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Tony Perkins’ Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

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Tony Perkins yesterday had a horrible, no good, very bad day. On Thursday, Perkins appeared on Chris Matthews‘ MSNBC show, “Hardball,” and for the first time ever, Chris Matthews actually played hardball with Perkins. Perkins, head of the certified anti-gay hate group Family Research Council, thought he was appearing to discuss President Obama’s position on same-sex marriage. Perkins no doubt was assuming he could just spew his usual anti-gay religious junk-science-shrouded boilerplate hate, but instead ended up being in the hot seat, having to try to defend his own positions on marriage and homosexuality, rather than attacking the President’s.

Matthews, who has been repeatedly asked to stop inviting Perkins onto “Hardball,” recently admitted he and his producers have been debating just that. Apparently, the decision was to treat Perkins as a hostile witness — which is why Hardball is named Hardball — and not as an emissary of the Holy See. It’s about time.

Matthews attacked Perkins, who has presided over the Family Research Council, one of the most virulently homophobic right wing activist organizations, (which was, to put it biblically, created from the rib of Focus On The Family — another radical religious right anti-gay group,) on his anti-gay positions, including his ludicrous recent statement that he would never have a gay child because he and his wife have been teaching their children the “right ways.”

It was a one-two punch, with Congressman Barney Frank doing some of the heavy lifting when Matthews was done.

This is how leaders of hate groups should be treated by real journalists — instead of how they’re usually treated. Allowed to not answer questions, these anti-gay haters generally get a pass from journalists, like Wolf Blitzer on CNN, and use their time to spew their real agendas: anti-gay hate.

But Hardball wasn’t the only door to close on Tony Perkins yesterday.

Perkins, who has been the head of the anti-gay hate group, FRC, since 2003, (although he was a Louisiana State Representative until 2004,) started his day with Soledad O’Brien on CNN’s “Starting Point.” O’Brien has been very chummy before with Perkins, and even extended that post-interview camaraderie to Twitter, where in March blogger Matt Algren took O’Brien to task for not revealing Perkins’ background. While she claimed she was going to have to disagree with Algren’s comment, “You wouldn’t have a Klan leader on and pretend it wasn’t a problem,” perhaps O’Brien actually did her research this time, and found out that Tony Perkins has financially supported the KKK.

O’Brien asked Perkins what was his “big argument against gay marriage,” and Perkins pulled out his typical boilerplate response. “Well, it’s an argument for marriage.” Any journalist worth their salt would never let that claptrap twisting go unchallenged.

“When government takes a policy position on marriage, it has an effect,” Perkins responded, tossing in 1960s-era no-fault divorce and adoption as culprits in his imaginary war on marriage.

“We’ve seen the consequences of that and have over 40% of children being born out of wedlock. We have a decline in marriage, the rise in cohabitation. The social costs of that are tremendous,” Perkins lamented.

O’Brien challenged: “When government took a position, let’s say, against the ban on interracial marriage it had an effect too, right? It brought legal marriage to blacks and whites.”

“You’re talking about redefinition,” Perkins said. “There is no rational reason to keep people of different races that were of opposite sex to marry. They met the qualifications of the definition of marriage. What we’re talking about here is a further redefinition of marriage…”

“But hasn’t marriage been redefined and redefined?” O’Brien interjected.

“It’s going to intentionally create environments where you have children growing up without a mom and a dad,” Perkins argued.

“But we have environments where children grow up,” O’Brien responded. “Forgive me for interrupting, but we have environments already in heterosexual couples where they grow up without a mom or dad. You’re certainly not arguing gay marriage is fine as long as the couples don’t want to have kids because you will avoid that problem, kids growing up without a mom or a dad, or an older couple who aren’t going to have kids?”

“There’s no argument that those things have occurred and that the state of marriage in this country is problematic,” Perkins conceded. “There’s no argument there. What I’m saying is you look at the consequence, the cost do government as a result of that, the increased social cost. Why would we want to intentionally do more of that? The point here is public policy — what we set doesn’t mean that everybody is going to reach that standard but we should set a standard that is best for society.”

