Forget pardons — Barack Obama wants to see a presidential Parton.
The 44th president appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” where he confessed that not giving singer Dolly Parton the Presidential Medal of Freedom was an oversight during his presidency. He would like to see the president-elect get it right.
“How does Dolly Parton not have a Presidential Medal of Freedom?” Colbert asked during a segment he called “Questions We’re Pretty Sure Barack Obama Has Never Been Asked Before.”
Obama, promoting his memoir “A Promised Land,” offered a mea culpa.
“That’s a mistake,” he admitted. “That was a screw up. I’m surprised. I think I assumed that she had already got one, and that was incorrect.”
In addition to being a world famous singer and actor, the 74-year-old Tennessee native donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University medical center, which helped fund research for the Moderna vaccine. It could help end the COVID-19 pandemic next year after president-elect Biden takes office. Obama, who is Biden’s former boss, said he might call his old pal to lobby for a medal for Parton.
“She deserves one,” Obama said. “I’ll call Biden.”
Colbert, who also assumed Parton was a medal winner, replied “Do it.”
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients include human rights champion Martin Luther King, Jr., virologist Jonas Salk, newsman Walter Cronkite, comedian Lucille Ball and basketball star Michael Jordan. President Trump, who has until Jan. 20 to bestow that honor upon civilians, made ailing conspiracy theorist Rush Limbaugh a Medal of Freedom recipient earlier this year. It is the highest honor a president can award a civilian.
Parton’s accolades so far include 11 Grammy Awards, one of which is a Lifetime Achievement recognition.
“The more I accomplish, the more humble I become, because I realize how few people are able to say that they’ve seen their dreams come true,” Parton wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
