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Mike Huckabee: ‘It’s Not My Nature To Be A Bully’

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Former governor Mike Huckabee on Sunday told ABC News, “it’s not my nature to be a bully.” Just how demonstrably false is that claim?

Speaking with ABC News journalist Martha Raddatz on Sunday’s “This Week,” Republican former governor Mike Huckabee lamented the demise of chivalry in political campaigns against women candidates.

Radditz cornered the 59-year old ordained Southern Baptist Minister on his comments, originally made in a New Republic interview. 

“You said I’ve run twice against women opponents and it’s a very different kind of approach for those of us who have some chivalry left there’s a level of respect to treat some things as a special treasure, you treat other things as common,” Radditz reminded him. “What do you mean specifically by that?”

Huckabee’s response was insincere and insufficient.

“Well, I just mean that you always want to be respectful. You want to treat everyone with respect. But in the culture of the south, the culture that I grew up with, I think chivalry is still alive. There’s a sense of that you pay a great deal of respect and you don’t come across as a bully.”

Perhaps realizing his poor answer, Huckabee concluded, “It’s not an issue of sexism, it’s an issue of simply understanding that every opponent, whether it’s a male, a female, whether they’re from the Northeast or from the Southwest, everybody has different nuances, and you always have to — because I’ve been in a lot of races. I’ve been in politics for 25 years. I’ve run a lot of races as lieutenant governor, for U.S. Senate, for governor two different times and for president.”

In between those fumblings, Radditz asked Huckabee if he would “run differently against Joe Biden?” as opposed to Hillary Clinton.

His odd response: “it’s not my nature to be a bully.”

But let’s take a look at that claim.

Huckabee, despite what some in the media are recently claiming is a more tolerant potential 2016 candidate for the White House, has used the LGBT community as a punching bag for years.

In 2006 “Brokeback Mountain” won three Academy Awards. Huckabee used the groundbreaking film to ensure conservative voters knew where he stood on same-sex marriage. “Until Moses comes down with two stone tablets from Brokeback Mountain saying he’s changed the rules,” Huckabee quipped, “let’s keep it like it is.”

Fast forward to today.

Last week on his Facebook page, Huckabee pushed his latest book by telling followers, “I have a very special and personal favor. My new book ‘God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy’ releases next week on Tuesday, January 20. It’s already generated a lot of attention because I make the case for why those who live with traditional moral values and respect for the Constitution aren’t the outliers.”

But then, without mentioning gay people, he attacks them.

The book was written with vivid illustrations of bigotry toward Christians and in plain language. 

I detail the attacks on our friends like the Duggars, the Benhams, and the Robertsons of Duck Dynasty and provide many examples of the intolerance of the secular left, all delivered or course, in the name of “tolerance.”

In October, Huckabee put away his “chivalry” and “respect” he claims to show women, to rail against Houston Mayor Annise Parker, telling her to, “Keep your filthy government hands off of religious liberty.” It’s the only record we could find of Huckabee using the word “filthy” to describe a person – and in this case, a person who happens to be a lesbian.

That month Huckabee also posted an outlandish, false, fear-mongering, hate-filled, anti-gay warning on Facebook, and later Huckabee demanded the Republican Party “grow a spine” and not back down in their fight against same-sex marriage, or, he threatened, he would quit the party. 

The following month Huckabee compared Nazi Germany to America, and told a group of pastors that same-sex marriage will destroy the foundation of civilization.

Earlier last year, at the National Organization For Marriage’s rally in Washington, D.C., Huckabee wrongly told a small crowd that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have opposed same-sex marriage like he opposed Hitler.

These attacks are not new. Huckabee has a long and ugly history of bullying gay people and their allies.

In 2010 he compared legalizing same-sex marriage to legalizing incest, polygamy, and drug use. The following year he called same-sex couples parenting of children “experiments,” and their families “guinea pigs.” 

In 2008 he offered this theocratic opinion: “I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”

The following year he said he wanted to “isolate” HIV/AIDS victims. That same year he told Ann Coulter, “I am definitely not pro-sodomy. I promise. Scout’s honor.”

In 2013, Huckabee lamented he was forced to see same-sex couples on TV.

Claiming Chick-fil-A was being smeared by vicious hate speech and intolerant bigotry from the left, Huckabee in 2012 created National Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day, which he helped turn into a national attack on LGBT people. That year he also declared that the Boy Scouts – which at that point had decided to continue its ban on gay scouts – had done the right thing because, he claimed, gays abuse children.

In the series, “Before They Were Candidates,” the Concord Monitor profiled several 2008 presidential candidates. “‘Bullying’ gays wasn’t priority for Huckabee” before he ran for the White House, the Monitor reported. 

On gay rights, “Rita Sklar, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, said Huckabee’s rhetoric was often ‘extremely unpleasant or sarcastic.'”

“‘He is hardly ever outright nasty,’ Sklar said. ‘But he is suggestively nasty.'”

Clearly, presidential campaigns have changed that.

 

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Pete Buttigieg Nails Trump for His Ugly Comments About Wounded Vets

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During his Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out Donald Trump over reports he told military leaders he didn’t want wounded vets to be seen by the public while he was president.

In a recent Atlantic profile of General Mark Milley, the retiring military office recounted the former president telling him “no one wants to see” wounded soldiers, with Milley adding he found Trump’s attitude to those serving their country “superficial, callous, and, at the deepest human level, repugnant.”

Buttigieg, who served in Afghanistan during his 8 years while in the Naval Reserve, was asked by CNN host Dana Bash about the former president’s apparent distaste for service members.

“I want to ask you about a new Atlantic profile that says that then President Trump complained to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley after an Army veteran who lost a leg in combat sang at an event at the Pentagon,” Bash prompted her guest. “Trump reportedly told Milley, ‘Why do you bring people like that here, no one wants to see that, the wounded.'”

