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London mayor criticized for Obama 'part-Kenyan' remark


LONDON — London Mayor Boris Johnson faced criticism Friday for writing that President Obama’s “part-Kenyan” heritage could have played a part in the decision to remove a bust of Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill from the Oval Office.

Johnson, who is leaving the role next month, wrote an article in The Sun supporting the campaign for Britons to vote to leave the 28-member European Union in a June referendum. The comments came as President Obama weighed in on the vote during a visit to the United Kingdom.

“In the residence on the second floor – my private office, it’s called the Treaty Room – right outside the door of the Treaty Room … the primary image I see is a bust of Winston Churchill. It’s there voluntarily. I love Winston Churchill … love the guy,” Obama said Friday.

He said when he was elected, his predecessor kept the bust of Churchill in the Oval Office and there are only so many tables where you can put a bust.

He said as the first African American president, he instead displayed a bust of Martin Luther King “to remind me of all the hard work of a lot of people who would somehow allow me to have the privilege of holding this office.”

In 2012, the White House said reports of the removal of the bust were false and that it was still in the White House.

In the article, Johnson, a member of the ruling Conservative Party, wrote that the bust of the revered World War II leader was sent from the White House to the British Embassy in Washington in 2009 after Obama took office.

“No one was sure whether the President had himself been involved in the decision,” Johnson wrote. “Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire — of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.”

Obama's father was Kenyan.

John McDonnell, a member of parliament for Britain's opposition Labour Party, tweeted in response to Johnson's article: “Mask slips again. Boris part-Kenyan Obama comment is yet another example of dog whistle racism from senior Tories (Conservative Party members). He should withdraw it.”

Fellow Labour Party MP Chuka Umunna, added: “These Tory Mayoral types are beyond the pale… Boris plays on @BarackObama's Kenyan ancestry.”

Johnson's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Paste BN.