“Doesn’t public policy follow culture? But it sounds to me like you’re saying public policy sets culture. I would say culture maybe actually goes first and public policy follows?” O’Brien followed up. “Certainly if you’re going to talk about equality and rights to sort of say, well, you know, I’m concerned about this issue, so we’ll overlook the equal rights part of it. seems a little unfair at the least.”

“Well, it’s not an issue of equal rights,” Perkins said. “Everybody has the same rights.”

O’Brien wasn’t having it, and continued pressuring Perkins, who trotted out his incest laws as reasons to discriminate against gays, and added in all the terrible trouble, albeit unsupported, same-sex marriage would cause businesses.

Noting that, “my mom’s white, my dad’s black,” O’Brien said that “marriage is always being ‘redefined.'”

“Marriage has always been the union of a man and a woman,” Perkins said.

“Marriage has always been, as someone has decided to define it,” O’Brien said. “We’re going to agree to disagree on this one,” she added.

http://videos.mediaite.com/embed/player/?content=S7K17G386SJWZ74L&content_type=content_item&layout=&playlist_cid=&media_type=video&widget_type_cid=svp&read_more=1

But it wasn’t just the all-out war on Hardball or the rough and tumble on CNN that was troublesome for Perkins.

GLAAD’s new President, Herndon Graddick Thursday afternoon posted an excellent op-ed on The Huffington Post, “CNN Has Its Own ‘Evolving’ to Do on Marriage Coverage,” attacking the news network for hosting Perkins without telling the audience exactly who Tony Perkins really is:

So with a wealth of political thinkers, analysts and strategists to go to — why has CNN turned to Tony Perkins three times in the last few days to represent the “other side?” He was on with Piers Morgan Tuesday night to talk about the vote in North Carolina. He appeared with Wolf Blitzer Wednesday evening to talk about the President’s support for marriage equality, and then was interviewed by Soledad O’Brien Thursday morning on the same topic.

All of this is fine, as long as Perkins is put into the proper context. Which he sort-of was by Morgan and O’Brien, but Blitzer didn’t even come close.

Here’s the crux of the problem — and the exact reason why GLAAD’s Commentator Accountability Project was born. Tony Perkins and others of his ilk cannot be used to exemplify those who simply oppose marriage equality. CNN is more than welcome to interview him on the issue of marriage equality, of course. His is unquestionably one of the loudest voices in the nation speaking about the issue.

But when Perkins gets interviewed, a responsible journalist needs to tell the audience exactly who Perkins is speaking for. Based on his own statements — Tony Perkins represents people who believe supporting LGBT equality is akin to being a terrorist. Who believe marriage equality is the same as bestiality. Who say that gay people are “vile,” “hateful,” “spiteful” “pawns of the enemy.” Tony Perkins does not represent people who oppose marriage equality. Tony Perkins represents those who oppose LGBT people — period.

If CNN wants that side represented in this discussion, then Perkins is absolutely the right man for the job. But they need to make it clear to the audience that that’s what he’s there for. And by not doing so, they have not told the whole story. Wolf Blitzer’s interview with Perkins is a perfect example of this.

Blitzer asked Perkins how he felt when he heard the news, that Obama supports marriage. Fine. He then asked Perkins “What’s wrong with giving gay Americans the same rights as heterosexual Americans?” Then he asked Perkins whether he agrees with Romney about giving same-sex couples hospital visitation rights. He followed it up with “What about allowing gay couples to be on each other’s health insurance policies? Would you have a problem with that?”

What on earth was Blitzer doing here? Why were we spending so much time finding out exactly which rights Perkins does and doesn’t support gay couples having? Finally he ended the interview.

Blitzer: “Do you accept the concept that gay people are born that way?” (Which Perkins answered by incorrectly claiming “there is no conclusive evidence to suggest being gay is genetic.”)

