Viral
Danielle Sinay
Aug 06, 2021
In August of 2014, former U.S. President Barack Obama wore a tan suit. This isn’t particularly groundbreaking news, but for whatever reason, for right-wing media, it was: conservatives were genuinely outraged by the attire.
And now, almost exactly seven years since Tan-Suit-Gate, current president — and Obama’s former VP — is bravely bearing a similarly controversial costume. Yes: U.S. President Joe Biden is wearing a tan suit on the week of Barack Obama’s birthday.
Again, this really shouldn’t be news, but many are theorising that Biden’s suit selection is likely a nod to Tan-Suit-Gate, and his attempt to troll the right-wing media who was so perturbed by the former president’s summer ensemble.
For some context: Obama had worn the suit to a White House news conference, during which he addressed ISIS. But conservatives, and New York Republican Rep. Peter T. King found this inexcusable. King told Newsmax TV that “there’s no way any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday.”
“When you have the world watching... a week, two weeks of anticipation of what the United States is gonna do. For him to walk out — I’m not trying to be trivial here — in a light suit, light tan suit, saying that first he wants to talk about what most Americans care about the revision of second quarter numbers on the economy,” he continued. “ISIS is watching. If you were the head of ISIS, if you were Baghdadi, if you were anyone in the ISIS, would you come away from yesterday afraid of the United States? Would you be afraid that the United States was going to use all its power to crush ISIS? Or would you think here’s a person who’s going to go out and do a few fundraisers over the Labor Day weekend?”
Later, King doubled down on the severity of the issue, telling CNN that Obama’s tan suit demonstrated a “lack of seriousness.”
Fox News’ Lou Dobbs also tackled the topic, suggesting that Obama’s garb “was shocking to a lot of people,” theorising he wore it out of “desperation” due to allegedly low polling numbers.
Eventually, the White House was forced to address the suit. “The president stands squarely behind the decision that he made yesterday to wear his summer suit at yesterday’s news conference,” said then-White House press secretary. “It’s the Thursday before Labor Day. He feels pretty good about it.”
This brings us back to the present: August, 2021. U.S. president Joe Biden has so happened to select a tan suit for an announcement during Obama’s birthday’s week. See Biden in the scandelous suit below.
Getty Images
Ah, the circle of life. And tan suits.
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