INDIANAPOLIS – Congressman Rokita insisted yesterday that he intends to follow the lead of extremist Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore despite his history of hateful statements, and if history is any indication, Congressman Messer can’t be too far behind in claiming to be in Moore’s dark corner.
In a memo yesterday following former judge Roy Moore’s win in the Alabama GOP Senate primary runoff on Tuesday, Congressman Rokita spoke glowingly about Moore’s candidacy as a template for his own, saying that the “The outsider candidate in Alabama tapped into the same… dynamic [that] is going to be alive and well among Indiana’s Republican primary electorate.”
But calling Moore an anti-establishment candidate is like calling Congressman Rokita’s eight-page driving memo a little long—it may be true, but it doesn’t even begin to describe him. Moore has a history of bigoted, outrageous, and hateful comments and actions that would be expected to have no place in a major political party, let alone the U.S. Senate.
Moore’s actions include:
- Claiming that America was partially responsible for everything from the September 11 attacks to the Sandy Hook massacre because “we’ve distanced ourselves” from God;
- Stating that “maybe Putin was right” when he discusses same-sex marriage, claiming that “homosexual conduct” should be illegal, and even failing to say that being LGBT should not be punishable by death;
- Directing judges under him to ignore the 2015 Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage;
- And stating that his “personal belief” was that President Obama wasn’t born in America.
Moore has also claimed that representatives like Congressman Andre Carson, Congressmen Messer’s and Rokita’s own colleague in the Indiana House Delegation, should not be seated in Congress if they are practicing Muslims. The comment directly contradicts the professed beliefs of Congressmen Messer and Rokita, who said just a few weeks ago that someone’s religious beliefs should have no correlation to their fitness for public service when stoking a controversy surrounding Amy Barrett.
Congressman Messer has yet to weigh in on Moore’s victory.
“Congressman Rokita may insist that he’s bringing the Moore campaign to Indiana, but sensible Hoosiers on both sides of the aisle want no part of Roy Moore’s disgusting comments. We expect our lawmakers to be upstanding members of our community, not peddlers of bigotry and conspiracy theories,” said Will Baskin-Gerwitz, Senior Media Strategist for the Indiana Democratic Party. “Where does Congressman Messer stand on Roy Moore’s outrageous actions? Or is he willing to let Congressman Rokita have the GOP’s latest darling all to himself?”
###
