Guns Vs. Gays: Tony Perkins’ Extremely Dangerous Hypocrisy
Tony Perkins is again attacking gays, screaming “religious liberty,” and slamming ENDA — this time cherry-picking polls to do so. But when it comes to gun control, Perkins sings a different tune.
Tony Perkins, it will come as no surprise, is one of America’s greatest hypocrites. Ignore the fact for the moment that before he became the head of the Family Research Council (FRC) it was not listed among the Southern Poverty Law Center’s anti-gay hate groups, and ignore the fact for the moment that when Perkins was managing a Louisiana political campaign he paid $82,500 for the use of former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke’s mailing list — yet Perkins claims to be a moral leader. Heck, he even signs his fundraising emails by quoting Bible verses.
Perkins earlier this year spent months railing against Congress’ attempts to expand background checks for gun purchases — legislation that 92 percent of Americans supported.
“This idea of background checks is very concerning given the fact that … the United States military has been increasingly showing hostility toward evangelicals and Catholics as being somehow threats to national security and people that need to be watched,” Perkins claimed:
“Well, what does that have to do with gun control? Well, what happens if all a sudden you are identified as an evangelical, Bible-believing fundamentalist and the government decides you’ve got to be put on a watch list?”
“Part of the provisions of this background check is kind of a system where if a caution comes up when they put your name in, you don’t get a chance to buy a gun.”
Fear-mongering Perkins neglected to mention that the bill Congress ultimately killed had extremely strong language that made anyone keeping a list of gun purchasers a felony — far stronger protections for gun rights advocates than are currently on the books.
So imagine my surprise when Perkins late yesterday in his daily anti-gay fundraising email slammed ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would protect LGBT people from being fired merely for being LGBT — a basic right that the vast majority of Americans not only support but believe already exists –Â by using a poll.
“In a stunningly lopsided poll, U.S. voters universally supported the rights of companies like Masterpiece Cakes, Arlene’s Flowers, Elane Photography, and others who turned down ‘wedding’ business from same-sex couples — and are now paying for it (usually literally),” Perkins writes in his fear-mongering fundraiser:
“In a sharply divided country where Americans rarely agree on anything — let alone social issues — Rasmussen Reports found a shocking amount of consensus on the question of businesses’ rights in the marriage debate. ‘If a Christian wedding photographer who has deeply held religious beliefs opposing same-sex marriage is asked to work a same-sex wedding ceremony, 85% of Americans believe he has the right to say no.’ Only 8% disagree. That’s as unanimous as it gets in the polling community.”
Actually, the expanded background checks poll — which 92 percent of Americans support — is “as unanimous as it gets in the polling community.”
But Perkins didn’t want his followers to know about that. And yes, he has close ties to the NRA.
Tony Perkins can’t be fired for being Christian — yet just last week he said he wants an ENDA for Christians.
“If anyone needs workplace protections these days, it’s conservative Christians,†Perkins perversely proclaimed. “Under ENDA, their nightmares will only intensify.â€
While you’re here, read a bit more of Perkins’ disgusting attack on gay people — ordinary Americans struggling like everyone else, oftentimes worse, because we can be fired in dozens of states just for being LGBT.
“When religious liberty collides with same-sex ‘marriage,’ something has to give,” Perkins writes in the opening of his email yesterday. “And usually, that ‘something’ is Christians’ rights.”
In this mad dash to redefine marriage in America, many in society are so focused on giving homosexuals their way that they aren’t stopping to see who gets tramples underfoot. The real victims, who include children, religious business owners, and employees across the country, have been lost in a convenient storyline of inequality and discrimination.
While the media spills oceans of ink on the perceived injustice toward same-sex couples, very few reporters are telling the stories of Christians being hauled into court, before human rights commissions, and even their own employers for subscribing to a view on marriage that — until last year — President Barack Obama shared! In the meantime, wedding vendors from Washington State to New Jersey are trapped in the middle, wondering why their rights are suddenly less important than homosexuals’. When did it become acceptable to sacrifice the freedoms of conscience and free exercise of religion on the same-sex “wedding” altar?
When did the Founding Fathers say the Bible should be used as a cudgel against your enemies?
Let’s be very clear here. The repeated claims by the religious right, that same-sex marriage laws are a threat to Christian business owners is a lie. In all these cases, it’s not same-sex marriage legislation that is at issue, rather it is the states’ often decades-old anti-discrimination laws — the same ones that protect Christians from discrimination — under which supposedly “Christian” business owners find themselves in trouble.
Perkins’ arguments were the same ones used by Bible-wielding Christians opposed to equal rights for Blacks and interracial couples.
Given Perkins’ ties to the KKK, that’s something of which he should be intimately aware.
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One day after appearing in front of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to tell reporters there will be “no amnesty” for undocumented farm workers while insisting adults on Medicaid could replace them, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins faced sharp criticism for having no “concrete” plan to meet what she declared is the Trump administration’s goal of an entirely “legal” U.S. farm worker workforce.
“It sounds like you don’t yet have a concrete proposal to deal with farmers who rely on undocumented workers, am I right?” a Fox News Business host asked (video below).
“Well, no, we are working on it. We’re working on a concrete proposal,” Secretary Rollins insisted.
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“You’re working on it but that’s not a concrete proposal,” the host sharply charged.
“Well, no, the president has been very, very clear. We need to make sure that the food supply is safe,” Rollins said, before insisting that “ultimately, we have to move toward a 100% legal workforce, and that’s what this president stands for, and that’s what we’re doing.”
“The mass deportations will continue, but the president has been very clear that we have to make sure we’re not compromising our food supply at the same time,” Rollins said before declaring that “Congress has to fix it,” and U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer “is on it.”
