Former Weather Underground activists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn were guests at the August 2014 wedding of White House chef Sam Kass and MSNBC anchor Alex Wagner, which was also attended by President Obama and his family, according to a report Thursday in Gawker.
Obama’s ties to Ayers became a flashpoint during the 2008 presidential campaign, with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) memorably accusing Obama of “palling around with terrorists who would target their own countries.”
Ayers and Dohrn spent nearly a decade on the run as fugitives for their role in carrying out bombings of federal buildings, including the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol, in protest of the Vietnam War. Federal authorities eventually dropped charges against them because of FBI misconduct.
{mosads}Ayers later became a professor and served alongside Obama on several charitable and education boards. Ayers also hosted a 1995 campaign event for Obama, who was running for the Illinois state Senate at the time. Officials for the Obama campaign said in 2008 the two men had not spoken by telephone or email since the president was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2005.
Kass, the Obama family’s longtime chef, also lived in Chicago during that period. He left the White House at the end of last year to join Wagner in New York City, where she anchors her afternoon show.
Although critics of Obama have insinuated close ties between the president and Ayers, the former Weather Underground member said in an interview just two months before the wedding that he believed Obama should be put on trial for war crimes at The Hague.
In an interview with Real Clear Politics, Ayers said he “absolutely” believed the president was engaged in terrorism for his use of drone strikes in fighting the war on terror.
“Every president in this century should be put on trial, every one of them,” Ayers said. “For war crimes. Absolutely.
“Every one of them goes into office, an office dripping with blood, and adds to it. And yes I think these are war crimes. They are acts of terror,” Ayers added.
He also said he would give the president a “failing” grade, while admitting that he liked him personally more than other recent presidents.
Obama dismissed efforts to tie him to Ayers during the 2008 primary.
“This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood … the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago — when I was 8 years old — somehow reflects on me and my values doesn’t make much sense,” Obama said.