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| Boris Johnson’s Essay on Obama and Churchill Touches Nerve Online | Boris Johnson’s Essay on Obama and Churchill Touches Nerve Online |
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| LONDON — Hours after President Obama landed in London to urge Britons to vote to remain in the European Union, Mayor Boris Johnson, arguably the most visible leader of the campaign for Britain to leave the bloc, hit back with an opinion essay that criticized the president but immediately raised hackles online. | LONDON — Hours after President Obama landed in London to urge Britons to vote to remain in the European Union, Mayor Boris Johnson, arguably the most visible leader of the campaign for Britain to leave the bloc, hit back with an opinion essay that criticized the president but immediately raised hackles online. |
| The essay, published in the right-leaning tabloid The Sun on Friday morning, recycled a story about a bust of Winston Churchill that was removed from the Oval Office shortly after Mr. Obama took office in 2009. It also mentioned a theory, prominent among some right-wing Americans, that Mr. Obama is motivated by a radical anti-imperialist agenda and that “the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British Empire” motivated the removal of the bust. | The essay, published in the right-leaning tabloid The Sun on Friday morning, recycled a story about a bust of Winston Churchill that was removed from the Oval Office shortly after Mr. Obama took office in 2009. It also mentioned a theory, prominent among some right-wing Americans, that Mr. Obama is motivated by a radical anti-imperialist agenda and that “the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British Empire” motivated the removal of the bust. |
| Mr. Obama is in Britain on Friday to congratulate Queen Elizabeth II, who turned 90 on Thursday, and to advocate that Britons vote in a June 23 referendum to remain in the European Union. Mr. Obama laid out his argument in an opinion essay in The Telegraph, a conservative-leaning newspaper, published online late on Thursday, and he addressed the issue Friday afternoon at an appearance with Prime Minister David Cameron. | |
| Mr. Obama’s essay invoked the “special relationship,” between the two countries, their shared sacrifices during World War II and their cooperation in developing the institutions of the postwar order — among them the United Nations, NATO and the European Union — and it was seen as a significant intervention in a debate that has sharply divided the British public and revealed deep fissures in the governing Conservative Party. | Mr. Obama’s essay invoked the “special relationship,” between the two countries, their shared sacrifices during World War II and their cooperation in developing the institutions of the postwar order — among them the United Nations, NATO and the European Union — and it was seen as a significant intervention in a debate that has sharply divided the British public and revealed deep fissures in the governing Conservative Party. |
| Mr. Johnson’s essay firmly rejected Mr. Obama’s position. “It is incoherent,” the mayor wrote. “It is inconsistent, and yes, it is downright hypocritical. The Americans would never contemplate anything like the E.U. for themselves or for their neighbors, in their own hemisphere. Why should they think it right for us?” | Mr. Johnson’s essay firmly rejected Mr. Obama’s position. “It is incoherent,” the mayor wrote. “It is inconsistent, and yes, it is downright hypocritical. The Americans would never contemplate anything like the E.U. for themselves or for their neighbors, in their own hemisphere. Why should they think it right for us?” |
| Nonetheless, by touching on themes that right-wing critics of Mr. Obama have used, Mr. Johnson may have drowned out his own message. The opposition Labour Party leapt at the chance to attack Mr. Johnson. | Nonetheless, by touching on themes that right-wing critics of Mr. Obama have used, Mr. Johnson may have drowned out his own message. The opposition Labour Party leapt at the chance to attack Mr. Johnson. |
| “Boris part-Kenyan Obama comment is yet another example of dog whistle racism from senior Tories,” John McDonnell, a senior Labour Party leader, wrote on Twitter. “He should withdraw it. Another Labour lawmaker, Chuka Umunna, said that “Johnson has shown why he is totally unfit to become prime minister.” | “Boris part-Kenyan Obama comment is yet another example of dog whistle racism from senior Tories,” John McDonnell, a senior Labour Party leader, wrote on Twitter. “He should withdraw it. Another Labour lawmaker, Chuka Umunna, said that “Johnson has shown why he is totally unfit to become prime minister.” |
| Nicholas Soames, a Conservative member of Parliament and a grandson of Churchill, also condemned Mr. Johnson’s essay, calling it an “appalling article” that is “totally wrong on almost everything.” It was “inconceivable,” Mr. Soames said, that his grandfather would “not have welcomed” the president’s views on Britain’s role in Europe. | Nicholas Soames, a Conservative member of Parliament and a grandson of Churchill, also condemned Mr. Johnson’s essay, calling it an “appalling article” that is “totally wrong on almost everything.” It was “inconceivable,” Mr. Soames said, that his grandfather would “not have welcomed” the president’s views on Britain’s role in Europe. |
| Nick Cohen, a columnist for the conservative magazine The Spectator, which Mr. Johnson once edited, called him “a man without principle or shame” and compared him to Donald J. Trump. “Johnson lacked the common courtesy to acknowledge that Obama’s concerns were genuine if in his view misguided,” Mr. Cohen wrote. “Instead he sunk into the gutter and stayed there.” | Nick Cohen, a columnist for the conservative magazine The Spectator, which Mr. Johnson once edited, called him “a man without principle or shame” and compared him to Donald J. Trump. “Johnson lacked the common courtesy to acknowledge that Obama’s concerns were genuine if in his view misguided,” Mr. Cohen wrote. “Instead he sunk into the gutter and stayed there.” |
