President Donald Trump late Friday evening installed his fourth White House Chief of Staff, replacing Mick Mulvaney with Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina.
Congressman Meadows is an anti-gay, homophobic, racist birther who repeatedly promised GOP voters he would send then-President Barack Obama “back to Kenya.” He is also the co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, the most far-right group in Congress.
Here’s Meadows, a far right Tea Party Republican during his first run for Congress in 2011, telling supporters, ” so what we’re gonna do is take back our country – 2012 is the time we are going to send Mr. Obama home to Kenya or wherever it is.”
Three days later Meadows made similar remarks at another Tea Party event.
Congressman Meadows is not just anti-gay, but homophobic and an anti-LGBTQ extremist. Last August Meadows signed on to an amicus brief telling the U.S. Supreme Court that LGBTQ people do not exist, but rather are choosing “actions, behaviors, or inclinations.” That is false.
The brief says the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not – and should not be interpreted to – protect gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.
Meadows is also among the 38 House Republicans who signed a 2017 letter urging President Trump to remove protections for LGBTQ workers from his new USMCA trade pact.
In 2013 Meadows said same-sex couples legally being allowed to marry would create “a constitutional crisis.” He is also one of the anti-LGBTQ extremists credited as a major force behind President Donald Trump‘s out-of-the blue, July 26, 2017 tweetstorm announcing he was banning all transgender people from the U.S. Armed Forces.
And as head of the Freedom Caucus, Meadows urged President Trump, even before he was sworn into office, to roll back or rescind a variety of President Barack Obama’s LGBT protections, including guidelines to help protect the rights of transgender students. The administration, via Secretary Betsy DeVos and then-Attorney General Jeff Session, complied.
There are other concerns about Meadows as well: