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For the past few days on the fourth hour of the Today show, viewers have been suffering through the paralyzingly awkward romantic setup of host Hoda Kotb. For those of you who don’t watch, basically, producers brought a matchmaker on the show to set up some singletons from across the country. And then they roped Hoda in, and she went on a blind date with a British guy. And now they keep talking about how it went! He’s coming back next week for another date! It doesn’t sound bizarre, but trust us, it is. It’s like she’s Carrie Bradshaw but on TV and wielding helmet hair.
Anyway, in a much-needed break from all this, Hoda and co-host Kathie Lee Gifford took a moment to discuss politicians and their spouses. And Kathie Lee told a story about attending a dinner at the White House with the Clintons during the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal. “When you see the dynamic of two people together in an unedited way, you get a glimpse of them which I think is priceless,” she said. We assumed, since it was sassy Kathie, that she would tell some story about the two of them being hilariously bitter with one another. But instead, she did the opposite.
“At one point, it was getting late. Hillary, who was First Lady at the time, comes around like this,” Kathie Lee said, getting out of her chair and going behind Hoda to rub her shoulders. “She starts to rub his back. She goes, ‘Come on, sweetie, it’s getting late. Let’s go home.’”
Gifford joked that maybe Hillary had allowed the tender moment so that Gifford herself would go on TV years later and talk about it. We’re sure that’s what some people in the media who hate the Clintons would believe. But we’ll admit it was kind of refreshing to hear something nice about the pair these days. They are, when you think about it, the mom and dad of today’s Democratic Party. Sure, they’re weird and embarrassing and sometimes you hate to love them. But they did, after all, make you who you are today.
