This is what happens when President Barack Obama calls your radio station.
We were interviewing Senator Harry Reid about his decision to not run for re-election.
About 30 minutes into interview, the control room received a call from the White House.
Initially, Joe Schoenmann, who was guest-hosting for Dave Becker, thought it was a joke.
It wasn’t.
“You’re on,” Schoenmann said a second later.
“Is this Harry Reid?” the caller asked.
“It is,” Reid replied.
“Harry. This is Barack,” the president said.
“Well, I’ll be damned” Reid answered back, repeating the line a few more times.
“Are you allowed to say that on live radio?” Obama said. “I hope you don’t mind me interrupting.”
Of course we didn’t mind the President talking with Sen Harry Reid on our program for a few minutes.
And of course it turned into a bit of an on-air bromance between these two powerful men.
Reid and the President went on to talk about how much they appreciated working with each other.
President Obama talked about how indispensible Reid had been, collecting votes when Congress passed the Affordable Care Act. The President called Reid a champion of the middle class.
“And here’s the thing that I just want everybody to understand,” President Obama said. “I don’t know anybody who understand more his roots, where he came from, what it means to not have anything when you’re born and scramble and scrap and work to get something.
“He has never forgotten the path he took and he knows there are Searchlights all across the country. And there are kids just like he was and he hasn’t stopped fighting for them.”
The president also said he would miss the senator and admitted the long-time lawmaker had a style all his own.
“Well, Harry is unique and he’s got that curmudgeonly charm. It’s hard to replace. I’m going to miss him,” the president said. “But the good thing is I’m going to get to leave this place with him at the same time. What I think Harry understands and that I understand and that our founding fathers understood is that the system works better when over time some new blood comes in.”
Still, when the president bromances you, you better bromance him back.
Before the brief exchange came to a close, Reid took the opportunity to note their disparate backgrounds and their ability to work together for what they both believed is the good of the country.
“Mr. President before you leave,” Reid began, “the records books will be written about the eight years of Obama and Reid and never in the history of the country … have we produced more for the president and somebody who has led his party as we have, and we’ve done it together. We’ve done it as friends. We’ve done it has people who love their country. We’ve done it as a couple of people whose backgrounds are so unusual. How in the world did Obama and Reid get to where they are?”