A new photo has emerged that shows former President Barack Obama posing with Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the black nationalist hate group Nation of Islam.
The photo shows then Democratic Illinois Sen. Barack Obama smiling with Farrakhan at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting in 2005. Farrakhan is known for embracing radically anti-Semitic and anti-white views, as even the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center has acknowledged.
Journalist Askia Muhammed said he took the photo but decided to suppress its publication in order to protect Obama’s presidential ambitions. Now that Obama’s political career is over, Muhammad is going public with the picture and publishing it in a new book called “The Autobiography of Charles 67X.”
The photo was first published last week by the Trice Edney News Wire, a “provocative, empowering, unapologetically Black” wire news service that interviewed Muhammad. The veteran journalist told the news service that he “gave the picture up at the time and basically swore secrecy” to protect Obama.
The photo that never saw the light of day: Obama with Farrakhan in 2005 https://t.co/nUrPbYVy0q pic.twitter.com/MrjqRdJy9G
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) January 25, 2018
“But after the nomination was secured and all the way up until the inauguration; then for eight years after he was President, it was kept under cover,” he said, referencing keeping the photo under wraps to protect Obama’s career. “It absolutely would have made a difference.”
Muhammad is a veteran journalist who has won awards from the National Association of Black Journalists. (RELATED: Farrakhan Tells Black Soldiers To Desert For The ‘Day Of Judgment’ For Whites)
Obama’s ties to Farrakhan became an issue during the 2008 campaign, after Hillary Clinton slammed Obama for being slow to disavow the hate group leader’s endorsement.
“I obviously can’t censor him, but it is not support that I sought,” Obama said at the time, according to CNN. “And we’re not doing anything, I assure you, formally or informally with Minister Farrakhan.” Obama added: “I can’t say to somebody that he can’t say that he thinks I’m a good guy.”
Pushed by Clinton, Obama finally denounced Farrakhan, saying that “if the word ‘reject’ Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word ‘denounce,’ then I’m happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce.”
The new photo shows Obama was closer to Farrakhan than he let on.