The official portraits of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama received a wide array of reactions when they were unveiled on Monday. But none has been quite as insane as the one Sean Hannity promoted on his Twitter account Tuesday afternoon. 
 
 “Obama's portrait—a stark contrast to predecessors with inappropriate sexual innuendo,” the Fox News host tweeted, linking to a truly bizarre article on his website written by “Hannity Staff.” 
 
 “PORTRAIT PERVERSION: Obama Portrait Features ‘SECRET SPERM,’ Artist Joked About ‘Killing Whitey’” the headline screamed. And it only got weirder from there. 
 
 The article promises “shocking allegations” that the artist behind the former president’s portrait, Kehinde Wiley, “included ‘secret sperm cells’ within the painting and once joked about ‘Killing Whitey’ during an interview.” 
 
 The evidence for the former claim comes from a 2008 New York Times article—conveniently not “fake news” when it supports Hannity’s agenda—that reports Wiley’s portraits “initially depicted African-American men against rich textile or wallpaper backgrounds whose patterns he has likened to abstractions of sperm.” Hannity’s piece includes a close up of a vein in Obama’s forehead in the portrait that someone on his “staff” apparently thinks looks sperm-like. 
 
 It appears that the whole “sperm” theory originated on—where else?—4chan, where a thread was posted on Monday proclaiming, “Official Portrait of Obama has SPERM on his face!!!” That post just happened to include the same close up of Obama that Hannity used on his site. 
 
 As for the “Kill Whitey” part, that dates back to a quote Wiley gave New York magazine in 2012 about a painting in which a black woman holds the severed head of a white woman in the style of Biblical depictions by artists like Caravaggio. In other words, art. 
 
 The outrage echoed comments made by Hannity’s Fox News lead-in Tucker Carlson on Monday night about the “racially fraught decapitation portrait” by Wiley, who he mistakenly identified as female for some reason. “This is the person painting the Obamas’ portraits?” Carlson asked incredulously. 
 
 Evidently, this particular conspiracy theory was too crazy even for Hannity, who deleted both the tweet and the article just a couple of hours after they were posted. 
 
 But if he ever finds any evidence of bodily fluids in a portrait of Hillary Clinton, you can be sure he will let us all know. 
 
 UPDATE: In a statement provided by Fox News, Hannity told The Daily Beast: “Earlier today my web staff posted content that was not reviewed by me before publication. It does not reflect my voice and message and, therefore, I had it taken down.” ||||| Fox News host Sean Hannity has claimed with no evidence whatsoever that former President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., that he is in cahoots with the entire "liberal media," and that under his watch, a Democratic National Committee staffer was killed because he supposedly gave emails to WikiLeaks. Never one to miss something that definitely isn't there, Hannity's latest conspiracy involves "secret sperm cells" in Obama's official portrait. Yes, really. 
 
 The Smithsonian's portrait of President Obama pic.twitter.com/buvVAEomrj — Axios (@axios) February 12, 2018 
 
 Artist Kehinde Wiley's bold portrait of Barack Obama has been well received, with The Boston Globe calling the painting and its pair, Amy Sherald's portrait of Michelle Obama, "socio-cultural documents to surviving with grace and elegance." Obama praised Wiley's work at the unveiling Monday, saying: "What I was always struck by whenever I saw his portraits was the degree to which they challenged our conventional views of power and privilege." 
 
 Hannity sees, well, something else. "Controversy surrounding Kehinde Wiley's wildly non-traditional portrait of the commander-in-chief broke out within minutes of its unveiling," Hannity's website alleges, "with industry insiders claiming the artist secretly inserted his trademark technique — concealing images of sperm within his paintings." 
 
 Sean Hannity's website claims the Obama portrait includes a hidden sperm https://t.co/dlQR08l99n pic.twitter.com/LYpqqB2V0q — Will Sommer (@willsommer) February 13, 2018 
 
 Maybe not so much. Hannity got one thing right, anyway: It is nontraditional. Wiley's portrait of Obama "dismantles so much and creates new visions of masculinity that black men rarely have the public permission to explore," argues Teach for America's Brittany Packnett. Jeva Lange 
 
 Update 5:14 p.m. ET: Hannity later deleted the post from his site. In a statement, he said: "Earlier today my web staff posted content that was not reviewed by me before publication. It does not reflect my voice and message and, therefore, I had it taken down." ||||| Updated | Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday offered what was perhaps the most bizarre assessment yet of former President Barack Obama's official portrait by suggesting an artist included "sexual innuendo" in his depiction of the 44th president. 
 
 A now-deleted post on Hannity's website claimed the portrait, painted by Kehinde Wiley, featured "secret sperm cells," seemingly referencing the detail of Obama's temple in the painting. In a since-deleted tweet on this, Hannity wrote, "Obama's portrait - a stark contrast to predecessors with inappropriate sexual innuendo." 
 
 Hannity has habitually made it clear he's no fan of Obama and this isn't the first time he's promoted a conspiracy theory in relation to the former president. 
 
 The conservative later issued a statement about the post that appeared on his website. 
 
 "Earlier today my web staff posted content that was not reviewed by me before publication," he said. "It does not reflect my voice and message and, therefore, I had it taken down." 
 
 Mark Wilson/Getty Images 
 
 Wiley is a Yale-educated painter who's highly regarded for his work. As the painting was unveiled Monday, Obama said, "How about that? That's pretty sharp." The former president added that he's always been quite taken with Wiley's paintings, which is why he chose to work with him on the official portrait. 
 
 "What I was always struck by whenever I saw his portraits, was the degree to which they challenged our conventional views of power, wealth, privilege and the way that he would take extraordinary care and precision and vision in recognizing the beauty and the grace and the dignity of people who are so often invisible in our lives, and put them on a grand stage," he said. 
 
