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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/09/19/president-obama-sent-handwritten-condolences-after-joan-riverss-death/
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President Obama sent handwritten condolences after Joan Rivers’s death
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President Obama sent handwritten condolences after Joan Rivers’s death
By Elahe Izadi
September 19, 2014 at 5:01 p.m. EDT
Joan Rivers died Sept. 4 at age 81. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
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It's pretty standard for the White House to issue a statement from President Obama when a prominent cultural figure dies. But the White House didn't do that when Joan Rivers died Sept. 4.
What Obama did do was send a handwritten note to Rivers's daughter, Melissa Rivers, who made that revelation in a clip from a forthcoming episode of E!'s "Fashion Police: Celebrating Joan."
"I received a letter from the White House, from President Obama, someone who was often a target of her jokes, as was Mrs. Obama," Melissa Rivers said. "But I received a handwritten note saying, 'Not only did she make us laugh, she made us think.'"
Back in July, Rivers joked about Obama being gay and his wife transgender, which got her into a bit of a heated discussion on CNN. Thus, some folks noticed when Obama didn't offer a public comment on her death.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Subscribe
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clock
This article was published more than 9 years ago
POLITICS
Biden administration
The 202s
Polling
Democracy in America
Election 2024
THE FIX
President Obama sent handwritten condolences after Joan Rivers’s death
By Elahe Izadi
September 19, 2014 at 5:01 p.m. EDT
Joan Rivers died Sept. 4 at age 81. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
Share
Add to your saved stories
Save
It's pretty standard for the White House to issue a statement from President Obama when a prominent cultural figure dies. But the White House didn't do that when Joan Rivers died Sept. 4.
What Obama did do was send a handwritten note to Rivers's daughter, Melissa Rivers, who made that revelation in a clip from a forthcoming episode of E!'s "Fashion Police: Celebrating Joan."
"I received a letter from the White House, from President Obama, someone who was often a target of her jokes, as was Mrs. Obama," Melissa Rivers said. "But I received a handwritten note saying, 'Not only did she make us laugh, she made us think.'"
Back in July, Rivers joked about Obama being gay and his wife transgender, which got her into a bit of a heated discussion on CNN. Thus, some folks noticed when Obama didn't offer a public comment on her death.
“There’s no hard-and-fast rule about who gets a statement and who does not,” Dana Perino, White House press secretary under President George W. Bush from 2007 to 2009, told my Post colleague Helena Andrews.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In one of the most recent such public statements, Obama called Williams "one of a kind" and said that "the Obama family offers our condolences to Robin’s family, his friends, and everyone who found their voice and their verse thanks to Robin Williams."
Rivers likewise touched the lives of many, but her sharp humor spared few, and she remained unconcerned with being deemed offensive.
"Sometimes presidents just want to make a statement,” Perino told Andrews."And guess what? They get the right to.”
Well, Obama did want to say something just, privately.–