Anti-Gay Group’s Religious Director Compares Gay Marriage Support To Hitler
On election day four states will be voting on marriage. Three — Washington, Maine, and Maryland — will be voting on whether or not to legalize same-sex marriage, but one, Minnesota, will be voting on whether or not to enshrine discrimination in their constitution and permanently ban same-sex marriage via a an amendment re-writing their constitution.
Needless to say, there’s been a tremendous amount of hate generated in Minnesota, by the NOM-funded anti-gay marriage group, Minnesota for Marriage. Regular readers are familiar with the Orwellian double-speak videos the group regularly releases, starring former journalist Kelly Yanta.
Pastor Brad Brandon, who is Minnesota for Marriage’s “pastoral outreach director,” was filmed last week — at what was billed as a public discussion presenting both sides of the marriage debate — likening gay marriage to Nazi Germany, and adding that if Minnesota does not pass the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, those who oppose same-sex marriage will be forced into silence.
Minnesota for Marriage, rather than offering a straight apology, is defending Pastor Brad Brandon’s Hitler point as “absolutely correct,” even if his words were  “an incorrect choice,” and claims Brandon’s Hitler reference was taken out of context and misunderstood.
KMSP-TV notes the “Hitler reference was used during three separate presentations” in separate Minnesota towns.
“Pastor Brad Brandon was confronted about his statements at a forum in Brainerd last week over an analogy he made about Hitler’s attempts to suppress religious freedom, telling several small groups that gay marriage supporters were using similar techniques,” KMSP-TV, the local Fox News affiliate reports:
Brandon seemed to claim that critics of gay marriage would be silenced, saying, “[Hitler] removed their voices in the public square and removed their control of their own businesses. So, he stopped Jewish people from speaking out in public and he silenced them.”
…
Many of the irked audience members said they were told the presentation would be a bipartisan discussion. One woman whose grandparents survived the Holocaust took particular exception to the comparison, and she didn’t hold back.
“…That you not belittle the death of 6 million Jews by putting Adolf Hitler’s picture and saying he took people’s civil rights,” she said. “No — he was an insane murderer.”
KMSP adds:
A spokeswoman for Minnesota for Marriage said the reference was taken out of context or misunderstood, explaining that Brandon was trying to say that critics of gay marriage could be silenced if the amendment fails.
“He’s apologized and he’s apologized on behalf of the campaign. His point was absolutely correct; he was just using a poor analogy and an incorrect choice of words to make his religious liberties point,” Autumn Leva said. “He’s been instructed to no longer compare the loss of religious freedoms to Hitler and Nazi Germany.”
Deputy Campaign Manager Andy Parrish had previously claimed Brandon’s remarks were not sanctioned by the campaign and that he’s been instructed to get back on message; however, the Star Tribune reported that Brandon made a similar pitch at a public seminar in Woodbury where at least two other Minnesota for Marriage staffers were present.
FOX 9 News also learned that a presentation in Bemidji also contained similar rhetoric, and Minnesota for Marriage’s communications director was at the first event when the comparison was made.
“This wasn’t an accident,” argued Pastor Grant Stevensen, a faith director for Minnesotans United for All Families. “It wasn’t a slip off the track. It was dead core to the center of the message they were trying to convey to the people who had gathered at this event.”
These aren’t the first controversial comments Brandon has made either. He is widely quoted as saying that homosexuals teach children to masturbate.
[Bolding ours]
Jeremy Hooper at Good As You has done a great deal of research on Pastor Brad Brandon:
Brad Brandon has compared “Satan-influenced” gays to alcoholics, pedophiles, and Hitler, as well as proclaimed a great need to “get [gays] saved and get ’em out of that lifestyle.”
Hooper adds:
Minnesota for Marriage staffers have made several appearances on Brandon’s now-defunct radio show. They have paid him thousands to do church outreach. But now, rather than take responsibility for what they’ve been recruiting, they are offending all Minnesotans by claiming something fishy is going on with those who brought this harsh vision to light.
Those of us who fight the all-too-reliable extremism are very used to this. Doesn’t make it any less offensive.
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Minneapolis News and Weather KMSP FOX 9
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President Donald Trump is promising mass pardons to White House staff, and has done so repeatedly, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” Trump said in a recent meeting, to laughs, the Journal reported, citing people familiar.
