Sean Hannity Hints Obama Did Cocaine, Smoked Weed with Travel Ban Judge

hannity
Fox News Channel anchor Sean Hannity poses for photographs as he sits on the set of his show "Hannity" at the Fox News Channel's studios in New York City, on October 28, 2014. Mike Segar/Reuters

Fox News' Sean Hannity didn't say Thursday that former President Barack Obama definitely did drugs with the Hawaii judge who blocked President Donald Trump's travel ban. But Hannity wasn't ruling it out either.

"By the way, this judge who issued the travel ban ruling is an Obama law school classmate," Hannity said on his radio show, according to a clip surfaced by the left-wing site Media Matters for America. "Maybe he should have recused himself from the case. Just a, just a maybe. Were they best friends in Hawaii, were they part of the 'Choom Gang,' smoking pot and hanging out? And doing a little weed and maybe even a little bit of blow? It's unbelievable here."

"Choom Gang" is a reference to an apparent group of Obama's friends in high school who enjoyed smoking pot and coming up with weed-related games. Obama, then known as "Barry," was reportedly renowned for his so-called interceptions where he would sneak in to swipe an extra hit of a joint. (This was later immortalized on the Comedy Central sketch show "Key & Peele.")

After suggesting Obama and the Hawaii jurist—Judge Derrick Watson, who graduated from Harvard Law School alongside both the 44th president and Trump's Supreme court nominee Neil Gorsuch—did drugs together, Hannity launched into a popular right-wing conspiracy.

"Now just to put a fine point on this, Obama made a surprise visit to Hawaii just 48 hours before the judge blocked the Trump travel ban," Hannity said in the clip. "Did he see his buddy? Not saying he did, but considering NBC, CNN and every other, you know, abusively biased alt-left, propaganda, destroy-Trump media outlet is into conspiracy these days, I guess nothing is off the table."

Conservative site Independent Journal Review retracted a story this week that similarly suggested, without evidence, that Obama visited Hawaii not for vacation but to shut down the Trump executive order temporarily banning visitors from six Muslim-majority countries. The theory seemed to have begun with the site Infowars, a far-right outlet that often trades in conspiracy theories.

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