What started as a typical springtime event in the White House lawn ended with President Obama risking his own life to save a group of schoolchildren participating in the annual Easter Egg Roll.
On Monday, Obama was in the middle of reading Maurice Sendak’s classic “Where the Wild Things Are” when the children in the audience began screaming as dozens of bees swarmed.
“Hold on, hold on. You guys are wild things. You’re not supposed to be scared of bees — just a few hundred angry bees,” Obama said before sensing that something was amiss. According to witnesses, the president then noticed that someone had knocked over the South Lawn’s beehive.
“Run,” he ordered the children while Secret Service agents screamed and swatted the air. “Run, my cherubic little ones, run into the safety of the White House and I will take the stings of these angry beasts.”
Obama was soon covered in what is being described as “a suit” of enraged honey bees who stung him an estimated 24,000 times. Minutes later, with dead and dying worker bees falling near his feet, Obama appeared unfazed, picking stingers out of his arms and face, even joking with reporters that as president, he is used to the “hive of activity.”
“President Obama is amazingly robust,” said toxicologist and amateur beekeeper Joe Klivemore. “Getting hundreds of stings would incapacitate most healthy adults, so this goes to show how impermeable his skin truly is.”