Absurd ‘People’ Magazine Cover Story Fawns Over the Obamas’ ‘Love’ – But Megyn Has the Receipts

Anyone who has paid any attention to the Obamas the last several years knows that, by their own admission, they’ve had a lot of ups and downs in their marriage.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama regularly uses her podcast and her media appearances to nitpick every little thing about her husband; while former President Barack Obama admitted at a speaking event last fall that he has spent the better part of the last decade “trying to dig myself out of the hole I found myself in with Michelle.”

But that appears to be news to People magazine. The Obamas landed the cover of the celeb-friendly weekly, complete with an “exclusive” photoshoot at the much-delayed Obama Presidential Center in Chicago and a fawning profile about their – wait for it – “love, legacy, and life now.”

On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by Tom Bevan, Carl Cannon, and Andrew Walworth of RealClearPolitics to discuss the bizarre spread and inconvenient truths it left out.

Cringe Coverage

Puff pieces are nothing new, but Megyn said the People profile rose to a new level. “There are puff pieces in media every once in a while. Every pol is going to get a good puff piece done by a magazine like People… You have something to promote, and they say nice things about it… We know that. It’s fine… But this is so over the top, someone should be fired,” she declared.

That someone, in Megyn’s view, should be People editor-at-large Janine Rubenstein, who wrote the bootlicking cover story that ran in print and online and also an accompanying digital photo gallery – filled with oddly specific captions – of the mag’s “favorite shots” from the photoshoot.

“What I read about her at People is that she is the host of the People Every Day podcast, a ‘daily dose of breaking news, pop culture, and heartwarming human interest stories’; formerly senior editor of music content; and she has also covered crime, human interest, and television news throughout her many years with the brand,” Megyn noted. “What word are you missing there? Politics. She doesn’t cover hard news at all, and you can tell.”

In the profile headlined “Barack and Michelle Obama in Their Most Personal Interview Yet: ‘We Are Each Other’s Counterbalance,'” Rubenstein breathlessly recounts the Obamas’ body language during their sit-down:

“It’s in the way his hand rests gently on her knee; the way she crinkles her nose at the joke she’s probably heard before; the way they can speak at the same time but somehow never seem to talk over each other. It’s in the details. After nearly 34 years of marriage, and perhaps because of the minutiae and magnitude of what that time encompassed, the love between former President Barack Obama, 64, and former first lady Michelle Obama, 62, is palpable.”

The writer got even more explicit in the companion photo gallery:

“The shoot and interview took place on the upper floors of the center’s museum tower… When the pair arrived, you could feel the excitement and joy they both had ahead of showcasing the center to (and for) the South Side Chicago community they love so much. You could also feel the love emanating between them, as if there’s such a thing as 34-year-married newlyweds.

The gentle touches, easy laughter and smiles made the shoot fly by with ease as they moved from one set up to the next. Their love, like the pieces on the walls around them, presents like a work of fine art, painstakingly crafted over time using a hodgepodge of materials until no more tinkering can make it any better. A joy to witness.”

Bringing the Receipts

While Megyn joked that Rubenstein was doing her best to “make us all hot and bothered,” she brought the receipts that reveal “the truth about their relationship.” Watch:

The Strange Saga

Bevan agreed that the profile itself amounted to journalistic malpractice. “I’ve written a couple profiles over the years and I can tell you, if I turned anything that sounded like that to Carl, he would throw it straight in the trash,” he joked. 

Even so, he isn’t shocked by the coverage at this point. “It’s not surprising. The Obamas have always gotten this unbelievably adoring press coverage, even from the ‘hard news,’” Bevan noted. “And then you go to sort of the fluffier magazines like Vogue and People, and it’s just ridiculous and over the top… to the point that the montage you just play there [has] a bunch of evidence suggesting that it is not all just butterflies and rainbows.”

​​As Walworth sees it, the Obamas relationship saga has become something of a sideshow. “I gotta say this, I am starting to like her more and more because she is like a [Real] Housewife show. It’s like she is on the Real Housewives of Chicago or something,” he quipped. “I mean, that kind in your face, wagging the finger… It’s reality TV.”

Cannon believes they might very well be in on the joke. “I don’t know how they got this writer to write what she did… but I have this picture in my mind of [Barack and Michelle] meeting at dinner… and she is reading it, they are both laughing, and it makes her so amused she says he can have a cigarette after dinner… because… how did he charm this woman to write this stuff. [Then,] he is smoking, and they are laughing about this piece the way we are now,” he theorized. “I don’t think they have any illusions is what I’m trying to say.”

Regardless of whether Cannon is correct, Megyn said one thing is certain: “These two do not like each other. She cannot stand him. And how do I know that? From her.”

You can check out Megyn’s full interview with RCP by tuning in to episode 1,347 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.