing the presentation, according to live counts displayed by YouTube.
THE GIFT: GloZell Green offered the president tubes of greenb lipstick for his wife and daughters
GREAT MOMENTS IN HISTORY: President Barack Obama posed for a selfie with three YouTube celebrities on Thursday after nearly an hour of softball questions
LOW-INFORMATION VOTERS: A Google official told Obama during the broadcast that the most-searched questions during his State of the Union address included those answered in middle-school civics classes
THE EAST ROOM: White House staffers decked out a hallowed hall for Bethany Mota and two other online celebrities; her set was dressed to look like a teenage girl's bedroom
The substantive questions that made the cut were not shown to Obama ahead of time, according to a Google representative who introduced the video segment. Google owns YouTube.
Hank Green asked whether the items on Obama's State of the Union wish-list from Tuesday night were pipe dreams.
'None of them are at all politically feasible. Am I wrong?' he probed.
Obama offered stock talking points to this and other questions about marijuana policy and drone warfare.
But he did offer the president a commercial for his Obamcare insurance overhaul, asking for an autograph on a photo of himself holding a $5 receipt for a monthly prescription order that he said had cost $1,100 before he had insurance.
'That makes me feel good,' the president said, uncapping a pen.
'A lot of young people who are your viewers, they don't have a chronic disease, so they think "Why do I need it?" – until something happens.'
A bronze-level insurance policy, he claimed, now 'typically costs less than your cell phone bill or your cable bill.'
GloZell Green offered a curt 'I sorry' to first lady Michelle Obama for saying she was the president's 'first wife'
The Cereal Challenge: For seven minutes on YouTube, GloZell sat in a bath of milk and cereal while eating it
COMMENTS: People who showed up to watch Obama's interviews with YouTube stars had some interesting thoughts to share, many of which we can't show in full
GloZell took her star turn, before suggesting Obama was headed for divorce, to ask him about race relations, gay marriage and Cuba.
Strongman Raul Castro 'puts the "dic" in "dictator",' she told the president.
And she said he husband, a retired Air Force officer, was mad at her because she had cut the hoods off his hoodies.
She feared for his safety in the wake of racially charged police shootings.
'It's not regular folks,' she told Obama. 'It's the po-po.'
GloZell, who made no effort to hide her enthusiasm for Obama, counts among her most-watched video a 100-second short in which she screams, in character, that she loves the president because 'He black! He black he black he black! Yes, I said it!'
Mota asked about cuber-bullying, the affordability of higher education and the terror group Boko Haram – before falling back on questions about Obama's super-power wishes, what TV shows he watches and what he wanted to be when he grew up.
'I don't follow politics that much,' she admitted. 'Why should the younger generation be interested in politics?'
OBAMA, MEET YOUR PUBLIC: More comments left on YouTube during the White House's historic interviews
He also said he had 'wanted to be an architect for a really long time' in his youth. Or an NBA player.
She ended the interview by asking him to pose for – what else? – a selfie.
As the event wrapped up, one commenter asked: 'Is the Presidency a full time job? Because it sure doesn't look like it.'
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One earlier in the day that the event would involve 'having conversations with particularly popular YouTube content creators to have a conversation about his State of the Union address.'
'And it simply is an effort to try to engage as many Americans as possible in a variety of venues to discuss the president's priorities.'
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