On Good Morning America Wednesday, anchor Robin Roberts joined one actress in gushing over meeting former President Obama. Actress Issa Rae, who stars in HBO’s Insecure, shared with Roberts how, as a newcomer to Hollywood, she still gets starstruck when meeting famous people. After mentioning meeting actress Queen Latifah, Roberts prompted Rae to tell the story of when she met President Obama.
“You know who else said, oh, I watch you. You were at the White House. Former President Barack Obama!” Roberts gushed. “Take a look at this,” she said before playing a video Ray shot on her phone of meeting Obama. In the video, Obama is shown briefly as Rae and her friend scream out his name.
After the brief video, Roberts asked Rae “how it felt” to know Obama was a fan of her show.
Rae described the meeting as if she was meeting some kind of god, gushing that she just wanted the opportunity to “touch” Obama. Afterwards, she was so overwhelmed apparently, that she collapsed to the ground.
ROBERTS: He was saying he watches you. How did it feel that moment? Knowing that he --
RAE: First of all to be invited was already a big thing. I was like, ‘Mom, you're coming with me.’ She was like, ‘Duh, I am.’ There was never a question. We got there. It was just so beautiful. It was one of the last parties that they threw. We knew he was going to come out and make this speech and try to get -- I was focused on getting my mom to the front. I was like, ‘Mom, you get to the front. You get your picture.’ She got to the front. He was shaking everybody’s hands. And, um, I saw her -- I saw him hug her, give her a kiss, and lost her mind. I was like, well she got a little bit of something. There's a space right there. Let me just try- let me at least touch him. I like -- made my way to the front. And, I was with my co-star, Yvonne. She was just -- just as excited as I was. So as he made his way to us, he sees her. He sees me. He tells her, ‘She's having a good year, huh?’ About me! And then, I was like, you know, obviously shaken. I was like, you know me? You the president, you know me?
He was like, you know, ‘I love to see black women be creative. I love your show. I love the sound track. I can't say any of it until after I'm president’( because our language is a little colorful.) He held my hand that entire time. He held both of our hands. When he walked away, I just collapsed. To my knees.
The media have always had a strange, almost religious reverence for President Obama. At his first inaugural, network journalists actually said on-air that the “seagulls” were “awed” by this “sacred event.” Liberal CNN and MSNBC commentators have compared Obama to Jesus numerous times and actor Jamie Foxx famously called him “our Lord and Savior” at an awards show in 2012.
