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Ben Carson: Gays And ‘Secular Progressive Movement’ Are ‘Beating People Down’ Over LGBT Rights

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Retired Neurosurgeon Falsely Claims Supreme Court Justices Haven’t Read The U.S. Constitution

Dr. Ben Carson for years has made clear his utter animus and disdain for LGBT people. It first became national news when he compared gay people to pedophiles and “people who believe in bestiality,” just weeks after attacking President Barack Obama with whom he shared a stage at the National Prayer Breakfast.

Since then, Carson’s disparaging remarks have grown significantly, and despite his promise to cease goading the LGBT community, he has made a habit of using gay people when he needs or wants to gets attention and support from his far right wing evangelical Christian base.

The GOP presidential candidate whose poll numbers have plummeted sat down late last year with the Trinity Broadcasting Network’s pentecostal Christian evangelical Jentezen Franklin, where the subject of same-sex marriage and the U.S. Constitution came up.

First, Carson falsely claimed that the Founder Fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution specifically at an eighth-grade level so everyone could read it. (The Constitution was written at a 17.8 grade level.) He also somehow claimed that the current slate of U.S. Supreme Court justices have not read the Constitution, and constitutional scholars have made a mess of it.

On marriage, LGBT people, and free speech, Carson was quick to attack.

“The way it works now is they target you and they have all kind of hate speech ridicule, if there’s a way they can bring action against you they will do that, try to ruin your life,” the retired neurosurgeon stated, somewhat from experience. Students at Carson’s prestigious Johns Hopkins University petitioned in 2013 to have him removed as commencement speaker after his outrageous anti-LGBT comments. 

“Look at all the people who because of their religious convictions and their belief in what the Bible says have lost their livelihood and they’re put in jeopardy over the gay marriage issue, when in fact this is supposed to be a country where you live and let live,” Carson continued.

In fact, there are a very few people who have actually “have lost their livelihood” as a result of same-sex marriage. 

RELATED: Ben Carson Tells Lesbian It’s ‘A Long Conversation’ On Whether Or Not She Chose To Be Gay

“I personally don’t have any problem with any two people, regardless of what their feelings are, of living together, of getting a lawyer to create some documents so they can share property and have hospital visitation rights, but to change the definition of marriage, the problem is once you do that for one group, why wouldn’t you have to do that for the next group?,” Carson queried.

Carson may not “have any problem with” two people living together, but in the real world, without a marriage certificate – and at times, even with one – there are numerous reports of couples being refused hospital visitation rights and adoption rights. For example, despite a marriage certificate, Edith Windsor famously was denied her right to untaxed property when her life-long same-sex spouse died. That, of course, became the case that ultimately struck down Section 3 of DOMA.

The good doctor then goes on to insist that because marriage rights have been legally extended to same-sex couples, they must be extended to every other group, none of which he named, and which is false. 

“Everybody gets equal rights, but nobody gets extra rights, extra rights to change everything for everybody else to suit them,” Carson decreed. 

In fact, same-sex marriage is not an “extra” right, it’s the same right given to different-sex couples.

Carson then concluded that evangelical Christians must “stand up,” and “not remain silent” or it will be too late. That’s code for “vote for me or it will be too late,” of course.

He continued, bashing “the secular-progressive movement,” which he says “has been very successful” in “beating people down so that they are silent” and having them “sit down and shut up so they can drive the boat.” 

Watch:

 

EARLIER:

Ben Carson Asks Schoolkids To Point Out The ‘Worst Student’

Ben Carson Says He Would Consider Banning Gays In Military, Decide On ‘Evidence’ (Video)

Ben Carson’s Campaign Has Imploded

 

Hat tip and video: Right Wing Watch
Image: Screenshot via iTBN

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Trump Appears to Think Jeb Bush Was President: ‘He Got Us Into the Middle East’

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During a rally in South Carolina on Monday, Donald Trump appeared to confuse former Florida GOP Governor Jeb Bush with his brother, former President George W. Bush, while bragging to supporters how he beat him.

Jeb Bush, who was largely considered to be the default Republican Party nominee for the 2016 presidential election when he launched his campaign, dropped out in February of 2016 after the South Carolina primary.

“When I come here, everyone thought Bush was going to win,” Trump said, before claiming he was “up by about 50 points” over Bush. “They thought Bush because Bush was supposedly a military person.”

“You know what he was…He got us into the Middle East,” Trump claimed, wrongly. “How did that work out?”

