Gutless GOP Senate Candidate Panders To Woman Who Wants President Obama Executed

The Republican Party’s descent into unfettered, nihilistic madness marches on. Republican candidates have become completely gutless at town hall meetings, pandering to the lowest common denominator of racist insurrectionists, so they can win Republican primaries. The latest example, is cowardly Oklahoma GOP Representative Jim Bridenstine who is running for the U.S. Senate. Bridenstine responded to a woman who advocated executing President Obama for treason, not with a measured response, but by pouring gasoline on her paranoid rage by tacitly agreeing  stating:

Everybody knows the lawlessness of this president. He picks and chooses which laws he’s going to enforce or not enforce, he does it by decree.

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Bridenstine had an opportunity to rebuff the inflammatory remarks, but instead indulged the audience in their unfounded fears and hatred, by feeding the frenzy, arguing that Obama rules by decree. He continued by saying if Obama is unable to enforce his will by executive order he will get foreign governments to impose his will.

After the video of the town hall meeting surfaced, Bridenstine went on the defensive arguing:

A public figure cannot control what people say in open meetings.  I obviously did not condone and I do not approve of grossly inappropriate language.  It is outrageous that irresponsible parties would attribute another person’s reckless remarks to me.

Poor helpless Jim Bridenstine. He wants to be a U.S. Senator but he is too weak-willed to call out his constituents who want the President executed or assassinated. He wants to be a leader but he is unable to summon up the courage to tell somebody that executing the President is not a solution to the nation’s problems. Maybe, Bridenstine could learn a lesson from Arizona Senator John McCain who was able to summon the courage to respond to a woman who said Barack Obama was an Arab who couldn’t be trusted, by gently but firmly correcting her:

No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab].

Bridenstine did not say President Obama should be executed in his own words. However, when he had the opportunity to make it clear that political assassination is not an appropriate response to partisan disagreements, he chose instead to continue to elaborate on the woman’s point, further ginning up animosity towards the President. Republican politicians who pander to constituents that advocate hostility and murder of the U.S. President, especially in a state where an anti-government domestic terrorist once blew up a federal building, have no business representing our country in Congress. If Jim Bridenstine is unable to summon the courage to say that executing the duly elected President of the United States is a wrongheaded idea, then he certainly does not have enough character or personal integrity to serve in the United States Senate.

Keith Brekhus

Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick’s successful re-election bid in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.