Tag: robert jeffress
Kinzinger’s Family Sends Wild Letter That Says He Joined ‘Devil’s Army’

Kinzinger’s Family Sends Wild Letter That Says He Joined ‘Devil’s Army’

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger made many enemies within his own party by standing up to former President Donald Trump after the 2020 election, a break that included voting in favor of impeachment pushed by the Democrats. And on Monday, a new profile of Kinzinger revealed that some of his harshest critics come from within his own family.

The New York Times obtained a letter signed by 11 of Kinzinger's relatives and sent to his father, as well as other Republican officials in the state. It was written by his cousin, Karen Otto, the Times reported.

In style, the letter was clearly influenced by Trump's own writing — though it included far more religious references than the former president typically employs, unless he is intentionally addressing a religious audience.

"Oh my, what a disappointment you are to us and to God!" Otto wrote.

She continued:

We were once so proud of your accomplishments! Instead, you go against your Christian principles and join the "devil's army" (Democrats and the fake news media). How do you call yourself a Christian when you join the "devil's army" believing in abortion! We thought you were "smart" enough to see how the left is brainwashing so many "so called good people including yourself and many other GOP members. You have even fallen for their socialism ideals! So, so, sad!
President Trump is not perfect, but neither are you or any of us for that matter! It is not for us to judge or be judged! But he is a Christian. (If God can forgive and use King David in the Bible, He can do the same with President Trump.) Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, to just to name a few, of many Pastors who mentor President Trump, know that he is a believer! Obviously, you did not hear President Trump's "Christmas Message" to the American people (fake news media did not cover his message) where he actually gave the plan of salvation, instructing people how to repent and ask the Savior into their heart to be "Born Again"! (To believe in John 3:16) When was the last time you proclaimed your faith Adam? (Oh, we forgot you now belong to the "devil's army.") You won't convince us otherwise with your horrible, rude accusations of President Trump! (To embrace a party that believes in abortion and socialism is the ultimate sin.) We should list even more grievances against you, but decided you are not worth more our time to list them. We have said enough!
You should be very proud that you have lost the respect of Lou Dobbs, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Greg Kelly, most importantly in our book, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh and us!
It is now most embarrassing to us that we are related to you. You have embarrassed the Kinzinger family name!
We are not judging you. This letter is our opinion of you!
Oh, by the way, good luck in your fund raising endeavor. We are sure we know there are many other good GOP and CHirsitans supporters that feel the same way we do. Also very disappointed with the many other GOP that have sided with the Democrats. (We should demand our money back!)

View an image of the letter below:

"I wanted Adam to be shunned," Otto told the Times.

The message was a stark demonstration of the force of negative polarization. Because Kinzinger's family hates the Democrats so much, they see Kinzinger's turning against Trump and most of the Republican Party as an ultimate betrayal. What's binding the right-wing together isn't so much shared values as much as the shared belief that the Democratic Party is the ultimate threat. Parallel trends are affecting the political left in the United States, though it's unclear if the forces are as extreme.

"We just fear," Kinzinger said in an interview with the Times. "Fear the Democrats. Fear the future. Fear everything. And it works for an election cycle or two. The problem is it does real damage to this democracy."

This Week In Crazy: Trump’s God-Given Mission To Nuke North Korea

This Week In Crazy: Trump’s God-Given Mission To Nuke North Korea

Nuclear holy war, Chi-Raqi occupation, and Al Gore’s “big ugly ass.” Welcome to This Week In Crazy, The National Memo’s weekly update on the loony, bigoted, and hateful behavior of the increasingly unhinged right wing. Starting with number five:

5. Jack Posobiec

Less crazy than dumb, Posobiec — the alt-righter who sued Alamo Drafthouse for its limited all-female screenings of Wonder Woman — tweeted the following in response to President Trump’s escalatory remarks on North Korea:

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/895048512429330434

This is a classic example of justifying incompetence as three-dimensional chess. If you asked Trump to spell “genius,” he’d start writing the letter j before getting distracted by a push notification.

(Also, there’s no precedent for writing six as “VI” — unless you learned Roman numerals in school that day and wanted to show off. But I don’t care: this tweet’s not going on the fridge.)