“After that article came out, Trump attacked Milley on social media, kind of a rambling post, but suggested that milley deserved the death penalty. You’re a veteran– what’s your response?” she asked.

“It’s just the latest in a pattern of outrageous attacks on the people who keep the country safe,” the Biden administration official replied.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

After pointing to fellow vets who suffered horrific injuries, he added, “These are the kind of people that deserve respect and a hell of a lot more than that from every American, and definitely from every American president.”

“And the idea that an American president, the person to whom service members look at as a commander in chief, and the person who sets the tone for this entire country could think that way or act that way or talk that way about anyone in uniform, and certainly about those who put their bodies on the line and sacrificed in ways that most Americans will never understand, and I guess wounded veterans make president Trump feel uncomfortable.”

Watch below or at the link.

 

 

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‘Scared to Death’: Trump’s Prison Panic Admission Means He Knows He’s Doomed Says Legal Expert

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Reacting to a report that Donald Trump has been quizzing his attorneys about what type of prison he likely will be sent to, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner stated that is not only an indication that he knows he’s going to be convicted but also an admission of guilt.

Speaking with MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, the attorney was asked about a recent Rolling Stone report about Trump’s prison panic.

As Rolling Stone reported, Trump asked if he’s “be sent to a ‘club fed’ style prison — a place that’s relatively comfortable, as far these things go — or a ‘bad’ prison? Would he serve out a sentence in a plush home confinement? Would government officials try to strip him of his lifetime Secret Service protections? What would they make him wear, if his enemies actually did ever get him in a cell — an unprecedented set of consequences for a former leader of the free world.”

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

According to the attorney, Trump is revealing himself by asking for so many details.

“What does this tell you about Trump’s mindset?” host Capehart asked.

“It tells me he is scared to death” Kirschner quickly answered. “It tells me he has overwhelming consciousness of guilt because he knows what he did wrong and he knows he is about to be held accountable for his crimes. So it is not surprising that he is obsessing.”

“If he was confident that he would be completely exonerated, would he have to obsess about what his future time in prison might look like?” he suggested. “I think the last refuge for Donald Trump can be seen in a recent post where he urged the Republicans to defund essentially the prosecutions against him. which, to this prosecutor, Jonathan, smells a lot like an attempt to obstruct justice.”

Watch below or at the link.

 

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‘Vulgar and Lewd’: Trump Judge Cites Extremist Group to Allow Drag Show Ban

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A federal judge in Texas known for a ruling that attempted to ban a widely-used abortion drug is citing an extremist anti-LGBTQ group in his ruling allowing a ban on drag shows to stay in place.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a former attorney for an anti-LGBTQ conservative Christian legal organization, and a member of the Federalist Society, in his 26-page ruling dated Thursday cited the “About” page of Gays Against Groomers to claim, “it’s unclear how drag shows unmistakably communicate advocacy for LGBT rights.”

Judge Kacsmaryk, appointed by Donald Trump twice before finally assuming office in 2019, suggests the First Amendment does not provide for freedom of expression for drag shows, calls drag “sexualized conduct,” and says it is “more regulable” because “children are in the audience.”

READ MORE: ‘The Public Deserves to Know’: Abortion Pill Banning Judge Redacted Details About Millions of Dollars in His Stock Portfolio

Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern adds, “Kacsmaryk’s conclusion that drag is probably NOT protected by the First Amendment conflicts with decisions from Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Montana which held that drag is constitutionally protected expression. It also bristles with undisguised hostility toward LGBTQ people.”

Calling the judge “a proud Christian nationalist who flatly refuses to apply binding Supreme Court precedent when it conflicts with his extremist far-right beliefs,” Stern at Slate writes that Kacsmaryk ruled drag “may be outlawed to protect ‘the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.’ In short, he concluded that drag fails to convey a message, while explaining all the reasons why he’s offended by the message it conveys.”

Stern does not let Kacsmaryk off the hook there.

“From almost any other judge, the ruling in Spectrum WT v. Wendler would be a shocking rejection of basic free speech principles; from Kacsmaryk, it’s par for the course. This is, after all, the judge who sought to ban medication abortion nationwide, restricted minors’ access to birth control, seize control over border policy to exclude asylum-seekers, and flouted recent precedent protecting LGBTQ+ equality,” Stern says.

READ MORE: Far-Right Judge Under Fire for Failing to Disclose Interviews on Civil Rights – but LGBTQ Community Had Warned Senators

“He is also poised to bankrupt Planned Parenthood by compelling them to pay a $1.8 billion penalty on truly ludicrous grounds. And he is not the only Trump-appointed judge substituting his reactionary beliefs for legal analysis. We have reached a point where these lawless decisions are not only predictable but inevitable, and they show no sign of stopping: Their authors are still just settling into a decadeslong service in the federal judiciary.”

West Texas A&M University President Walter V. Wendler penned the letter that sparked the lawsuit.

Titled, “A Harmless Drag Show? No Such Thing,” Wendler wrote: “I believe every human being is created in the image of God and, therefore, a person of dignity. Being created in God’s image is the basis of Natural Law. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, prisoners of the culture of their time as are we, declared the Creator’s origin as the foundational fiber in the fabric of our nation as they breathed life into it. Does a drag show preserve a single thread of human dignity? I think not.”

Journalist Chris Geidner concludes, “It’s an extremely biased ruling by a judge who has established that he does not care about being overturned — even by the most conservative appeals court in the nation.”

READ MORE: ‘Corruption of the Highest Order’: Experts ‘Sickened’ at ‘Definitely Bought’ Clarence Thomas and His ‘Pay to Play’ Lifestyle

 

 

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