Singer calls Barack Obama a ‘war criminal’ after he puts one her band’s songs on his latest playlist

Former president slammed by Boygenius star for praising their ‘Not Strong Enough’ song

The singer of the band Boygenius branded former President Barack Obama a “war criminal” after he included one of their songs in his summer playlists.

“Like I do every year, here are some songs I’ve been listening to this summer — a mix of old and new. Look forward to hearing what I’ve missed,” Mr Obama tweeted on Thursday after including the Boygenius song Not Strong Enough on his most recent playlist.

The group’s seemingly unimpressed singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus replied, “war criminal :(”.

According to Dazed Magazine, Ms Dacus may have been referring to the former president’s drone programme. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that Mr Obama oversaw “more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency.”

This isn’t the first time Mr Obama was called a “war criminal,” either. Cornel West, an activist and scholar who is running as a third-party presidential candidate, also referred to the former president as a “war criminal” 10 years ago, also in the context of his drone programme.

When talking on the Smiley & West radio show, in 2013 Mr West said, “We’ve been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people. It’s been over 200 children so far. These are war crimes.”

Musician Lucy Dacus from Boysgenius performs on the Coachella stage during the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, on April 15, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)

Mr West continued, “Let us not be deceived — Nixon, Bush, Obama, they’re war criminals,” adding that “They have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom, but they’re suspending the law, very much like Wall Street criminals. The law is suspended for them, but the law applies for the rest of us.”