“That radius,” the Journal added, “appears to be expanding as the president repeats the line. Another person who met with Trump earlier this year said the president quipped about pardoning anyone who had come within 10 feet.”
Trump at one point said he would hold a news conference to announce the mass pardons.
“The president has repeatedly raised the specter of pardons with White House aides and other administration officials, particularly when staff have suggested they could face prosecution or congressional investigations over decisions, people familiar with the comments said,” the Journal reported.
The Journal did not state if the pardons would be blanket pardons, but reported that those familiar with his remarks “said they weren’t aware of specific pardons being offered to specific people for specific acts.”
READ MORE: White House Fires Back After President’s Doctor Is Asked to Test Trump’s Mental Fitness
The report also noted that Trump has often seriously pursued actions he initially had joked about.
“It seems like he previewed many times his intent to use the pardon power to bail out those who carry out his agenda faithfully,” Liz Oyer, a former Trump Justice Department pardon attorney told the Journal. She also “said the offers could spur Cabinet officials and administration officials to behave more aggressively.”
While Trump did not pardon White House or other officials in conjunction with the events of January 6, 2021, on his first day back in office he did issue sweeping pardons to roughly 1,500 of those who were at the Capitol that day and later arrested.
READ MORE: ‘Only Reason They Are Alive’: Trump Again Threatens Iran in Unhinged Truth Social Post
Image via Reuters
The White House is fighting back after a prominent House Democrat demanded that the Physician to the President test Donald Trump’s mental fitness, citing the president’s recent remarks.
“At a time when our country is at war—especially when the war was initiated by the President without congressional declaration or consent—the American people must be able to trust that the Commander-in-Chief has the mental capacity to discharge the essential duties of his office,” Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin wrote to the President’s Physician, Captain Sean P. Barbabella, D.O., in a letter published by Punchbowl News.
“I therefore request that you conduct a comprehensive cognitive assessment of President Donald Trump, provide those results to Congress, and make yourself available to brief Congress on your findings.”
Congressman Raskin noted that experts “have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline.”
“And, in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening. His apparently deteriorating condition has caused tremendous alarm across the nation (and political spectrum) about the President’s cognitive function and continuing mental fitness for the office of President, and prompted concerns about the President’s well-being.”
Raskin noted that during the Biden presidency, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer called President Biden’s mental acuity “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history,” and subpoenaed the White House Physician.
He also noted that during that time, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan declared that a president who is not cognitively fit, “isn’t fit for office.”
Raskin offered some examples, including Trump’s recent message to Iran, which the Congressman described as combining “vulgarity and profanity, unprecedented threats of mass civilian destruction, and a sarcastic invocation of Islam on Easter morning—a bizarre display that shocked tens of millions of Americans and astonished observers across the political spectrum.”
Trump had written: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F——’ Strait, you crazy b——, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
The New York Times had described Trump’s remarks as a “blistering threat” that “would have stood out on any day, much less on what most Christians consider the holiest day of the year.”
Raskin is insisting that Dr. Barbabella conduct “a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment of the President, including a formal cognitive screening instrument, and publicly release the results.”
Also, it asks him to provide “a detailed report on the President’s current mental and physical health status, including any medications he is currently taking and their potential,” and make himself available for a briefing under oath.
The White House wasted no time in responding, telling Courthouse News’ Benjamin S. Weiss: “Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person.”
“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” the White House added.
Image via Reuters
Ahead of diplomatic talks starting Saturday, President Donald Trump once again threatened Iran with violence as critics charge his tenuous cease-fire has fallen apart.
“As Vice President JD Vance was heading to Pakistan on Friday for peace talks with Iran, a senior Iranian official laid out new conditions for the negotiations, adding even more uncertainty about the durability of the cease-fire and whether the two sides could reach a long-term deal,” The New York Times reports, noting that President Trump “warned Tehran not to overplay its hand.”
“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” the President wrote on Truth Social.
“The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he declared.
His remarks seemed to echo his highly-criticized comments earlier this week:
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
On April 1, Trump wrote, “we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
Some ridiculed the president.
“Completely controlling the Strait of Hormuz and charging ships a $2 million toll to pass through seem to be a couple of pretty good cards,” noted attorney Adam Cohen.
Reason’s Matthew Petti added, “You might say that Iran’s only cards are…a strait flush.”
Image via Reuters
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