GOProud Endorses Romney: ‘Light Years Better Than President Obama’
GOProud, the gay Republican Tea Party group, today “enthusiastically” endorsed de-facto Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, claiming the 65-year old is “light years better” than Barack Obama. Mysteriously, GOProud and its two co-founders, Jimmy LaSalvia and Chris Barron, neglected to mention that Romney is against same-sex marriage, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the repeal of DOMA, does not support an inclusive ENDA, and this week appeared with some of the most virulently anti-gay religious icons of the Republican Party and proclaimed straight parents are better than gay parents.
WATCH: Rachel Maddow And Frank Rich Expose Romney’s Religious Right Pals
Exposing their real agenda — being perceived as a source of financial capital – Lisa De Pasquale, interim Chair of the GOProud Board of Directors said in a statement, “GOProud is prepared to commit significant resources to help make Mitt Romney the next President of the United States.â€
“The Board of Directors of GOProud voted to enthusiastically endorse Governor Romney’s candidacy for President,â€Â De Pasquale, the former Director of CPAC, added.
“Most gay Americans – like their straight counterparts – are not better off than they were 4 years ago,†said Jimmy LaSalvia, GOProud Executive Director. “The truth is that gay people are living in the disastrous failed Obama economy too.â€
Today, Bloomberg News reported on an in-house Bloomberg Poll that found that “Forty-five percent of those surveyed in a Bloomberg National Poll say they are better off than at the beginning of 2009 compared with 36 percent who say they are worse off.”
“President Obama and his friends on the left want this election to be about divisive social issues, because the President’s record on jobs and the economy is indefensible,†LaSalvia’s statement added.  “At this critical juncture, we need a President with the experience and expertise to turn this economy around. Someone who knows how the free markets work – former Governor Mitt Romney is that candidate.â€
President Obama, in fact, has decided to act in areas like women’s reproductive rights, civil rights for LGBT Americans, and implementing some of the policies the DREAM Act would have created had Congress done its job and passed it. President Obama also has overseen an economy produce 27 straight months of positive job growth.
“Not only does President Obama not understand how the free markets work – he is openly hostile to free market capitalism,†LaSalvia’s statement continues. “President Obama’s repeated attacks on Governor Romney’s private sector record underscore this President’s fundamental lack of understanding of how our economy works. Instead of demonizing free markets, President Obama should be focused on creating an economic environment that encourages free market investments and creates jobs.â€
As the top image, right, shows, the DOW under President Obama has risen an amazing 54.66%. Under President Bush, the DOW dropped 21.78%.
“For far too long, the gay left in this country has been allowed to dictate what they believe qualify as ‘gay issues.’ We think that jobs, the economy, healthcare, retirement security and taxes are all ‘gay issues,’ and on every single one of those issues, Mitt Romney is light years better than President Obama,†said LaSalvia, who does mention that GOProud doesn’t agree with Romney on all issues.
While “jobs, the economy, healthcare, retirement security and taxes are all ‘gay issues’,” too, certainly, the chart above, “Obamacare” — aka the Affordable Care Act — the fact that President Obama has lowered taxes to rates not seen in six decades, and a host of other achievements, make it clear Jimmy LaSalvia, needs to do his homework.
The Advocate notes:
The statement did not mention Richard Grenell, the openly gay national security spokesman who resigned from the Romney campaign in May after an outcry from religious conservatives led by the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer. Grenell denied that his sexual orientation played a role in his departure, but the tumultuous episode raised questions about the extent to which the candidate would associate publicly with gay advocates.
Related:Â
Ironically, Breitbart Quits GOProud: Says He Has Zero Tolerance For Inflicting Vocational Harm
Barney Frank: Gay Republican Groups Respond To Decision To Retire
Do Gay Liberals Really Hate Gay Conservatives — Enough To Gay Bash Them?
Gay GOP Group Attacks Gay GOP Presidential Candidate For Being Gay
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
