On at least two occasions, President Obama secretly met with Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” . http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/us/politics/jon-stewart-secretly-met-with-obama-at-white-house.html?ref=us
In 2011 and again in 2014, Mr. Stewart came to Washington for coffee with the president, entering the White House grounds at the entrance where the public tours begin. He shook hands with several tourists and was escorted to the Oval Office for his one-on-one sit down with the commander in chief.
He joked in 2011 to his escort that he felt like he was being called to the principal’s office.
The two meetings — recorded in the official White House visitor log — were first noted this week by Politico. Current and former White House officials confirmed the visits, describing them as efforts by the president and his communications team to tap into Mr. Stewart’s influence with younger voters.
“Jon Stewart was a key influencer for millennials,” said Dag Vega, who worked for several years at the White House developing relationships with media figures. “They relied on him for an honest take on the news, and the president and senior staff know that.”
Officials involved in the visits said that Mr. Obama requested the meetings, which each lasted about an hour. Mr. Vega recalled that it was “often remarked in senior staff meetings that he was the Walter Cronkite for the millennial generation. That’s why it was important to meet up with him and engage with him.”
The 2011 visit came as Mr. Obama — then a candidate for re-election — was in full salesman mode, trying to convince Republicans on Capitol Hill to pass his jobs bill. Before meeting with Mr. Stewart, the president had just completed a three-day bus tour in which he urged passage of his American Jobs Act.
Three years later, in late February 2014, Mr. Stewart stopped by again, this time as Mr. Obama was facing off with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia over the seizure of Crimea in Ukraine.
Precisely what Mr. Stewart said to Mr. Obama in either of the two meetings is unclear. When Mr. Stewart stopped by the press secretary’s office after the first meeting, he offered some of his trademark facetious humor, saying it had been terrible.