Gay man who said he had sex with Obama running for mayor in Florida
Sinclair is running for mayor of Cocoa, Florida (larry sinclair/facebook)
Larry Sinclair, a convicted felon who has claimed he had gay sex with President Barack Obama is running to become mayor of a Florida town.
Larry Sinclair gave a speech at the National Press Club in 2008, while Obama was running for President, alleging that then-Senator Obama bought and smoked cocaine and had gay sex with him in 1999.
Sinclair, who has served prison time in Arizona, Florida and Colorado for forgery, fraud and larceny, is now campaigning to win the mayor’s seat in Cocoa, a town of around 19,000 people, in the November 6 election.
The South Carolina native has told Florida Today that he doesn’t regret his accusations, which also include the claim that Obama had another male lover and was connected to his death and were detailed in his self-published 2009 book, Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder?
“I don’t need to say anything more,” Sinclair said. “My book speaks for itself, and I do not backtrack anything that I said at that press conference.”
His allegations were among the first of many unproven claims to be aimed at Obama during his time running for and serving as President — and even since he left office, with InfoWars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones saying earlier this year that “Obama’s having sex with 10 dudes a day.”
Sinclair, 57, is running against two experienced local politicians in the nonpartisan special election to replace Mayor Henry Parrish III, but neither councilmember Clarence Whipple Jr nor former councilmember Jake Williams Jr have brought up Sinclair’s inflammatory past claims.
Instead, they have urged voters to conduct their own research into their opponent.
Whipple said: “I do believe that the voters are smarter than the candidates give them credit for. “But I’m not going to send stuff out on it.
“I’m not questioning his rehabilitation.”
However, he did add that electing Sinclair would “put a black eye on our city and our state. It’s terrible. It’s awful.”
Councilmember Brenda Warner also criticised the candidate, saying: “He doesn’t have a filter. He’s loud and obnoxious at times.
“He doesn’t understand that you often can accomplish something more with kind words than a baseball bat.”
Sinclair insisted that he has turned around his life, and that he would use his experiences to inform his actions if he was elected.
“I’ve been on both sides of the wall, okay?” he said. “I’ve been on both sides of cops. I’ve been on both sides of the jail cell. I don’t hide from anything I’ve ever done in my life, and I don’t excuse it, and I’m not hiding from it now.
“I am very open about who I am, what I have done and what I am doing and will continue to do regardless of how this election turns out.”
The candidate, who is not registered with any party, has spent more than $17,000 during his campaign, which is six times more than Williams and nearly 10 times as much as Whipple.
Sinclair explained: “I have more support than people thought I would, and it’s because I am a doer, not a talker.”
