CNN Politics reported Wednesday afternoon that former President Barack Obama had achieved a “definite upgrade” in his selection, and wearing, of denim jeans.
Obama’s jeans game gets strong(er) https://t.co/KMTrNGHDeB pic.twitter.com/Zp1E4JCeBj
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 28, 2017
The report came in the midst of an unprecedented crisis of credibility at CNN.
Presumably the Obama jeans story was properly vetted by CNN’s Triad — “a three-pronged internal system designed to ensure that sensitive reporting by the network’s journalists is unimpeachable before it runs.”
The article states:
“The truth is, generally I look very sharp in jeans.” — Barack Obama, 2014.
While the statement wasn’t one of then-President Obama’s most important pronouncements during his time in office, it was one of the most questionable, from a truth perspective. Said to Ryan Seacrest during a radio interview in March of 2014, it was a response to Obama’s critics, those who mocked his denimwear, which, according to years of photographic evidence, leaned toward ill-fitting, stone-washed, and extremely “Dad”-like.
He again wore jeans on Tuesday, this time while on vacation with his family in Bali, Indonesia. The look was a definite upgrade, but the jury’s still out as to whether jeans are, or should be, his thing.
“There was one episode like four years ago, in which I was wearing some loose jeans, mainly because I was out on the pitcher’s mound and I didn’t want to feel confined while I was pitching,” Obama told Seacrest during that same conversation. The sartorial moment, which occurred in 2009, stuck with him. “I’ve paid my penance for that [look.] I got whacked pretty good. Since that time, my jeans fit very well.”
Fact check: Obama was criticized for “Mom jeans,” not “Dad jeans.”
Read the rest of the CNN Politics report here.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.