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 [1] 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 [2]” at a right-wing conference, and later tried to explain [3] that he meant to call Obama an “enemy of unborn humanity”;
- introduced legislation barring “race-based” abortion [4], arguing that African Americans were better off under slavery [5] than with legal abortion [6] and that a “racist abortion policy [7]” is committing genocide against African Americans [8];
- believes that President Obama consistently “acts un-American [9]” and “seems to go against American interests”;
- demanded the impeachment [10] 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 [11]” and will “not be the great beacon of freedom”;
- floated “birther” conspiracies [12] 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 [13]”;
- claimed a Muslim civil rights group was using congressional interns to spy on Congress [14];
- and misleadingly defended tax breaks for the top 1% of Americans, falsely saying [15] 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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