ESPN’s Sage Steele Goes Viral Over Comments Regarding Barack Obama’s Black Father
ESPN sports anchor Sage Steele is trending following Wednesday taping of the podcast, “Uncut,” where she made a few shocking comments.
During Jay Cutler’s show, the former footballer called Steele the “Candace Owens of ESPN” after the two discussed the criticism she has gotten for her anti-vaccine stance. Steele said ESPN’s vaccine mandates are “sick” and “scary,” but got it to keep her job: “I respect a lot of Candace Owens,” said Steele about the controversial Black commentator who is also not a fan of COVID vaccine mandates.
On Sunday, another clip from the show was picked up and went viral. Cutler and Steele had a conversation about the Black identity and former President Barack Obama when discussing how Steele would fill out the census. Steele said that she told a friend that said Barack Obama chose Black as his race on the Census because bi-racial is not an option. “Congratulations to the President, that’s his thing.” She added, “I think that’s fascinating considering his black dad is nowhere to be found but his white mom and grandma raised him, but okay. You do you. I’m gonna do me.”
In a follow-up line, Steele said, “Listen, I’m pretty sure my white mom was there when I was born. And my white family loves me as much as my black family.”
Of course, her comments about Barack Obama’s racial identity were met with plenty of backlash online. Here’s what some had to say:
Sage Steele is EXACTLY who we thought she was !!!!! https://t.co/6Ln62DouEm
— Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) October 3, 2021
My dad is white and my mom was a Chilean immigrant. I consider myself Latina even though she is currently “nowhere to be found” because (like Obama’s father) she is dead. @sagesteele is awful. https://t.co/zEzDTnfmHf
— Lisa Guerrero 💃🏽 (@4lisaguerrero) October 3, 2021
3) Sadly, @sagesteele has a long rep there for trying to blow up the careers of co-anchors and other co-workers. Mind of an assassin, no aim, always wounding herself. But this stuff, especially the Obama part, is intolerable. They need to take her off the air, immediately. https://t.co/HmO3NwHmIK
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 3, 2021