The backlash was swift and furious. A Georgetown University professor dropped the most racist social media post imaginable, connecting former President Barack Obama to the alleged shooting suspect at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, and the condemnation was immediate.
Conservative law professor and MAGA acolyte Randy Barnett did not make the post in the heat of the moment after the shooting Saturday night, April 25, at the Washington Hilton.
That’s when a gunman identified by authorities as 31-year-old Californian Cole Tomas Allen breached a Secret Service checkpoint leading to the WHCA dinner, where President Donald Trump, Melania, and most of Trump’s other top administration officials were in attendance
Allen, a 2017 graduate of Caltech with a degree in mechanical engineering and a 2025 master’s in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, was charged with three counts, including trying to assassinate the president, in federal court on Monday, April 27, according to CBS News.
Barnett waited almost two full days after the shooting, clearly thinking very specifically about what he was going to say, before firing off an inflammatory X message about Obama and a hypothetical son.
“If Obama had a son, he’d attack the White House Correspondents Dinner like Cole Allen,” Barnett wrote.
Social media exploded in anger and disbelief that Georgetown University would even consider tolerating this kind of hate speech amid calls for Barnett’s immediate termination.
“Suspense him or fire him! This rhetoric is the same that @FLOTUS is blaming everyone else for,” X user Franco demanded.
This X user agreed, “Is this what our kids need to be taught? Shame on Georgetown for allowing this.”
Barnett, a legal scholar and professor of Constitutional law at Georgetown, seemed to be referring to a 2012 comment Obama made after the shooting of unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin for walking through his Florida neighborhood at night, according to the legal industry website Above the Law.
“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Obama said at the time. That’s apparently where Barnett got the reference in his message about “if Obama had a son.”
Another X user angrily responded. “This is who they are. They can’t even hold their raging racism and sociopathic tendencies in for a few days, even for political expediency.
“@GeorgetownLaw dang, this your guy? @RandyEBarnett has a right to be scum but ur ok with him tarnishing your reputation? How can a raging racist teach constitutional law to a diverse student body?” this X user noted.
Barnett’s post follows increasing Republican rhetoric blaming Democrats and the media for the attack, which authorities say was aimed at Trump and his officials at the dinner.
In the press briefing room after the shooting, Trump sounded conciliatory, asking “all Americans to recommit with their hearts in resolving our differences peacefully. We have to resolve our differences,” NBC News reported.
But that didn’t last long. By Sunday, in an interview with “60 Minutes,” Trump skewered Democrats, seeming to blame them for the shooting, saying “the hate speech of the Democrats, much more so, is very dangerous.”
Critics say that the comment is truly absurd, given the history of Trump’s vile hate speech against everyone who doesn’t agree with him, and by Monday, the administration was back to normal, blaming everyone but Trump for the violence at the dinner.
“This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators, by elected members of the Democrat party and even some in the media,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on April 27 during the daily press briefing, conveniently omitting all the totally horrible things Trump has said about the media and his political rivals over the past 20 years.
Atlanta Black Star has reached out to Georgetown University for comment.
