Tim McGraw Infuriates Country Fans with Obama Statement

Claim:   Country singer Tim McGraw recently expressed support for President Obama.

MIXTURE:

	FALSE: Tim McGraw disclosed his support for Barack Obama's presidency in a 2015 interview.
	TRUE: Tim McGraw discussed his support for Barack Obama's presidential campaign back in 2008.

Example:   [Collected via Facebook, February 2015]

We have always thought you were a great couple and loved your music BUT SINCE YOU HAVE COME OUT FOR OBAMA, WE CAN NO LONGER SUPPORT YOU OR YOUR MUSIC!!!!!!!

Origins:   In February 2015, several conservative blogs published articles about country singer Tim McGraw's political views, primarily his alleged openly expressed support of the presidency of Barack Obama. The flurry of reports angered a number of country fans, and one of the first posts to recirculate McGraw's remarks described the musician (and his musician wife Faith Hill) as somewhat deceitful:

Subsequent iterations of the claim described McGraw as "hardcore" and an "Obama-supporter", prompting a flood of outrage on the singer's Facebook page. The remarks attributed to McGraw that circulated in February 2015 were largely an accurate reproduction of something he once said:

However, those remarks were typically incorrectly presented as being recent statements rather than quotes from several years earlier:

While McGraw did express his support for Barack Obama during a 2008 interview with People magazine, an important piece of context was missing from the 2015 recirculation of those quotes: McGraw's remarks were made during Barack Obama's candidacy in 2008, not several years later after President Obama was well into his second term. When McGraw spoke those words, President George W. Bush was still in the White House, and Barack Obama had not yet been voted into office. The remarks were many years old when they were recirculated in 2015 and did not constitute a recent revelation by McGraw of his current political views, nor could the words be reasonably considered an accurate gauge of McGraw's opinions about President Obama's performance in office, as they were spoken prior to the 2008 election.

Last updated:   14 April 2015