Seriously. That’s what he closed with. Blitzer had five minutes to discuss the significance of a sitting president endorsing marriage equality with one of the leaders of the country’s anti-gay movement, and the audience learned next to nothing about this issue.

The LGBT media has had a field day with this. The Advocate’s headline, “Barney Frank, Chris Matthews Shred Tony Perkins for Antigay Views,” one example, AmericaBlog’s “Chris Matthews takes down Tony Perkins over gay rights,” another.

But mainstream media outlets have not let this go unignored, with even The Washington Post weighing in: CNN’s O’Brien jousts with Tony Perkins on gay marriage, and of course, Mediaite: “Soledad O’Brien Tangles With Tony Perkins Over Whether Marriage Has Ever Been Redefined.”

(In all fairness, we should note the CNN video and some of the O’Brien-Perkins transcript were from the Mediaite piece.)

But Perkins didn’t even have to be present for his day to end poorly. Thursday night, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell schooled a non-present Perkins on the Bible, and marriage.

Via The Advocate:

Social conservatives like Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, have grown accustomed to claiming that allowing same-sex couples to marry is “redefining” marriage, and that redefining it alone is a radical step.

But marriage has actually had to be legally redefined several times — to allow interracial marriages, for example. Or, to ban polygamy. O’Donnell points out that Perkins and other religious aficionados should know this well if they read their Bibles.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tony Perkins on Wednesday no doubt thought President Obama’s embrace of same-sex marriage would keep him in business for a long time to come.

On Thursday, responsible journalists decided otherwise.

Perkins yesterday had a really bad day. And unlike the children’s book by a similar title, it’s not going to end well. There will be no lessons learned, no optimism to find. This was the first of many more.

It won’t be long before Perkins appearing on CNN, MSNBC, or in other polite media outlets will be as unconscionable as David Duke or other KKK leaders being interviewed on cable TV.

And that’s the way it should be.
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News

Trump Stands Silently for ‘God Bless the USA’ Then Trashes Detroit to Detroit Economic Club

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October 10, 2024

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Donald Trump gave what was billed as a speech on economic policy Thursday afternoon at the Detroit Economic Club, but he spent a good portion of his time focused on attacking the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene, attacking his Democratic presidential opponent Vice President Kamala Harris, attacking the city of Detroit, appearing to be unaware foreign auto manufacturers build cars in the U.S., announcing one of his daughters is expecting, and standing silently for several minutes for his own theme song, “God Bless the USA,” “like it was the national anthem,” according to one reporter.

“The whole country is going to be like—you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” Trump said, referring to Vice President Harris. “You’re going to have a mess on your hands.”

The city’s Democratic mayor, Mike Duggan, hit back: “Detroit just hosted the largest NFL Draft in history, the Tigers are back in the playoffs, the Lions are headed to the Super Bowl, crime is down and our population is growing. Lots of cities should be like Detroit. And we did it all without Trump’s help.”

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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel commented, “This guy is calling us ugly and then asking us out on a date. Detroit and the rest of Michigan is ready to show Trump the exit when we overwhelmingly elect @KamalaHarris president.”

Michigan State Senator and Majority Whip Mallory McMorrow added: “As a proud elected representative of tens of thousands of Detroiters: Fuck this guy. Don’t come back.”

David Rothkopf, the noted foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator had a different take on Trump’s remarks:

“Not only is this politically tone deaf, it’s something else. Can you tell me what it is? Can you tell me what he is saying when he says the whole country will be like Detroit, the city with the highest percentage of black residents of any in the U.S., if you elect the black woman to be president? Could it be racism?”

Trump also declared the American auto industry is going out of business.

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ClickOnDetroit reports that “Trump also falsely claimed that his administration had the highest job numbers during his speech in Detroit. The unemployment rate fell slightly lower under President Joe Biden — to 3.4% early last year, the lowest in a half-century, below 3.5% before the pandemic under Trump.”

Trump did offer some economic remarks, including wanting to make interest on car loans tax deductible.

