Rep. Carlos Gimenez appeared on Newsmax this week, and for the most part, the Florida Republican peddled forgettable talking points. The GOP congressman did, however, share a conspiracy theory that stood out:
“There’s a lot of Obama people in the White House. A lot of us think that this is really the third term of Barack Obama, that he’s behind the scenes. He’s pulling the strings and Joe Biden is just, you know, there.”
Gimenez added that he and his fellow Republicans “can see what’s going on.”
GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez on Newsmax: "A lot of us think that this is really the third term of Barack Obama, that he's behind the scenes and pulling the strings." pic.twitter.com/oX72rhYcks
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 18, 2024
This comes on the heels of Alina Habba, a prominent member of Donald Trump’s legal team, appearing on Fox News and suggesting that Obama is secretly involved with her client’s criminal prosecutions.
Two months earlier, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast and declared, “Obama is running the country.” The right-wing Georgian added that this is something “we’ve known all along.”
Yes, it appears the Republican Party, even now, can’t quite shake its preoccupation with the idea that the former Democratic president is still running the White House from the shadows.
Trump himself embraced the conspiracy theory last fall, repeatedly claiming that Obama is Biden’s White House “boss,” but as regular readers know, the presumptive GOP nominee has plenty of company.
Megyn Kelly, a prominent conservative media personality, told an on-air audience in September, “There are a lot of people who think the Obamas are already running the government and that there is some sort of shadow puppet situation going on that they’re controlling.”
Kelly didn’t elaborate as to who the “people” are who believe such nonsense, but the group apparently includes former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: Two weeks earlier, the Georgia Republican appeared on Fox News and said he has a “hunch” that Obama is secretly “making decisions in the White House.”
In July 2023, Republican Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina said during a Fox Business interview that he also believes that Biden is merely “a puppet for a progressive left committee, as it were, headed by Obama.”
In 2022, Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo also suggested that the former Democratic president might be secretly “running the country,” to which Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee replied that Obama’s meetings with Biden led people to believe that the former president was “the de facto leader in the White House.”
In other words, the conspiracy theory is bizarre, but it’s not uncommon. Several months ago, I heard from a conservative reader who not only believed the idea that Obama was secretly in charge, he presented what he considered evidence: a list of prominent Obama appointees who now hold key positions in the Biden White House. Gimenez alluded to such a list during his Newsmax appearance this week, referencing the “Obama people in the White House.” Except that’s not actually proof of anything. It stands to reason that the incumbent president would want White House staffers to have some executive branch experience, and the only other Democratic administration in the 21st century was Obama’s. What’s more, Biden worked closely with many of these same officials — because he was Obama’s vice president. What’s even stranger is why, exactly, so many Republicans remain invested in this particular conspiracy theory. The idea appears to be rooted in the idea that Biden is old, so he must need someone else to lead the White House in secret. But isn’t this counterproductive for the right? Given how obvious it is that Obama, several years removed from government service, isn’t secretly in charge, aren’t we left with the obvious fact that Biden is perfectly capable, despite his age? This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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