READ MORE: ‘Isn’t Glock a Good Gun?’ Trump Asks Before Saying He Is Buying One – Campaign Forced to Deny He Did

“But they also thought that Bush might win. Jeb. Remember Jeb? He used the word ‘Jeb,’ he didn’t use the word ‘Bush,’ I said, ‘You mean he’s ashamed of the last name?’ and then they immediately started using the name Bush,” Trump claimed.

The ex-president went on to continue denigrating Jeb Bush, accusing him of bringing his mother to campaign with him.

“Remember,” Trump said, “he brought his mother, his wonderful mother who’s 94 years old and it was pouring and they’re wheeling her around and it’s raining and horrible. I said, ‘Who would do that your mother, 94 years old. How desperate are you to win?”

Media Matters’ Craig Harrington, commenting on Trump’s latest gaffe, observed: “In the past two weeks, Donald Trump has:

– Warned that Joe Biden might start ‘World War 2’
– Confused his 2016 election opponent (Hillary Clinton) with former President Barack Obama
– Confused his 2016 primary opponent (Jeb Bush) with former President George W. Bush.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Careening’ Toward ‘Risk of Political Violence’: Experts Sound Alarm After Trump Floats Executing His Former General

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Fulton County Judge in Trump Case Orders Jurors’ Identities and Images Must Be Protected

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The Fulton County Superior Court judge presiding over Georgia’s RICO, conspiracy, and election interference case against Donald Trump on Monday afternoon ordered the identities and images of all jurors and prospective jurors to remain secret, ordering they may only be referred to by a number.

“No person shall videotape, photograph, draw in a realistic or otherwise identifiable manner, or otherwise record images, statements, or conversations of jurors/prospective jurors in any manner” that would violate a Superior Court rule, Judge Scott McAfee ordered, “except that the jury foreperson’s announcement of the verdict or questions to the judge may be audio recorded.”

“Jurors or prospective jurors shall be identified by number only in court filings or in open court,” he added.

READ MORE: ‘Careening’ Toward ‘Risk of Political Violence’: Experts Sound Alarm After Trump Floats Executing His Former General

Judge McAfee also ordered no juror’s or prospective juror’s identity, “including names, addresses, telephone numbers, or identifying employment information” may be revealed.

MSNBC’s Katie Phang posted the order, and added: “Another important part of the Order: no responses from juror questionnaires or notes about jury selection shall be disclosed, unless permitted by the Court.”

Judge McAfee’s order comes after Donald Trump’s weekend of attacks on his former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley. Trump strongly suggested he should be executed for treason. Trump also strongly suggested he would target Comcast, NBC News, and MSNBC if he wins the 2024 presidential election.

Responding to the news, MSNBC’s Medhi Hasan observed, “We have just normalized the fact that the former president, and GOP presidential frontrunner, is basically a mob boss.”

 

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‘Isn’t Glock a Good Gun?’ Trump Asks Before Saying He Is Buying One – Campaign Forced to Deny He Did

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During a photo shoot at a South Carolina gun shop, Donald Trump posed with and then said he wanted to buy a Glock, asking if it is “a good gun.”

Some say it might be illegal to sell a gun to anyone under criminal indictment, and if he took the gun with him that too might be illegal. It was not clear if, despite saying he would, he actually bought the firearm. The Trump campaign initially said he had, although later backtracked on its claim, and deleted the social media post saying he had.

In the photo op (video below,) Trump posed with several people, including the Republican Attorney General of South Carolina, Alan Wilson, who has held that elected position since 2011.

“Trump’s spokesman announced that Trump bought a Glock today in South Carolina. He even posted video,” wrote former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob. “If Trump took the gun with him, that’s a federal crime since he’s under indictment. There’s also a law against selling a gun to someone under federal indictment like Trump.”

READ MORE: ‘Poof’: White House Mocks Stunned Fox News Host as GOP’s Impeachment Case Evaporates on Live Air

Reuters’ crime and justice reporter Brad Heath posted the federal laws that might apply, as well as Trump’s campaign spokesperson’s clip of the ex-president’s remarks, and his spokesperson saying, “President Trump purchases a @GLOCKInc in South Carolina!”

CNN analyst Stephen Gutowski, who writes about gun policy, added, “It would be a crime for him to actually buy this gun because he’s under felony indictment. Did he actually go through with this purchase?”

“People under felony indictments can’t ‘receive’ new firearms. That also means you can’t buy them,” he also wrote.

MSNBC anchor and legal contributor Katie Phang wrote, “I don’t know if he actually bought the gun. At least it didn’t happen in this video. Also, the Attorney General of South Carolina is in this video. Is he watching Trump commit a crime?”

But some pointed to a federal judge in Texas’ ruling from last year. Reuters reported, a “federal law prohibiting people under felony indictment from buying firearms is unconstitutional.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

 

 

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