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Rapist’s painting hung in the White House

Sarah Hofmann Contributor
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A painting of President Barack Obama by a shock artist with a rape fetish hung in the White House for at least two years.

Artist David Choe, known for his graffiti and shock art, rose to minor fame after drawing the murals in Facebook’s first offices. He hosts a Vice show centered on hitchhiking, has shown Anthony Bourdain around Los Angeles on Bourdain’s CNN show, “Parts Unknown,” and one of his paintings graced the walls of the White House from at least 2008-2010.

But Choe also has a rape fetish. On the podcast that he co-hosts with porn star Asa Akira, he recounted the story of forcing a female masseuse to perform oral sex on him after she repeatedly said no. He described the scene to listeners: “I take the back of her head and push it down on my dick and she doesn’t do it and I go, ‘Open your mouth, open your mouth.'”

His female co-host immediately said, “You raped.” After Choe laughed, Akira continued, “Eww, you’re basically telling us that you’re a rapist now and the only way to get your dick really hard is rape,” to which Choe responded, “Yeah.”

Choe painted a portrait of Obama entitled “Hussein” during the 2008 race. According to Choe’s site, it was part of a “grassroots street art campaign.” When Obama won the presidency, the painting was hung in the White House. In a 2010 interview with Ion magazine, Choe was asked about his painting, which was still hanging in the building.

He replied, “The painting in the White House is pretty fucking sick. There’s a secret message on that painting written in glow-in-the-dark paint, so you can only see it at night. That makes me laugh, I never get bored because I’m always making myself laugh.”

The White House has not responded to an emailed request for comment.

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