--- title: Watch Obama Encounter a Jealous Boyfriend: 'Don't Touch My Girlfriend' description: President Obama held his own against a jealous boyfriend in Chicago, after the man warned the president to steer clear of his girlfriend canonical: https://time.com/3528755/president-obama-girlfriend-jealous-boyfriend/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-21T16:02:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:55:15.015Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Obama Encounter a Jealous Boyfriend: 'Don't Touch My Girlfriend' og:description: 'I really wasn't planning on it' og:url: https://time.com/3528755/president-obama-girlfriend-jealous-boyfriend/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd20cd0ca8406ba24/6987620e524fc04bc1de9fe9/457549038.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Politicans cast early vote ballots og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Obama Encounter a Jealous Boyfriend: 'Don't Touch My Girlfriend' twitter:description: 'I really wasn't planning on it' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd20cd0ca8406ba24/6987620e524fc04bc1de9fe9/457549038.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Obama Encounter a Jealous Boyfriend: 'Don't Touch My Girlfriend' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Oct 21, 2014 4:02 PM UTC  President Barack Obama casts his early votes at Dr. Martin Luther King Community Center in Chicago Monday, Oct. 20, 2014. President Barack Obama casts his early votes at Dr. Martin Luther King Community Center in Chicago Monday, Oct. 20, 2014. Antonio Perez—Chicago Tribune / Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Oct 21, 2014 4:02 PM UTC President Barack Obama [held his own](http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/21/politics/obama-early-voting-jokes/index.html) against a jealous boyfriend in Chicago on Monday. “Mr. President, don’t touch my girlfriend,” said a man identified by CNN as Mike Jones, as Obama cast his early ballot in the Illinois state elections next to a woman named Aia Cooper. “I really wasn’t planning on it,” Obama said, without looking up from his ballot, as Cooper laughed. A visibly embarrassed Cooper then offered an apology on behalf of her fiancé. Obama was sympathetic, though, joking “there’s an example of a brother just embarrassing me for no reason.” After a brief conversation as the two finished voting, the video shows, Obama gave Cooper a quick kiss on the cheek, to give Jones “something to talk about.” \[[_CNN_](http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/21/politics/obama-early-voting-jokes/index.html)\] _Read next:_ [_Obama Votes Early in Chicago_](http://time.com/3525056/obama-votes-2014-midtern-elections/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3528755/president-obama-girlfriend-jealous-boyfriend/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3528755/president-obama-girlfriend-jealous-boyfriend/"},"headline":"Watch Obama Encounter a Jealous Boyfriend: 'Don't Touch My Girlfriend'","datePublished":"2014-10-21T16:02:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:55:15.015Z","description":"'I really wasn't planning on it'","url":"https://time.com/3528755/president-obama-girlfriend-jealous-boyfriend/","keywords":["2014 Election","Congress","Barack Obama","White House","Illinois"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd20cd0ca8406ba24/6987620e524fc04bc1de9fe9/457549038.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd20cd0ca8406ba24/6987620e524fc04bc1de9fe9/457549038.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Politicans cast early vote ballots","caption":"Politicans cast early vote ballots","creditText":"Antonio Perez—Chicago Tribune / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2014-election/","name":"2014 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3528755/president-obama-girlfriend-jealous-boyfriend/","name":"Watch Obama Encounter a Jealous Boyfriend: 'Don't Touch My Girlfriend'"}}]}] ```