Threat of a government shutdown and the elimination of DACA didn’t distract Rohrabacher from conspiracy theories
IRVINE – Orange County’s most… colorful Congressman is out of the gates with a new conspiracy theory, telling the San Francisco Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli that the white nationalists behind the Charlottesville protest were actually Civil War re-enactors who were organized by a former ”Hillary and Bernie supporter.” In the Congressman’s retelling, the entire imbroglio is simply “a liberal media deceit.” As a reminder, these “Civil War re-enactors” chanted “Jews will not replace us” and “Blood and Soil” (a Nazi slogan) before running over counter-protestors with a car, killing one.
In the face of DACA’s elimination and threats of a government shutdown, Dana Rohrabacher says his two priorities in Congress are creating friendlier ties with Russia and easing cannabis laws. This begs the question: Is this really what Southern California voters sent him to Washington to do?
DCCC spokesperson Drew Godinich released the following statement:
“It is deeply disturbing that Congressman Dana Rohrabacher struggles to identify white nationalists, particularly after their actions in Charlottesville resulted in the death of an American citizen – but perhaps that should come as no surprise, as he has made a regular habit of welcoming them into his home. This is not what the voters of the 48th District sent him to Washington to do. These views are repugnant. They are un-American. It is 2017, not 1861 – and any member of Congress that hesitates to condemn white supremacists has no business serving in the House of Representatives.”
BACKGROUND
- Dana Rohrabacher attended a meeting with Julian Assange set up by white nationalist Chuck Johnson, ‘a longtime friend’
- Dana Rohrabacher spoke at a MAGA rally in Huntington Beach, where attendees attacked members of the media and waved Nazi and white supremacist flags
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The Pro-Russia, Pro-Weed, Pro-Assange GOP Congressman Who Will be Tough to Beat
http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/The-pro-Russia-pro-weed-pro-Assange-GOP-12195944.php
It was a surreal visit to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s Orange County home. The 15-term Republican greeted me in bare feet, sitting on his front step making fundraising phone calls while wearing a stained white T-shirt and khakis he bought at Goodwill. Later, he proudly showed me a blazer he scored there for $10.
Then again, Ronald Reagan’s 70-year-old former White House speech writer is a surreal kind of guy. He’s a hero to weed-lovers for being a Republican at the forefront of the pro-marijuana legalization movement, and a pariah to fellow Republicans for being so pro-Russia that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy once jokingly said that “Putin pays” him. He wants to cut a deal with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and thinks the Charlottesville riots were staged by liberals and were “a total hoax.”
He’s both a puka-shell-necklace-wearing surfer and a fierce anti-Communist who bragged about battling with Afghan mujahedeen during a fact-finding trip shortly before being sworn into Congress that “probably resulted in the deaths of a number of Soviet troops.” During our visit, he largely dismissed human influence on climate change and strummed a guitar whiling singing a song he wrote about libertarian ideals called “Individual Man.”
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Standing at the corner of Fringe and Conspiracy streets, Rohrabacher would seem to be easy picking for Democrats, who are making Orange County the centerpiece of their plan to return to power in the House by flipping 24 GOP seats. They’re focused on districts like Rohrabacher’s, where Hillary Clinton outpolled President Trump and the incumbents are perceived as out-of-touch.
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Still, Rohrabacher acknowledges, “this race will be the toughest.” Not because Democrats are going after his seat and nine candidates have jumped in to oppose him, including two who are raising serious money. Because, he said, “of Russia.”
Rohrabacher describes himself as the lone voice against both conservatives and liberals who want retribution against Russia for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. But what about the “high confidence” with which the nation’s top intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the election?
“Total bull—,” Rohrabacher said over peanut butter sandwiches — his favorite meal — that he slapped together in his kitchen. “I’ve read those reports and they’re full of weasel words.”
“That story is a total fabrication in order to do one thing: To prevent Donald Trump from exercising the legitimate authority he was given by the voters in the last election,” he said.
One of Rohrabacher’s sources: Assange. Last summer, on his own dime, Rohrabacher visited Assange, who for years has been harbored in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, fearing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault accusations and bail-jumping charges in England.
Rohrabacher said Assange told him that Russia wasn’t involved in the theft of emails from the Democratic National Committee that Wikileaks released, but didn’t say who was. Maybe the emails fell off the back of a truck, as they used to say in my grandpa’s neighborhood.
Rohrabacher isn’t buying that conspiracy theory, but he’s deep into another — that Democrats were behind last month’s white nationalist riots in Charlottesville, Va. Oh, and calling them white nationalist riots is a liberal media deceit, he said.
“It’s all baloney,” Rohrabacher said.
Under Rohrabacher’s scenario, a former “Hillary and Bernie supporter” got Civil War re-enactors to gather under the guise of protecting a Robert E. Lee statue there.
“It was a setup for these dumb Civil War re-enactors,” Rohrabacher said. “It was left-wingers who were manipulating them in order to have this confrontation” and to “put our president on the spot.”
Those of you who are fans of conspiracy connoisseur and conservative commentator Alex Jones, host of “Info Wars,” will recognize that scenario as one of his dreamscapes, which is “Pants on Fire” groundless, according to the nonpartisan Politifact.
Meanderings like that make Democrats see Rohrabacher as vulnerable. Several credible, well-financed Democrats, including world-renowned stem cell researcher Hans Keirstead, have lined up to take him on. Keirstead raised $138,504 shortly after jumping into the race, according to the latest federal filing information, and real estate investor Harley Rouda has raised $319,335. Three of the Democrats, including Rouda, were once Republicans, which could play well in the OC.
Plus, there’s an unprecedented amount of liberal grassroots activism in the district, with regular protests outside Rohrabacher’s office. Progressives are trying to reintroduce the 24 percent of nonpartisan voters in the district to their congressman — and not in a good way.
“People saw ‘incumbent’ and an ‘R’ by his name, so they assumed that he supported Republican values,” said Aaron McCall, who heads the local chapter of the resistance group Indivisible. “Dana Rohrabacher doesn’t support Republican values. He supports his own values. Republicans tell me ‘We didn’t realize he was this unhinged.’”
Rohrabacher admits that part of him would like to just spend time working on screenplays, playing guitar and surfing with his wife and teenage triplets.
But he wants to stay in Congress to fight for the easing of cannabis laws and to advance his views on Russia, two lonely battles that he worries would be abandoned if he were gone.
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