Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been a vocal critic of former president Barack Obama . Carlson has attacked the Democratic leader’s private life, making bold assertions without evidence. In a 2023 episode of Tucker on Twitter titled Cling to your taboos, the ex-TV host claimed that Obama led a “highly creepy personal life”. “By 2008, it was obvious to anybody who was paying attention that Barack Obama had a strange and highly creepy personal life , yet nobody ever asked him about it,” he said in the video uploaded on X without explaining the objective of the criticism.
Ep. 2 Cling to your taboos! pic.twitter.com/45AeVdtwOu
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 8, 2023
According to The Independent , Carlson vaguely continued, “By that point, a leader’s behavior within his own marriage, the core relationship of his life, had been declared irrelevant. It was Barack Obama’s business, not yours.” He also said that individuals had lost their moral clout and that the traditional taboos had been overturned. While discussing how infidelity was formerly “considered disqualifying for anyone seeking higher office,” he also touched on Bill Clinton ‘s extramarital affairs . Within a day, the odd 13-minute monologue received over a million views making it a major discussion point.
As per People , in his 2017 book Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama , Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David J. Garrow accused the former president of cheating on his wife, Michelle . The book suggested that a young Obama might have maintained his relationship with Sheila Miyoshi Jager, his ex-lover, even after meeting his future wife. “Barack and Sheila had continued to see each other irregularly throughout the 1990-1991 academic year, notwithstanding the deepening of Barack’s relationship with Michelle Robinson,” Garrow wrote. “‘I always felt bad about it,’ Sheila confessed more than two decades later.”
Given his video’s discussion of adultery, Carlson may have been hinting at Obama’s affair with his ex without bringing it up outright. The book further claimed that Obama proposed to Jager twice—the first time in 1986, when she was 23, and he was 25. But since her parents opposed the idea she declined the offer saying, “Not yet.” Their relationship suffered as a result of the Democrat leader’s political aspirations, and they eventually drifted apart. This was not the first time the former Fox News host targeted Obama with verbal attacks.
What’s Barack Obama up to these days? Working to make people hate each other, as usual. pic.twitter.com/amy7imTuw0
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 24, 2024
The Independent reported that in 2021 Carlson received heavy backlash for calling Obama a ‘hater’, “He’s back to let you know that if you’ve got any problem with your kids’ teachers telling them that some races are better than others that you, my friend, are a racist.” Carlson added, “That guy is a hater. For real.” The former president told CNN that right-wing news organizations were profiting by inciting fear and animosity among white Americans, prompting Carlson to make these remarks.
Tucker Carlson: “Barack Obama is a racial arsonist. He emerges at our most vulnerable moments to deepen the wounds that divide us. He sows hate.” pic.twitter.com/sAl5V5Tz2A
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 24, 2021
Additionally, Obama mocked right-wingers for their obsession with critical race theory, saying, “Lo and behold, the single most important issue to them right now is critical race theory.”Who knew that that was the threat to our republic?” Carlson concluded by saying that Obama should “retreat to Hawaii and Martha’s Vineyard,” where he had recently purchased a $12 million estate.