Tucker Carlson reduced to pedaling con artist’s Obama gay sex claims on social media

Tucker Carlson, once a far-right media darling and the epicenter of conservatism and “liberal tears” on Fox News, is now hugging the fringes of relevancy with an internet-only interview featuring a toothless felon selling crack and gay sex like a trap house junkie.

Talk about a doom loop.

Related:

5 ways that Tucker Carlson has proved himself as a proudly anti-LGBTQ+ bigot

He has repeatedly supported attacking and killing LGBTQ+ people and their allies.

“A man who claims he had sex with Barack Obama in 1999 tells his story. Wednesday. 6pm ET,” Carlson posted to X on Tuesday, along with a clip previewing the one-time TV host’s internet interview.

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The man is Larry Sinclair, 61, a convicted felon and author of the 2009 book Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder? 

“I had given Barack $250 to pay for coke, I start putting a line on a CD tray to snort and next thing I know he’s got a little pipe and he’s smoking it,” Sinclair shared with Carlson as the defrocked Fox host looked on gobsmacked. “So I just started rubbing my hand along his thighs to see where it was going, and it went the direction I had intended it to go.”

Carlson looked like he might pass out, if not from Sinclair’s account then maybe the schadenfreude accompanying the barrel-scraping post and interview.

A man who claims he had sex with Barack Obama in 1999 tells his story.

Wednesday. 6pm ET. pic.twitter.com/iDYMSww1KS

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 5, 2023

Fox News fired Carlson in May after the discovery of a trove of racist emails.

Sinclair’s allegations aren’t news, nor is Carlson’s reaction spontaneous. He’s been talking about the convicted con artist’s claims since Obama first ran for president in 2008.

“It became really clear that Barack Obama had been having sex with men and smoking crack and a guy came forward, Larry Sinclair, and said ‘I’ll sign an affidavit and I’ll take a lie detector’ and he did,” Carlson told Adam Corolla on a podcast in 2008.

There’s no evidence beyond Sinclair’s wild claim, however, that any of it is true.

As Politico reported at the time, Sinclair has a long rap sheet and a problem with the truth.

“Public records and court filings reveal that he has a 27-year criminal record, with a specialty in crimes involving deceit. The record includes forgery charges in two states, one of which drew Sinclair a 16-year jail sentence. The Pueblo County, Colo., Sheriff’s Office also has an outstanding warrant for Sinclair’s arrest for forging an acquaintance’s signature and stealing her tax refunds.”

Colorado listed Sinclair with 13 aliases, including “Larye Vizcarra Avila” and “Mohammed Gahanan.” 

In 2008, the same year Carlson was first selling Sinclair’s story, the website Whitehouse.com reportedly offered Sinclair $100,000 if he could pass a polygraph test verifying his claims. The results, test administrators said, “indicated deception.”  

Even X owner Elon Musk criticized Carlson’s decision to interview Sinclair. Responding to a comment blasting the host for dredging up Sinclair’s claims, Musk commented, “Of course, the probability that his claims are true would have to rest on objective evidence, rather than claims made by someone with a dubious history.”