Dec. 15 (UPI) — President Joe Biden spent part of Friday taping an interview segment for comedian Conan O’Brien‘s Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, the White House said.
The former late night talk show host confirmed the encounter during a humorous give-and-take with the White House press corps following the taping.
“They won’t let me take questions, but boy I have the answers to everything,” O’Brien told reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room.
O’Brien, who for more than 25 years interviewed guests and delivered comedic monologues as the host of Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Tonight Show on NBC, as well as Conan on TBS, has hosted and produced the Needs a Friend podcast since 2018. It was sold to SiriusXM radio last year for a reported $150 million.
The podcast, created by his Team Coco production company, features O’Brien’s conversations with comics, actors and writers — and now the president of the United States.
“I’m a huge history buff-slash-nerd,” O’Brien said of his interview with Biden and his visit to the presidential residence. “Believe it or not, I’ve read a lot of books about the White House,” adding, “I can’t get enough of it.”
He related the story of a mural painted above the White House swimming pool by artist Bernard Lamotte for President John Kennedy in 1962. It depicted scenes of Christiansted Harbor in St. Croix, Virgin Islands.
“I always thought the mural was just painted over,” O’Brien said. “But they took it down and it’s in the JFK Library upstairs, and it’s gorgeous. So they still have it.”