| And John Gapper, a Financial Times columnist, wondered on Twitter: “So is Boris Johnson against the European Union because he’s part-Turkish?” | And John Gapper, a Financial Times columnist, wondered on Twitter: “So is Boris Johnson against the European Union because he’s part-Turkish?” |
| Some people came to Mr. Johnson’s defense — though in ways that might not have been helpful to the mayor. Nigel Farage, the leader of the populist U.K. Independence Party, told the BBC: “I think Obama, because of his grandfather and Kenya and colonization — I think Obama bears a bit of a grudge against this country.” That remark also drew heavy criticism on social media. | Some people came to Mr. Johnson’s defense — though in ways that might not have been helpful to the mayor. Nigel Farage, the leader of the populist U.K. Independence Party, told the BBC: “I think Obama, because of his grandfather and Kenya and colonization — I think Obama bears a bit of a grudge against this country.” That remark also drew heavy criticism on social media. |
| Mr. Johnson, who is also a member of Parliament, is stepping down from his post as mayor next month, after two terms. Born in Manhattan — he said last year that he was taking steps to renounce his United States citizenship, for tax purposes — Mr. Johnson is an accomplished author, a gadfly and, quite possibly, a candidate to succeed Mr. Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and as prime minister. He has become a thorn in Mr. Cameron’s side, fervently arguing that Britain should leave the 28-nation bloc, a position the prime minister opposes. Opinion polls show that the public is deeply divided on the issue, which has been nicknamed “Brexit.” | Mr. Johnson, who is also a member of Parliament, is stepping down from his post as mayor next month, after two terms. Born in Manhattan — he said last year that he was taking steps to renounce his United States citizenship, for tax purposes — Mr. Johnson is an accomplished author, a gadfly and, quite possibly, a candidate to succeed Mr. Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and as prime minister. He has become a thorn in Mr. Cameron’s side, fervently arguing that Britain should leave the 28-nation bloc, a position the prime minister opposes. Opinion polls show that the public is deeply divided on the issue, which has been nicknamed “Brexit.” |
| The theory that Mr. Obama was influenced by his father, Barack Obama Sr., a Harvard-trained economist who returned to Kenya in 1964, when the future president was a toddler, was advanced most prominently in “The Roots of Obama’s Rage,” a 2010 book by the conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza. The view has been likened to that of the so-called birthers, who do not believe that Mr. Obama was born in the United States. | The theory that Mr. Obama was influenced by his father, Barack Obama Sr., a Harvard-trained economist who returned to Kenya in 1964, when the future president was a toddler, was advanced most prominently in “The Roots of Obama’s Rage,” a 2010 book by the conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza. The view has been likened to that of the so-called birthers, who do not believe that Mr. Obama was born in the United States. |
| In the essay, Mr. Johnson described the removal of the Churchill bust as “something mysterious,” but in fact the story has been explained many times. It has so many twists that even the White House got part of it wrong and had to issue an apology. | In the essay, Mr. Johnson described the removal of the Churchill bust as “something mysterious,” but in fact the story has been explained many times. It has so many twists that even the White House got part of it wrong and had to issue an apology. |
| After Sept. 11, 2001, the British government lent President George W. Bush a bust of Churchill for the duration of his presidency, and it was placed in the Oval Office. But the White House already had a Churchill bust. | After Sept. 11, 2001, the British government lent President George W. Bush a bust of Churchill for the duration of his presidency, and it was placed in the Oval Office. But the White House already had a Churchill bust. |
| When Mr. Obama took office in 2009, a redecoration occurred, and the British-owned Churchill bust was returned to the British Embassy in Washington. Mr. Obama selected a bust of Lincoln for the Oval Office. | When Mr. Obama took office in 2009, a redecoration occurred, and the British-owned Churchill bust was returned to the British Embassy in Washington. Mr. Obama selected a bust of Lincoln for the Oval Office. |
| The American-owned Churchill bust remained in the White House, outside the Treaty Room, in the president’s family quarters. (In 2012, the White House communications director at the time, Dan Pfeiffer, who had denounced the bust-removal story as a myth, acknowledged that he had reacted too hastily, not realizing that there had been two Churchill busts, including the one that was returned to the British.) | The American-owned Churchill bust remained in the White House, outside the Treaty Room, in the president’s family quarters. (In 2012, the White House communications director at the time, Dan Pfeiffer, who had denounced the bust-removal story as a myth, acknowledged that he had reacted too hastily, not realizing that there had been two Churchill busts, including the one that was returned to the British.) |
| Mr. Johnson, in his essay, said that “no one was sure whether the president had himself been involved in the decision” to return the British-owned bust, even though White House officials have insisted he was not. Mr. Johnson did not note that the American-owned bust remains in the White House. | Mr. Johnson, in his essay, said that “no one was sure whether the president had himself been involved in the decision” to return the British-owned bust, even though White House officials have insisted he was not. Mr. Johnson did not note that the American-owned bust remains in the White House. |