Former Chief Economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers Ernie Tedeschi responded to the news (via Trump’s prepared remarks): “Add this to the list of Trump’s policies that will raise your cost of living. If the after-tax cost of financing a car becomes cheaper, that savings will be at least partially capitalized in the price of the car itself.”

He also vowed to impose massive tariffs.

“I will impose whatever tariffs are required — 100 percent, 200 percent, 1,000 percent,” he said, according to Washington Post White House economics reporter Jeff Stein.

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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‘On January 20’: Trump Exploits Hurricane Milton to Rally Floridians for Votes

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7 hours ago

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October 10, 2024

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As Floridians begin to assess the damage and loss of life after Hurricane Milton hit Wednesday night, bringing with it a historic 150 tornadoes and causing power outages for millions, Donald Trump recorded and posted a video suggesting Floridians will be better off on “January 20,” Inauguration Day, implying they should vote for him.

“Hello, Florida, this is President Donald J. Trump,” the Republican ex-president began his video (below). Some of his supporters praised him on social media for acting as if he were the current president.

“Melania and I are praying for you as you face the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. We are deeply saddened by the devastation being reported and it sounds like it’s a bad as it gets and, ah, we feel so sorry for you and we want God to be with you and we know God is with you, our hearts go out to each and every one of you to those who’ve lost so much, know that you are not alone,” Trump says, before making his election pitch.

“We’ve seen you stand tall against storms before, and you will stand tall now and hopefully on January 20th, you’re gonna have somebody that’s really going to help you and help you like never before. Because help is on the way,” he says. “Together, we will rebuild, we will recover, and we will come back stronger, bigger, better than ever before.”

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Trump has been spreading massive lies about Hurricane Helene, and has continued those lies as Floridians prepared to be hit by Hurricane Milton.

“Donald Trump has decided to close the election with a flurry of disinformation, lies and deliberate cruelty relating to the massive hurricane relief effort in the wake of Helene, which struck the southeastern United States in late September,” The Washington Post‘s Jennifer Rubin wrote Thursday.

On Monday, CNN published “Fact check: Six days of Trump lies about the Hurricane Helene response,” revealing how the former president has “delivered a barrage of lies and distortions.”

Among the lies, according to CNN:
“Trump falsely claims Biden hasn’t answered calls from Georgia’s governor”
“Trump cites baseless ‘reports’ about anti-Republican bias in the North Carolina response”
“Trump falsely claims the Biden-Harris response had received ‘universally’ negative reviews”
“Trump falsely claims Harris spent ‘all her FEMA money’ on housing illegal migrants”
“Trump falsely claims $1 billion was ‘stolen’ from FEMA for migrants and has gone ‘missing’”
“Trump falsely claims the federal government is only giving $750 to people who lost their homes”
“Trump falsely claims there are ‘no helicopters, no rescue’ in North Carolina ”

In his video, Trump goes on to promise, “You’re gonna be better than before. And just keep your chin up and God bless you all, and God bless the great state of Florida, your governor is doing an excellent job. I’ve been talking to him and watching, Ron is doing a really good job. We’re proud of him and we’re gonna have something very, very special in the end. I think it’s gonna turn out a lot better than people thought, but this is a big one, so be very, very careful. Thank you very much.”

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Florida Politics, reporting on Trump’s video wrote: “Less than a day after landfall, Donald Trump casts doubt on federal response to Milton.”

Marc Etzold, the U.S. correspondent for Germany’s Stern magazine, pointed to Trump invoking January 20, Inauguration Day, and remarked (according to Google translate): “Abusing a natural disaster for such electoral purposes is practically a must-do in Donald Trump’s world.”

Jonathan Boucher, the chief of staff to a New York City Council Member, commented: “Nooooo Trump isn’t politicizing a storm or anything. Not a peep from republicans.”

Watch Trump’s video below or at this link.

