Yesterday Glenn reacted to Michelle Obama’s story of experiencing racism while shopping at Target. Turns out she’s told the same story before, only it doesn’t seem to have any racism in it at all. See Michelle Obama tell the story to David Letterman in quite a different way. Plus, Glenn gets a call from a woman claiming to be the sister of the person who offended Obama. Is she racist?
Watch the Letterman appearance below:
Below is a transcript of the segment:
GLENN: All right. Michelle Obama. We just played the audio. She was on David Letterman. She spoke about going to Target. She talked about meeting a short woman who was in the detergent aisle, and she said, nobody knew who I was. This woman didn't know who I was, asked if I could help, and get the detergent. She said the short woman then, you know, said, you didn't need to make it look that easy. So she had a good sense of humor. That's what she said on David Letterman about a year ago.
Now in "People" magazine when asked about the kind of racism they have to put up with -- the Obamas, you know, there in the White House. This is what she said. Can you read this, please?
JEFFY: I think people forget that we've lived in the White House for six years. Before that, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the south side of Chicago who had his share of troubles catching cabs. I tell this story, I mean, even as the first lady, during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised. The only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf because she didn't see me as the first lady. She saw me as someone who could help her. Those kinds of things happen in life, so it isn't anything new.
STU: Then the next line is Barack talking about race as well.
JEFFY: There is no black male my age who is a professional who hasn't come out of a restaurant waiting for their car and somebody didn't hand them their car keys.
STU: So it's all about race all around. This is -- obviously she's telling this as a racial story.
GLENN: Okay. Now, Donna is on the phone. She's a fan of Pat and Stu. She called the Pat & Stu Show yesterday. And we have her on her words. So we don't have independent verification that her sister was the one that was in the aisle, that asked the first lady, could you help me with that box of detergent.
Donna, welcome to the program.
CALLER: Thank you.
GLENN: Why should we believe you, that this is your sister?
CALLER: Well, you know, just there's no reason, except there's no reason for me to call and tell y'all this except that it happened. And I'll tell you, the funny thing is, my sister didn't even know it was Michelle Obama until she was lying in the bed with her husband watching David Letterman and heard Michelle Obama tell the story. And she looked at her husband and said, that was me.
And he wouldn't believe her, except that Michelle Obama included that detail about, well, you didn't have to make it look so easy. That that's my sister. He knew she would have said that. And he said, oh, my word, it was you.
And that's how she found out that it was Michelle Obama. And then wrote her a little note. Now whether Michelle Obama ever got it, I don't know. She just said, hey, it was me in the store, and I probably didn't even say thank you.
What she didn't tell her, she told us, and we laughed about it. Probably one of the reasons why she didn't recognize her is because she didn't really look up. She was examining the detergent. She said, she reached down -- a real flowery scent, and this was for her son to take off to college. And she kept thinking, I'd really like a different one, but I'd hate to ask this woman to put this back and get another one too.
Michelle Obama told it accurately the first time, but she is twisting it now to make my sister out to be a racist. Now, her name isn't out there. But I just got furious on my sister's behalf. I can -- we have political differences, big time, but my sister is not a racist.
GLENN: Okay. You're a fan of Pat and Stu, so I'm assuming that you're a conservative.
CALLER: Yes. Yes.
GLENN: And your sister -- it's our understanding -- because I believe somebody on the Blaze spoke to your sister yesterday.
STU: I think Keith did.
CALLER: Yeah. I asked for her permission to give her number to y'all. Because I wasn't going to do that without her permission. She had no idea I had called. I thought she would be furious with me.
GLENN: Well, it's our impression that she was not. That she's actually very upset that she's being painted as a racist as well.
CALLER: Yeah, she's not happy about it because she knows how it happened, and Michelle Obama knows too because she wouldn't have told the story like she did on David Letterman, very close to the real event. Now time has passed and it's a great story for her to, you know, make it into a race thing, which it is not.
And I just called to set the record straight because that infuriated me. I'm all about great race relations. I want to talk about it. I want to -- if I can help in any way, I want to help. But this is not helping. There's real racism out there that we could talk about. This is not real racism at all. Race didn't even come into play.
GLENN: Your sister voted for Obama twice?
CALLER: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. They are huge Obama fans. Which, you know, and I'm the one -- my brother-in-law works -- I won't say. The banter around the water cooler at that station was, hey, when that story broke, wasn't this your wife? And they were jabbing with him about it. Can you imagine if his wife came on Glenn Beck? He'd never hear the end of it.
GLENN: Here's the interesting thing, that station knows exactly what the story is.
CALLER: Oh, yeah. They won't play it though.
GLENN: But that is fascinating. That they have first-hand knowledge of who this person is, how it came down --
CALLER: Oh, yeah. When they found out about it on the David Letterman Show, of course, he went in the office laughing about it. You all won't believe this, but, you know, my sister ran into -- told the whole story. That's when the story broke. They knew exactly who it was. But you'll never hear about it over there, no.