4. Jesse Watters

I have a special place in my — what’s the opposite of heart? — for this ‘80s movie villain because he and I went to the same college and, aside from maybe Tucker Carlson, he’s probably the slimiest alum. (Though I reckon he could say the same of me if he wanted.)

Anyway, Watters on Friday called the entire city of Chicago “another swamp that needs to be drained.” His proposed method:

Remember what happened with the surge in Iraq where they went block to block and they invested heavily on boots on the ground, clear/hold [strategy], and they brought in the local population to really turn the tables. And it worked. Now Chicago needs the same thing.

Watters, it seems, gravely misinterpreted the message of Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq:

3. Robert Jeffress

The megachurch pastor from Texas added to his craziness CV — which includes attributing 9/11 to God’s punishment for abortion — by again justifying Trump’s chest-thumping. This time, Jeffress — responding to the president’s aforementioned North Korean tough-talk — said “God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong Un.”

So when the nuclear apocalypse hits, thank God.

2. Alex Jones

It’s hard to imagine a TWIC without Jones. The guy’s as prolific as he is imbalanced. On Tuesday, shortly before making fun of Al Gore’s “big ugly ass,” he revealed that he communicates, at least via written memos, with President Trump:

Big ugly asses notwithstanding, there is a difficult-to-describe poetry in Jones’s diatribes. Some exceptional turns of phrase you shouldn’t ever find in normal political discourse: “fill your hand, turd blossoms;” “my fat will just be accelerant in the fight;” and “You love death, that’s why I’m throwing myself against you.”

Small wonder, then, that his rants also work as indie folk songs.

1. Jim Bakker

Speaking of right-wing crazies who have Trump’s ear, this food bucket huckster revealed this week that he and his wife, Lori, met with other prominent evangelists at the White House on July 31.

According to Bakker — who nearly started crying as he recalled it — George O. Wood, leader of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, “spoke words,” bemoaning “unnecessary swearing.”

“This was not a social meeting,” Bakker said, referring to former communications director Anthony Scaramucci’s less-than-coincidental ouster that same day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LhMqkvIVE0

Check out previous editions of This Week In Crazy here. Think we missed something? Let us know in the comments!Get This Week In Crazy delivered to your inbox every Friday, by signing up for our daily email newsletter.

Romney, Perry Spat Brings Mormon/Evangelical Divide To Fore

Rick Perry was introduced by Robert Jeffress, a Baptist church leader, at the Values Voter Summit in Washington Friday. Jeffress later that day called Mormonism a “cult” and said he did not believe Mitt Romney was a Christian. Check out the video:

And so the issue of the Republican establishment favorite’s religion — Romney is a Mormon — which had largely stayed off the radar of this campaign, is poised to reemerge as a serious issue just when Republican primary voters start to settle on their choices.

Romney’s camp was quick to punch back. His introducer at the Summit, Bill Bennett, rebuked Jeffress before the candidate took the stage.

“Do not give voice to bigotry. Do not give voice to bigotry,” Bennett said. “I would say to Pastor Jeffress: You stepped on and obscured the words of Perry and Santorum and Cain and Bachmann and everyone else who has spoken here. You did Rick Perry no good, sir, in what you had to say.”

Romney’s speech was well-received, and as this is the second story in as many weeks painting Perry as a bigot (the first being the now-infamous name of his hunting ranch), the Texan’s backers have to be worried that the electability argument might start to pull (even more) establishment Republicans into Romney’s camp.

The spat also opens a bigger debate: is the Republican Evangelical community too intolerant, too prone to judgments and even prejudice — whether toward Mormons, Islam, or homosexuality?

Romney himself gently rebuked another hard right social conservative speaker at the Summit, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association.

“We should remember that decency and civility are values too,” Romney said when he took the stage Saturday. “One of the speakers who will follow me today has crossed that line, I think. Poisonous language doesn’t advance our cause.”

Romney, then, is expanding his push for a more moderate, practical Republican Party to the lion’s den — the religious Right. His new strategy carries risks, though: he may not need their whole-hearted support to win the primary, but as Karl Rove can tell you, a fired-up Evangelical community is key to the Republican Party winning national elections these days.