A former senior Biden White House communications staffer turned frequent Fox News guest is facing criticism after posting a TikTok video casting doubt on New Jersey U.S. Sen. Cory Booker’s recent marriage. The 16-second clip went viral on TikTok and revived unfounded speculation about the Democrat’s sexuality.
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The video, filmed in the back seat of a car and posted Sunday, shows former White House press office chief of staff Yemisi Egbewole smiling into the camera as she delivers what she calls “an interesting update” about Booker’s marriage to Alexis Lewis.
“Okay, so Corey Booker got married and … to a woman, and this is just very interesting, just an interesting update about Cory Booker. Cory Booker married a woman. He is now happily married,” she says in the clip, which has been viewed more than 311,000 times.
@yemisi.egbewoleSen. Cory Booker is married!! Will a married Booker run for 2028? #democrats #corybooker #fyp #politics #2028election
“Will a married Booker run for 2028?” she asked in the video caption.
Booker, 56, married Lewis, a managing director at a global investment firm, in two small ceremonies over Thanksgiving week: a November civil ceremony at the federal courthouse in Newark, where he served as mayor, and a private interfaith celebration in Washington, D.C. on Saturday attended by close family. Lewis, a New Jersey native with a background in finance, philanthropy, and economic equity work, has kept a low public profile.
Booker's been open about his relationships
Their marriage follows Booker’s previous high-profile relationship with actor Rosario Dawson, which played out publicly during his 2020 presidential campaign. The pair dated for several years before separating in 2022.
On TikTok, where the clip spread rapidly, commenters focused heavily on her emphasis on “to a woman,” interpreting it as a layered insinuation. “‘To a woman’ had me screaming,” one user wrote. “This is the most polite, inscrutable shade I’ve seen,” another said.
Others speculated the marriage was politically timed. “He’s married — he’s definitely running in 2028,” one commenter wrote. Another implied the marriage was strategic, while several pointed to his relationship with Dawson: “He dated Rosario Dawson for years and this woman looks just like her.”
Some pushed back. “Why are we shading Cory Booker?” one viewer asked.
Another wrote, “He’s a good man doing good work. Who he marries is nobody’s business.”
A lesbian viewer said she had never questioned Booker’s orientation, and a gay man added he “never got those vibes.”
Booker, an outspoken ally of the LGBTQ+ community, has addressed speculation previously. In a 2018 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, he said plainly that he is straight and argued that candidates should run “as their authentic self.”
After leaving the Biden administration, Egbewole became an on-air guest and opinion guest writer for Fox News, where she regularly offers political commentary to the network’s conservative audience. A Fox News spokesperson told The Advocate that she is not considered a Fox News contributor because "contributors are paid."
Egbewole previously served as chief of staff to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the first out lesbian to hold that post.
A former Biden administration official told The Advocate that the video reflected a familiar pattern.
“She’s nice to people she thinks she needs and bullies everyone else,” the official said.
Alarmed but not surprised
A second former Biden staffer, who worked closely with Egbewole, went further.
“I was pretty alarmed by the video, but I wasn’t surprised,” they told The Advocate. They said Egbewole frequently made anti-LGBTQ+ remarks inside the White House, including claiming “there were too many gay men working there” and making disparaging comments to a lesbian junior staffer about her clothes and sexuality.
They described the TikTok as consistent with what they heard privately. “It spat in their face,” the former staffer said, referring to the Biden-Harris administration’s LGBTQ-inclusive values. “These kinds of videos are offensive both because you should never make jokes about people’s sexuality, but also just offensive for someone who worked in our White House. This is the opposite of what the president stood for… spreading rumors and innuendo about a man who just got married and also implying that being gay is bad.”
They emphasized that Egbewole’s insinuation not only mocked queer identity but erased bisexual people — a point the staffer said “suggests hatred toward any man she believes might be queer.” They added that while Egbewole made such remarks openly inside the White House, it was “a totally different thing to put this on social media.”
The staffer also said former Biden aides were stunned by her public shift since becoming a Fox News personality. “It seems like she is willing to do whatever she needs to be in order to succeed at that moment,” they said. “This seems to be who she’s always been. Maybe on Fox News, she doesn’t feel a need to hide it anymore.”
They noted that multiple former Biden staffers were discussing the video in private group chats: “People were alarmed, and they were hurt… it definitely made an impact among people that worked with her.”
Egbewole did not respond to The Advocate’s request for comment, but when a commenter indicated that the senator’s marriage was none of her business, she responded, “I literally talk about politics on television. His business is quite literally my business.” Booker and Lewis have not publicly addressed the video.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story described Egbewole as a Fox News contributor, which a Fox News spokesperson disputed.
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