 He went on: "The people in our families, people who built this country, built this capital, served food, took out the garbage. Kehinde lifted them up, and gave them a platform, and said they belonged at the center of American life. And, that was something that moved me deeply because, in my small way, that's part of what I believe politics should be about." 
 
 At Tuesday's unveiling, which took place at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., Wiley expressed his delight at being the first African-American artist to earn a presidential portrait commission and to have the chance to paint the first African-American president. "It doesn't get any better than that," he said. 
 
 This story has been updated to include a statement from Sean Hannity. ||||| Washington (CNN) Barack and Michelle Obama re-emerged on the public stage Monday in Washington, only this time for an event that has nothing to do with politics. 
 
 The former first couple's official portraits were unveiled at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, a rite of passage for most former presidents, all of whom have their portraits hanging in the museum. 
 
 These are perhaps the most anticipated presidential portrait unveilings to date, due in large part to the artists the Obamas selected. The former president chose Kehinde Wiley, a Yale University-trained painter famous for his depiction of African-Americans posed in the style of Old Master paintings, regal, formal and filled with pops of color. 
 
 Barack Obama's portrait 
 
 "How about that? That's pretty sharp," the 44th president said as he took the podium. The portrait depicts him sitting against a backdrop of green foliage. Obama said he tried to negotiate with Wiley about his look for the painting. 
 
 "I tried to negotiate less gray hair, and Kehinde's artistic integrity would not allow him to do what I asked. I tried to negotiate smaller ears, struck out on that as well," joked Obama from the podium during his remarks. 
 
 Obama also asked Wiley, who often depicts his subjects as regal and god-like, if the could ease up on those flourishes. 
 
 "I had to explain that I've got enough political problems without you making me look like Napoleon. We've got to bring it down just a touch. And that's what he did," the former president said. 
 
 Barack Obama's choice of Wiley makes him the first African-American artist to execute an official presidential portrait for the National Portrait Gallery. 
 
 "What I was always struck by when I saw his portraits was the degree to which they challenged our ideas of power and privilege," Obama said. 
 
 The juxtaposition of contemporary urban culture with centuries-old postures and wallpaper-like backgrounds make for bold paintings, of which Obama's is Wiley's most famous to date. 
 
 Wiley apparently took thousands of photographs of Obama in order to create the portrait, a process different than the typical "sittings" required for most portraits. 
 
 Wiley's background choice was also indicative of Obama's background. Wiley said he was "charting his path on Earth." 
 
 The different flowers woven into the greenery include the chyrsanthemum, the official flower of Chicago, and jasmine for Hawaii, there's even some African blue lilies, symbolic of Obama's heritage. 
 
 Obama also pointed out his personal connection to Wiley -- both men shared similar familial experiences that shaped their futures. 
 
 "What we did find was that we had certain things in common. Both of us had American mothers who raised us with extraordinary love and support. Both of us had African fathers who had been absent from our lives, and in some ways our journeys involved searching for them, and what that meant. I ended up writing about that journey and channeling it into the work that I did because I cannot paint," he said. 
 
 Michelle Obama's portrait 
 
 Michelle Obama said she "was a little overwhelmed, to say the least," after her portrait was unveiled. "Let's just start by saying, 'Wow,' again," she said. Pointing to her mother, seated in the audience, she added: "Hi Mom. Whatcha' think? Pretty nice, isn't it?" 
 
 For her portrait, Michelle Obama chose Baltimore-based artist Amy Sherald. Sherald is another African-American artist known for her unique style, and her portraits also tend to underscore themes of social justice. She often paints black skin tones in gray as a way to take away the assigned "color" of her subjects. Sherald's work is less about realism in composition and more about shape and color; like Wiley, the choice of Sherald ushers in a new era of presidential portrait. 
 
 "Amy, I want to thank you for so spectacularly capturing the grace and beauty and intelligence and charm and hotness of the woman I love," the former President said of his wife. 
 
 Sherald's painting of Michelle Obama shows her in a flowing, patterned dress with a halter neckline; her expression is thoughtful, her chin resting on her hand. 
 
 The former first lady said she was thinking about the impact Sherald's work will have on "girls and girls of color." 
 
 "They will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the walls of this great American institution ... And I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives because I was one of those girls," she said. 
 
 The Obamas looked at the portfolios of more than two dozen artists before deciding on Wiley and Sherald. Obama's portrait will hang in the hall of presidents and the former first lady's will be placed in another gallery. Both will be open to public viewing on Tuesday.
– People have thoughts about the new Obama portraits, and some are weirder than others. On Tuesday, Sean Hannity's website pushed perhaps the weirdest of all—that the portrait contained hidden images of sperm. The Week quotes from the since-deleted page: "Controversy surrounding Kehinde Wiley's wildly non-traditional portrait of the commander-in-chief broke out within minutes of its unveiling, with industry insiders claiming the artist secretly inserted his trademark technique—concealing images of sperm within his paintings." And a since-deleted Hannity tweet read, "Obama's portrait - a stark contrast to predecessors with inappropriate sexual innuendo," per Newsweek. The allegation drew quite a bit of attention, and apparently Hannity himself was surprised. "Earlier today my web staff posted content that was not reviewed by me before publication," he said in a statement. "It does not reflect my voice and message and, therefore, I had it taken down." The sperm rumor apparently began circulating on 4chan, and the Daily Beast appears to have tracked down the original source, a 2008 article in the New York Times about artist Wiley. That article says his portraits “initially depicted African-American men against rich textile or wallpaper backgrounds whose patterns he has likened to abstractions of sperm.” This tweet shows the image making the sperm-conspiracy rounds.