From: Marge Baker, Executive Vice President, People For the American Way
To: Interested Parties
Date: March 31, 2011
Re: Trent Franks Beyond the Pale: Representing the Extremist Wing of the Republican Party
The National Journal reports this morning that Arizona Rep. Trent Franks is planning to announce a bid for the open Senate seat vacated by Jon Kyl. As Franks gears up for a run for statewide office, it is important to remember that his far-right record is extreme even in today’s Republican Party. Franks:
- called President Obama an “enemy of humanity” at a right-wing conference, and later tried to explain that he meant to call Obama an “enemy of unborn humanity”;
- introduced legislation barring “race-based” abortion, arguing that African Americans were better off under slavery than with legal abortion and that a “racist abortion policy” is committing genocide against African Americans;
- believes that President Obama consistently “acts un-American” and “seems to go against American interests”;
- demanded the impeachment of President Obama and the defunding of the Justice Department over their decision to stop defending the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA);
- maintained that as a result of Obama’s presidency the country has “diminish[ed] to a point where it’s just unrecognizable” and will “not be the great beacon of freedom”;
- floated “birther” conspiracies and suggested that President Obama is not a natural-born citizen, even considered filing a lawsuit against Obama;
- said the Obama Administration has an “ideological commitment” to “weaken America”;
- claimed a Muslim civil rights group was using congressional interns to spy on Congress;
- and misleadingly defended tax breaks for the top 1% of Americans, falsely saying that they “pay over half of the entire revenue for this country.”
A Trent Franks candidacy for the U.S. Senate demonstrates how Republican politicians increasingly promote fears and lies about President Obama and employ inflamed rhetoric. With the anticipation of a hotly contested race in Arizona, expect other Republican candidates to move increasingly to the right and for the GOP to embrace extremists like Franks.
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