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‘Sick’: Dem Mom Who Lost Son to Gun Violence Horrified to See Herself in Anti-Harris Ad

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9 hours ago

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October 10, 2024

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Kimberly Burrell, a life-long Democrat who will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris for President, lost her 18-year-old son Darryl Pray Jr. in 2009 to gun violence. In July, around the anniversary of his death, she sat down with a group of Philadelphia mothers who also lost loved ones to gun violence, for an interview with MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian.

“Burrell was a bundle of raw emotion” during taping, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Helen Ubiñas wrote Wednesday.

“I was a mess,” Burrell, a 53-year-old paralegal, told her. “I couldn’t stop crying.”

During the two-hour MSNBC interview, which Burrell wanted to keep non-political, she was asked about inflation and made a short comment.

“Imagine the mother making minimum wage trying to feed children,” a “choked up” Burrell said, “They’re killing us without killing us.”

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Those comments showed up in an anti-Harris ad from a right-wing Super PAC.

Then, “a split screen juxtaposes an emotional Burrell with a cheerful Vice President Kamala Harris declaring: ‘That’s called Bidenomics!’ before ending with the candidate’s signature laugh,” The Inquirer wrote.

Burrell was shocked to see that out-of-context clip in the ad by a Super PAC that spends 98.86% of its expenditures attacking Democrats, according to Open Secrets.

Ubiñas writes, “Burrell was horrified. How could a passionate supporter of Kamala Harris for president become the face of a political attack ad for Trump that had co-opted her image and words in one of her most vulnerable moments?”

“I’m distraught,” Burrell said. “They can just steal your image and comments and twist it the way they want it to be twisted.”

“It’s just really sick.”

“Even if she wasn’t a Democrat, she said,” Ubiñas writes, “voting for Trump — a man whose character and values she deplores — would not be an option. The tears she shed during the interview were about the loss of her son, she said, not the price of peppers.”

The Super PAC that produced the attack ad, Restoration PAC, currently has the video (below) pinned to the top of its page on the social media site X.

Ubiñas says she reached out to Restoration PAC.

“Your X feed indicates you are a hard-partisan with a strong case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Dan Curry, Restoration PAC spokesperson responded, “therefore you don’t need my help in cobbling together your biased column. Have a blessed day.”

Restoration PAC is largely funded by the billionaire founder of Uline, an $11 billion shipping and packing materials business.

Dick Uihlein, The New York Times reported in 2020, is a “Midwestern packing supply magnate and Trump donor who has a history of giving to combative, hard-right candidates, like Roy S. Moore of Alabama.”

Moore, of course, as NCRM reported, is the twice-former, twice booted former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice who became the twice-failed GOP U.S. Senate candidate. Uihlein supported him even after the multiple, credible accusations of rape and harassment came out against him, according to Blue Virginia.

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The Daily Beast has reported Uihlein “gave millions to groups associated with overturning” the 2020 election:

“Uihlein’s nonprofit—the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation—poured millions of dollars in 2020 into a sprawling number of groups connected to efforts to challenge Joe Biden’s victory and reimagine election law, as well as other right-wing extremist organizations, including ones designated as hate groups.”

“Kyle Herrig, president of left-leaning watchdog group Accountable.US, told The Daily Beast that money from Uihlein and his wife, Elizabeth, has ‘promoted hate and sedition.'”

“In 2020, as workers and families struggled to get by, Dick and Liz Uihlein’s company cashed in on pandemic aid—then turned around and funded hate groups pushing COVID conspiracy theories, bigotry, and efforts to undermine democracy,” Herrig said. “By signing away more than $1 million to groups that have promoted hate and sedition, Dick and Liz Uihlein have made it clear where their company’s values truly lie.”

Kimberly Burrell, meanwhile, has contacted both the Trump campaign and Restoration PAC, “so far to no avail. She’s also contacted a lawyer and is crafting a cease and desist letter.”

“This is what we’ve allowed this country to become, a place where lies can be told and go unchallenged” Burrell told Ubiñas. “We give them power by not calling them out on anything.”

Watch the Restoration PAC ad below or at this link.

READ MORE: Top GOP Strategist Names Three Key Issues That Will Get Republicans to Vote for Harris

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