A Georgetown Law professor is facing backlash after tweeting that if Barack Obama “had a son,” he would be the suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting.
Professor Randy Barnett posted to X on Monday (April 27), comparing the shooter —identified as 31-year-old California teacher Cole Allen — to former U.S. President Barack Obama.
Specifically, Barnett wrote that if Obama had a son, he would “attack the White House Correspondents Dinner like Cole Allen.”
The post was a reply to legal analyst Jonathan Turley’s tweet, which linked to a Fox News article criticizing Obama’s response to the shooting.
Obama said in a statement on X that although “we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind” the shooting, it is “incumbent upon all of us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy.”
Barnett’s post appeared to be mirroring a remark made by Obama in 2012, where he said, “ You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon,” while commenting on the shooting of unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin.
Barnett’s post quickly received backlash, with comments under the post questioning what Barnett was trying to suggest about Obama and Black people at large.
“So, Obama's son would try to kill people? Why do you make that assumption? Could it be because he would be part black? Because that is exactly what it seems like you're insinuating,” one commenter wrote.
“Hey @GeorgetownLaw. Come get your faculty member,” another wrote.
Adam Serwer, a staff member at The Atlantic, also took to Bluesky in response to Barnett’s post to comment on the issue.
“You really cannot overestimate the level of status trauma a lot of white Americans experienced at the election of Barack Obama and how much of our politics is still influenced by it,” he said. “The funny part is that Barnett’s 'joke’ actually proves the point Obama was making about racism since the punchline is they’re both black and have absolutely nothing else in common.”
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