CNN analyzes 'backslaps' between Sanders and Obama ahead of White House meeting


It's been a long election, and after more than a year of non-stop campaign coverage, it's hard to come up with new things to say about the minutiae of the 2016 race. At least, that seems to be the dilemma at CNN, which, while trying to cover the anticipated meeting Thursday between Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Obama at the White House, resorted to analyzing body language as the two walked down the famed colonnade:
The audio in the clip was minimal, so other than sparse laughter by the two men, not much was available for dissection ahead of the actual meeting. But dissect we must, and so CNN anchors John Berman and Kate Bolduan resorted to discussing the back-slapping between the president and the senator and whether it was mutual. "I have to say, just dissecting that walk can be fascinating," Berman said. "I saw at least one backslap from the senator to the president." Bolduan was quick to clarify that there was also a backslap from the president to the senator.
Of course, there is some analysis to be done regarding the optics of the whole thing — but backslaps? Five more months til Election Day, everyone.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from