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Tag: lou barletta
Trump’s Pennsylvania U.S. Senate Pick Tied To Holocaust Deniers

Trump’s Pennsylvania U.S. Senate Pick Tied To Holocaust Deniers

Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.

As Republicans fight to save their House majority, their efforts in the Senate have also faced a long string of humiliations.

They lost what should have been a completely safe special election in Alabama, after their candidate was credibly accused of being a child molester. Their frontrunner in Ohio unexpectedly dropped out. Their most promising potential candidates declined to enter the race in Minnesota and North Dakota. And one of their minor candidates in Missouri went on an insane rant about how feminists have “snake-filled heads” and he expects “a home-cooked dinner at six every night,” from a woman.

On Thursday, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski reported that in 2006, when Barletta was the mayor of Hazelton, he sat for an interview with the American Free Press, “a publication that regularly promotes conspiracy theories including that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were a ‘Jewish plot’ and the Holocaust was a hoax.”

The following year, Barletta headlined an anti-immigration rally that featured anti-Semitic rock singer Paul Topete, who claimed in online forums that the Holocaust is “one of the largest if not THEE [sic] largest scam ever played on humanity,” perpetrated by “frauds in the SHOAH Industry.”

Faced with his past ties to hate groups, Barletta’s campaign manager insists he is not a racist because the KKK tried to hold a rally in his honor and he did not support it. This is not exactly a convincing defense.

Barletta is currently the frontrunner in the Republican race to challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, largely because of his relationship with Donald Trump. He was an early endorser of Trump’s presidential campaign, and supports Trump’s proposal to massively scale back legal immigration. Last year, Trump proclaimed Barletta was “a great guy” who is “going to win big” against Casey.

Barletta has proved once again that there does not seem to be any lower limit on standards for Republicans who want to run for high office.

Matthew Chapman is a video game designer and science fiction author from Texas. He can be found on Twitter @fawfulfan.

Screenshot: Lou Barletta/YouTube

South Dakota GOP Wants To Impeach Obama

South Dakota GOP Wants To Impeach Obama

The South Dakota Republican Party was very productive this weekend: Its delegates spent their annual convention passing a resolution that called for the impeachment of President Barack Obama… as if that’s a resolution that will actually end up passing in the U.S. House and will benefit South Dakotans at all.

The state’s delegates see it as their “duty” to ask the House to impeach Obama. The resolution, obtained by the Argus Leader, accuses President Obama of violating “his oath of office in numerous ways.” These include negotiating the release of U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, the EPA’s regulations on greenhouse gas emissions — which apparently “threaten the security of the great people of this nation” — and President Obama’s promise to the American people that they could keep their doctors and insurance companies under his health care reform law.

Allen Unruh, who sponsored the resolution, told the Argus Leader, “I’ve got a thick book on impeachable offenses of the president.”

He views the resolution as a “symbolic message that liberty should be the law of the land.”

Not everyone agreed with the resolution, even among those who don’t support Obama. Delegate Larry Eliason told the Argus Leader that he opposed impeaching Obama even though “the only thing [Obama]’s done the last six years that I approve of is when he adopted a pet.”

The delegates at the convention voted 191-176 in favor of the resolution, but South Dakota’s only representative in the House, Kristi Noem (R), doesn’t think that impeachment is the “best way” to hold Obama “accountable” for his actions.

South Dakota’s delegates are unfortunately not the only elected representatives who plan to serve their constituents by calling to impeach the president.

Last week, Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) said that the House “probably could” impeach Obama, and accused him of “breaking the laws” and “bypassing the laws” when he signed an executive order for deferred action for young immigrants.

AFP Photo/Jim Watson

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GOP Congressman: House ‘Probably Could’ Impeach Obama

GOP Congressman: House ‘Probably Could’ Impeach Obama

The House of Representatives seems unable to pass much these days — popular legislation on immigration reform and ending workplace discrimination are still languishing without a vote, and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) would rather kill himself than join the 71 percent of Americans who support a federal minimum wage hike — but at least one idea could still bring the Republican majority together: impeaching President Obama.

That’s according to Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA), who said Monday that a vote to impeach the president “probably could” pass the lower chamber.

“He’s just absolutely ignoring the Constitution, and ignoring the laws, and ignoring the checks and balances,” Rep. Barletta said during an appearance on the Gary Sutton radio show. “The problem is, you know, what do you do? For those that say impeach him for breaking the laws or bypassing the laws. Could that pass in the House? It probably, it probably could. Is the majority the American people in favor of impeaching the president? I’m not sure.”

Audio of Barletta’s comments is below, via BuzzFeed:

Barletta is not the first House Republican to suggest that the GOP majority could impeach President Obama. In August, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) told his constituents that “you could probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it,” although like Barletta he acknowledged that it would ultimately be a fruitless effort.

Several Republican senators, such as Tom Coburn (R-OK), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have also flirted with the “I-word” — but, given the Democratic majority in the Senate, their efforts would likely be laughed out of Congress.

Screenshot: Lou Barletta/YouTube

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