Turning The Ballot Box Against Republicans

Trump stole from a child cancer fund & now is wanting to steal from disaster victims. He has no morals, no soul.

nonsense. Obama actually sharply increased deportations

but was blocked by the gop from sensible immigration rreform. Gop and trump still.block reform

CNN reports GRUESOME murder scene at border, not far from where Acosta said everything is awesome

A right-wing Republican congressman is under fire from his own party after questioning why terms like "white supremacy" are controversial.

Steve King of Iowa also pondered in a New York Times interview when labels like "white nationalists" became offensive.

Fellow Republican Jeb Bush said condemnation was not enough, and called for party grandees to oust Mr King.

Mr King has since defended his remarks, saying they were mischaracterised.

Speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives on Friday, he said he regretted "the heartburn that has poured forth" as a result of his interview.

"I want to make one thing abundantly clear: I reject those labels and the evil ideology that they define."

"As I told the New York Times, it's not about race, it's never been about race," he continued.

"Under any fair political definition, I am simply a nationalist."

But other Republicans were unconvinced by Mr King's explanation.

"Republican leaders must actively support a worthy primary opponent to defeat King, because he won't have the decency to resign," Mr Bush, a former Florida governor and one-time presidential hopeful, tweeted.

Republican Senator Tim Scott, who is African American, criticised both Mr King and the party's response.

"Some in our party wonder why Republicans are constantly accused of racism - it is because of our silence when things like this are said," he wrote.

Steve Scalise, the Republican whip in the House of Representatives, told reporters it was "offensive to try to legitimise those terms".

House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney called the language "abhorrent and racist".

The Republican backlash follows a tepid reaction from National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Emmer.

The Minnesota representative told the Hill it is too soon to decide whether Mr King would have the committee's support in his re-election bid.

He later added that he disagreed with Mr King's statements "as they've been characterised".

In his interview with the New York Times, Mr King was quoted as saying: "White nationalists, white supremacists, western civilization - how did that language become offensive?

"Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?"

The congressman, who has served for 16 years, reclaimed his seat in November narrowly, with just three percentage points separating him from his Democratic challenger.

This is far from the first time Mr King has sparked racial controversy.

Last year, he saw his victory margin diminish after making headlines for reportedly supporting a Toronto mayoral candidate with neo-Nazi ties.

In 2017, he claimed diversity was not America's strength.

He also said: "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies."

A Republican county official in Texas has survived a vote to oust him after several local party members took issue with his Muslim religion.

The motion to remove Shahid Shafi from his position as vice chairman of the Tarrant County Republican party failed by a vote of 139-49 on Thursday night.

The effort was led by several county Republicans who argued that Dr Shafi was more loyal to Islam than the US.

The movement led to criticism from prominent state Republican officials.

Speaking to reporters after the vote at a church in Fort Worth, Dr Shafi said: "As an immigrant to this great country, I am honoured and privileged to receive the support of my fellow Republicans."

"We were fighting for religious freedom - a founding principle of our nation. And today, we have come out victorious," he declared.

In addition to serving as the Republican vice chairman of Tarrant County - the third largest county in Texas - Dr Shafi is a surgeon and Southlake City Councilman who immigrated to the US nearly 30 years ago.

He reportedly is originally from India, and became a US citizen in 2009.

After he was appointed by party officials to his post in July 2018, several of his colleagues took issue with his religion and claimed he had connections with terrorist organisations.

Grand Prairie precinct chairwoman Dorrie O'Brien, who led the effort to oust him, recently reiterated her views in a Facebook post.

"We don't think he's suitable as a practising Muslim to be vice chair because he'd be the representative for ALL Republicans in Tarrant County, and not ALL Republicans in Tarrant County think Islam is safe or acceptable," Mrs O'Brien wrote on 31 December 2018.

"There are big questions surrounding exactly where Dr Shafi's loyalties lie, vis a vis Democrat and Republican policies."

She also previously slammed her Republican colleagues for not intervening in what she called a "stealth jihad" and "Leftist/Shari'a Zuckerberg-ization of Tarrant County".


Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Darl Eason, who appointed Dr Shafi to his post, told the Star-Telegram when the vote was scheduled: "It's just outrageous that we are doing this."

"It's disgusting," he added.

Former Tarrant County precinct chair Sara Legvold sat outside of the meeting room during the vote in protest, wearing a burqa which she said was to "represent the Islamisation of our county, our state and our country".

The vote was widely condemned by Texas Republican, including Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz and Republican Land Commissioner George P Bush.

"Religious freedom is at the core of who we are as a nation and state," Gov Abbott said in a statement on Wednesday, "and attacks on Dr Shafi because of his faith are contrary to this guiding principle."

Federal tax revenues declined in 2018 while economic growth accelerated, undercutting
the Trump administration’s insistence that the $1.5 trillion tax package would pay for itself.

this bears repeating...

I have less of a problem with Dr Shafi's Muslim religious background

they have similar values to the conservative Christians.