#keith self

The incident occurred when Texas congressman Keith Self was speaking during a House foreign relations subcommittee meeting and used a quote from the infamous Nazi propagandist Goebbels to try to get his point across.

Emily Singer at Daily Kos:

It was a weekend of pain for GOP lawmakers brave enough to hold town halls. Hundreds of angry constituents—some of them members of their own party—peppered them with questions about the chaos President Donald Trump and co-President Elon Musk have wrought since Inauguration Day. The images of Republicans facing enraged voters who are demanding that the GOP stand up to Trump and Musk are getting to Trump, who lied in a Truth Social post that the town hall attendees are being paid. “Paid ‘troublemakers’ are attending Republican Town Hall Meetings. It is all part of the game for the Democrats, but just like our big LANDSLIDE ELECTION, it’s not going to work for them!” Trump wrote on Monday morning, ignoring at his own peril the real anger bubbling up across the country at Republicans’ threats to the economy and attacks on national security and Americans’ health.  [...] Because of the outcry at these town halls, Republican leadership has suggested members not to hold the events at all to avoid negative publicity. In some districts where Republicans refused to meet with their voters, constituents held their own events to protest their actions.  [...] Democratic lawmakers are encouraging voters to attend town halls if their Republican representatives are having them, saying that if Republicans are scared of being voted out, their behavior may change.

"When a CNN reporter asked what his response was to people who feel “prayers aren’t cutting it,” the congressman said, “Well, those are people that don’t believe in an almighty god ..."

A little FYI for Keith Self, not believing that prayers alone to be a solution to stopping mass shootings, does not necesarily mean you don't believe in God. And even if some people don't? So what?

Where I'm from, Keith Self would have been kicked out of whatever party he would be in (yes, even the conservative ones) and possibly charged with commiting a hate crime, which is punishable with up to two years of prison. Needless to say, whether he would be leaving the building in handcuffs or not, pulling this stunt here would literally end his career. I have a difficult time trying to understand why the same isn't true in a "modern country" like the US.

He's probably not going to see it, but I want to give a shoutout to William Keating. You were awesome.

You mean the pathetic coward Keith Self who was immediately sent running with his tail between his legs to cry on Twitter because he got the slightest bit of pushback for mistreating a congresswoman?

I genuinely don't understand how MAGAts will brag about so-called alpha males when their representatives are all such babies.

Bill Keating acted incredibly courageously in standing up for a colleague. A true hero! Keith Self adjourned the meeting early and then whined online that he was being so mistreated. 🙄

I have no idea what happened to the MAGA population that they somehow look at weak cowards like Keith and have convinced themselves that's strength.

So yeah, doubling what you said! Huge shoutout to Bill Keating for standing up for what was right.

Joe Perticone at The Bulwark:

Almost a decade removed from President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban Muslims from entering the country during his first term—a vile passion project that has been given new life in his second presidency—a growing number of House and Senate Republicans are taking Islamophobia to a new level, actively calling for discrimination against Muslims and even arguing that some should be denaturalized and deported from the United States.

Foremost among the proudly anti-Muslim politicians is Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.). “I think mainstream Islam is not compatible,” Fine said in a November Newsmax interview when asked by host Todd Starnes if Muslims can coexist with the Constitution. “I think mainstream Islam is a threat to the United States.” “The left is rooted in a belief that all cultures are equal, that we’re all good people, that we can sit and talk through our problems, that we all share the same values. And that is not true,” Fine said last week in another Newsmax appearance. “There is evil in this world. Mainstream Islam, as we saw on October 7th, as we’ve seen in Syria, as we’ve seen in Nigeria—it lionizes and it glorifies death. That’s what they celebrate.” In another post attacking a speech by his House colleague, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who is a practicing Muslim, Fine wrote: “This is the ugly face of Islam in America. Believe them when they say they are just getting started. It’s up to us to stop them.”

If this were all Fine had said about Islam in public, it would be a grotesque, alarming problem. But this is just a sampling of the man’s pronouncements about a two billion–person religious community. Fine posts about Islam a lot. Since November, he’s posted the word “Muslim” more than 50 times from his official account on X. That tally includes promotions of cable news interviews he’s done and random musings about this perceived threat of people who worship differently from him. Fine isn’t the only one taking the anti-Muslim rhetoric to another level. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who is now running for governor, posted that Islam is “a cult,” and that its adherents in the United States are “here to conquer” in order to establish a caliphate. Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), a member of the House Freedom Caucus,1 reposted Tuberville’s statement. It’s hard to imagine Tuberville offering a clearer or more direct condemnation of the world’s second-largest religion. It certainly goes beyond anything he’s said before. Comparing this post with his past statements gives you a sense of how acceptable it has become in the GOP to openly spout anti-Islamic bigotry.

Consider what Tuberville sounded like just two months ago. “If you want to peacefully practice your religion, that’s fine with me,” the Senator said in October. “That’s what our Constitution gives you the right to do. Our Constitution gives you that right, and that’s why we have millions—millions—of Christians, Jews, Mormons, Hindus, Buddhists, and peaceful Muslims who worship freely in this great country of ours called the United States of America.” (Emphasis mine.) At the time of that speech, Tuberville was pushing a bill to ban Sharia law, a religious philosophy he, Fine, and others believe (or claim to believe) is a tool to usurp the Constitution and turn entire cities into Muslim caliphates. It’s hardly the only bill of its kind under consideration. In the House, there are currently six bills that disapprovingly mention or attempt to ban Sharia law in some way, one of them being a companion to Tuberville’s “Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act.” (Several are resolutions concerning Nigeria, a country Trump offhandedly threatened for allegedly being a hotbed of anti-Christian persecution earlier this year.)

Those efforts reflected the longtime GOP priority of combating Islamic extremism. But that objective is quickly morphing into fuller blown anti-Islam hysteria. It’s coming from up high, with President Donald Trump unleashing a wave of bigotry against Somali Americans in Minnesota and Vice President JD Vance echoing it with racist remarks about the same community at the recent Turning Point USA rally. But it’s also finding its way into formal congressional business. Fine is considering drafting a resolution to expel Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from Congress in the new year. “I don’t think she should be a citizen, let alone a member of Congress,” Fine told Axios. If he goes ahead with it, Fine’s effort will fail in the House. But even though he can’t succeed in expelling Omar, his attempt to do so would still represent the internal permission structure the Republican party is building to allow its members to more openly discriminate against Muslims.