“The border has to be secure and there will be no amnesty,” Rollins added, before the host again pointed out the administration has no plan yet.
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“It’s not easy, but I don’t think it’s fair to say there is a concrete proposal when you’re still working out details to try to deal with the needs of farmers who need a lot of these undocumented workers and at the same time not providing an amnesty.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
BROOKE ROLLINS: We have to move toward a 100% legal workforce. The mass deportations will continue. Congress has to fix it.
FOX: Sounds like you don’t yet a concrete proposal to deal with farmers who rely on undocumented workers. Am I right?
ROLLINS: No. We’re working on it. pic.twitter.com/EhGKefyMJk
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 9, 2025
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Last week, reportedly without consulting the White House, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth unilaterally approved the decision to halt critical weapons shipments to Ukraine, which has been the target of increased attacks in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal war against the sovereign nation.
President Trump on Tuesday claimed he had no knowledge of who ordered the halt in weapons shipments. That pause came just after his July 3 call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hours later, Russia launched a massive bombing campaign against Ukraine.
“Russia launched its largest-ever drone and missile barrage on Ukraine, two days after the US stopped the delivery of some key weapons to Kyiv — including crucial interceptors used to shoot down Moscow’s missiles,” The Financial Times reported on July 4. “The barrage began soon after an hour-long phone call between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.”
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The halt of weapons to Ukraine was so catastrophic and damaging that it set off “a scramble inside the administration to understand why the halt was implemented and explain it to Congress and the Ukrainian government,” CNN reported. “The US special envoy to Ukraine, Ret. Gen. Keith Kellogg, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, were also not told about the pause beforehand and learned about it from press reports, according to a senior administration official and two of the sources.”
“The episode underscores the often-haphazard policy-making process inside the Trump administration, particularly under Hegseth at the Defense Department,” CNN added.
Last week’s halt was the third time Secretary Hegseth unilaterally decided to stop weapons shipments to Ukraine, according to NBC News.
Pentagon officials last week said the halt was due to concerns over U.S. weapons stockpile levels, but NBC News reported that “an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the American military’s own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S. officials.”
Hegseth’s decision “blindsided the State Department, members of Congress, officials in Kyiv and European allies.”
Now, critics are calling for Hegseth’s resignation.
Declaring the Defense Secretary “completely unqualified, and on an ego trip,” U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) responded to a post about Hegseth not informing the White House about his weapons halt.
“When is Pete Hegseth going to resign?” asked Congressman Lieu, a retired U.S. Air Force officer.
“This would be a good time for Congress to investigate Hegseth’s Pentagon and push for his resignation,” wrote Jeet Heer on Monday at The Nation.
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“Many of my GOP friends and colleagues are decorated military veterans who have risked their lives for our country,” remarked U.S. Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY). “If they believe — as they must — that @SecDef poses a grave danger to our national security and that of our allies, I hope they will urge POTUS to finally fire him.”
Iraq War veteran Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), and host of the Independent Americans podcast, blasted Hegseth.
“No surprise here,” he wrote, also responding to a post about the weapons halt. “The sloppiness and incompetence is consistent. And his flawed leadership continues to disrupt and frustrate folks all across the Pentagon. And now, it’s also frustrating the White House and Trump himself.”
“He is Secretary Chaos,” Rieckhoff continued. “And every day he falls deeper beyond his depth. We are less safe, our allies are weakened, and our enemies are celebrating.”
Decorated former CIA operations officer Marc Polymeropoulos of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, wrote: “Leadership dysfunction at DoD…. This stuff just can’t happen… serious real world ramifications… (ie Ukrainians die). Is there any accountability?”
“Hegseth is running an absolute clown show,” warned Colby Badhwar of The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
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Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump claimed the White House has legal authority to run parts of the country including Washington, D.C. and New York City, especially should he oppose its elected leaders. His remarks were another attack on the nation’s largest city, which his Transportation Secretary also targeted earlier on Tuesday.
Trump told reporters, “we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.”
“We could run D.C.” he alleged. “I mean, we’re looking at D.C. We don’t want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well.” Hey also claimed that the White House is currently “testing” running D.C.
Washington, D.C. and its 700,000 residents have an elected city council and mayor. While Congress maintains some control over the nation’s capital, a complete federal government takeover of a city would be unprecedented. Presidents have, at times, had to send in the National Guard, but never to permanently occupy and run a local government.
READ MORE: ‘Stupid Liberals With Stupid Policies’: Trump Transportation Secretary Slams NYC
Trump added that his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, “is working very closely with the mayor and they’re doing alright. I mean, in the sense that we would run it so good, it would be run so proper, we’d get the best person to run it.”
“The crime would be down to a minimal, would be much less, you know, we’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you. We want we want a capital that’s run flawlessly and it wouldn’t be hard for us to do it.”
If attempted, a federal takeover could raise serious concerns about voter disenfranchisement and further inflame opposition from advocates of D.C. statehood.
Trump also attacked Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s Democratic nominee for mayor, as “a man who’s not very capable, in my opinion, other than he’s got a good line of b—s—.”
READ MORE: ‘Absolutely Mind Blowing’: Trump’s Ukraine Weapons Remark Draws Concern, Backlash
“I can tell you this,” Trump continued, I used to say, ‘We will not ever be a socialist country,’ right? Well, I’ll say it again. We’re not gonna have if a communist get elected to run New York, it can never be the same, but we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.”
Trump has previously threatened Mamdani “with arrest, denaturalization and removal from the country while repeatedly branding him a communist,” according to The Independent.
Watch the video below or at this link.
Trump on the federal government’s relationship to cities like NYC and DC: “We have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to. We could run DC. We’re looking at DC … we would run it so good … we’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you.” pic.twitter.com/xCYUXGwaRX
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 8, 2025
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Image via Reuters
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