GLENN: Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
CALLER: Yeah. But I don't appreciate anybody making someone else out to look like a racist, when clearly they are not, and she told the story honestly the first time. And it was fluky. I would love to be in on a conspiracy, believe me, because I just love you, Glenn. But there's nothing more to it.
I grew up there. And I went to high school with senators kids and diplomats. And we weren't a wealthy family by any stretch. But, you know, growing up in the area, it's not uncommon at all. Run into someone at the grocery store, that just happens, you know.
GLENN: Well, God bless you. I appreciate it. Say hello to your sister. I hope she ends up going on the record with the Blaze. We will tell the story as she tells it to us.
CALLER: Yeah. I wish she would.
PAT: Donna, I know the news department is trying to get in touch with her. They haven't had too much success. If you could assist in that, we would really appreciate it.
CALLER: Yeah, well, she teaches school during the day. She doesn't take off work for anything. You can get her in the afternoons. I just wanted to set the record straight. I hope she'll come on.
GLENN: Thank you, Donna, I appreciate it.
STU: Even go she doesn't come on, just text --
GLENN: Yeah. For the record. Let's set this record straight. It's obscene. In a country that's having the kind of race relations that we have right now, keep getting ratcheted up and ratcheted up, for the first lady to dig in her big basket of all the things, all the oppressions she's had to suffer suffered through, to come through and say, that's her story, when it's been told before, completely differently, and the person who asked her is an Obama supporter.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Times ten.
STU: I mean, how on earth do you leave this situation continuing to be an Obama supporter? How can you see the way they manipulate racial relations for their own benefit, when you're involved --
GLENN: How do you continue to work -- how do you continue to work at that news organization? How do you do that?
STU: I don't know.
GLENN: When it is your wife and everybody knows. And now it is your wife, and here's a story in "People" magazine, where she's changing history. Barack knows, you got to change our history. She's changing history. And it's your wife. And everybody in the office knows, that's your wife. Don't you have a little righteous indignation and say, guys, you either correct this story because this is about my wife. I know nobody knows this is about my wife. This is important. This is important. To me. To my wife. This hurts my wife. We're supporters. We have no axe to grind. This story needs to be corrected.
And if they don't, why wouldn't you walk. Do you have no credibility? Do you have no honor and integrity? Is there not a chivalrous bone in your body for your wife? How do you continue to work there?
STU: If they won't tell that story thank they actually have it through one of their employees, if they won't tell that story to protect them, how can you possibly work there? These people are willing to wreck your wife.
GLENN: Yeah, they're willing to let your wife go through a buzz saw. This isn't even a big story. So if they're willing to do this to your wife, so what, she's in a wood chipper. Oh, well. And you're willing to let your wife go through the wood chipper, when the chips are down, so to speak. When things are really important, how do you trust that you know what the news are S? How do you trust you are getting the truth?
STU: If you work at this particular establishment, you don't care about the truth.
GLENN: I disagree with that. I think these people are so -- they're so -- they've had to convince themselves of two things. One, either the ends justify the means. I think this is the deal. It wasn't that important of a story. Nobody knows. It's going to be gone. Why dig all this up. It will only put your wife in the spotlight, and you don't want that to happen. So they've just convinced themselves. Ends justify the means.
STU: Maybe. Let me ask you this: Donna is a caller. Our news department is making sure everything is buttoned up on this story. As of now, it's not a news story, it's just a caller. You listen to her. Do you believe her?
GLENN: Yes, I do.
STU: She sounds completely credible. That's not enough for a news story. It's an amazing thing. It doesn't sound like she has a huge axe to grind. She wants to protect her sister. That's a human instinct.
GLENN: And, you know what, because her sister -- this story is easy to verify. It's easy to verify once you have the names. It's easy to verify, does that person work there? Does that person do this? You're not going to say, and her husband works for this person at this network, because, I mean, who -- who has done that kind of thinking. And how would you know -- I mean, we very well could know that individual? Someone in our organization, I can guarantee you, knows that individual. So nobody sits there and makes that up.
STU: No. And she gave a lot of different details to the initial call. Sounds -- but, again, this is why you have a news organization.
GLENN: I know.
JEFFY: She even said that, I know her name isn't out there, but I was mad because I knew it was my sister.
GLENN: But her sister talking to the producers yesterday, talking to the news people yesterday, her sister said, she was mad. She's a supporter and everything else. But she's mad.
STU: Wouldn't you be?
GLENN: Yes. I would be.
STU: Especially because she's probably spent hundreds of hours defending these people. She's probably sat there with some conservative, her sister, around a Thanksgiving table and said, no, you're wrong about these people. That's not what they do. And now here she is a victim of it.
GLENN: Doing it to you.
STU: I mean, that is crushing. That's crushing.
Front page image courtesy of the AP.