Dave Pelosi Hates Free Trade; Wants You To Believe He Said Something Else On Immigration

brat_pelosiThe hand holding with Nancy Pelosi in opposing free trade not being enough, Dave Brat would like you to revisit his anti-immigrant remarks.

More than happy to oblige…  and since there’s no real way to dance around this one, we’ll cut to the chase.

Dave Brat thinks there’s a giant c-o-n-spiracy out there to get him on immigration.  Namely, that he’s not anti-immigrant… just confused with some other Dave Brat making really offensive anti-immigrant remarks:

The assertion that I equated ISIS to illegal immigrants is patently false and offensive, yet the news and editorial sides of the paper continued to push this intentional distortion of my remarks with three different pieces over four days.

So whines the congressman.

Small problem with that?  Well, he really did equate ISIS to — not just illegal immigrants — but immigrants.  All of them.

The RTD’s editorial staff responds:

The Richmond Times-Dispatch newsroom stands by its story.

During his interview on John Fredericks’ radio show, Congressman Brat did, in fact, make the comparison between illegal immigrants and members of ISIS serving in the military.

The complete question from Fredericks was, “For the average person out there, Congressman, they are looking at this and saying: Let me get this straight. So, we have a military that is downsizing, we have a military that is discharging troops, generals are getting fired right and left by Obama, now we’re going to encourage the recruitment of illegal immigrants that (sic) broke the law to get in the United States. The first pass they had with this government was breaking its law, and now we’re going to recruit them to go in our military at the expense of other people who can’t re-up. What’s going on out there?”

Bart Hinkle at the Richmond Times-Dispatch expressed his shock:

“What’s going on is the decline of Western Civilization at the highest level,” Brat said. (Not just any level — the highest level.) “I think everybody knows their old Roman history; part of the reason Rome fell was because they started hiring the barbarians in, otherwise known as the Germans at the time, to be troops in their own army, and that led to their eventual downfall.”

The 7th District representative went on to say that during floor debates some had suggested the willingness of immigrants to serve in the military showed a certain degree of patriotism. “I wanted to stand up and shout, I mean ISIS is willing to serve in our military as well.”

Oh yeah, then there was that moment where Brat sought to clarify his comments… by linking ISIS to illegal immigrants:

Brat, in an email, sought to clarify his comments.

“Some House members made the argument that we should let illegal immigrants serve in our military because they want to. What someone wants is not enough of a reason to break the law to let them serve — we need to think about what’s in the best interest of our country,” he said.

Of course, this is a Dave Brat who has already linked arms with Nancy Pelosi, opposing free trade and Reaganism over the TPA.  Who mere hours after the call for “unity” within the Republican Party spiked the football via e-mail over his 2014 primary bid.  Who did practically nothing in SEN-12 as he watched his own supporters drown in a primary contest.

As the scales fall away and his position moves from “rule of law” to mere anti-immigrant “we love you, but we love you over there” sentiment, eventually Brat will have to come to terms with the rhetoric employed on his behalf.

What’s more amusing?  His excuse on immigration simply doesn’t size up to his anti-free trade stance.  To wit:

To claim I’m anti-immigrant is ludicrous. As an economist, I worked at the World Bank to help bring people in Third World economies out of poverty. I have said on several occasions that if we really want to help people in other countries, we should be working with all countries to create free markets and a belief in individual liberty and the rule of law — the very formula that made this country such an attraction for so many in the first place.

Such a position would indicate that Brat would be entirely in favor of TPA and TPP.  Yet Brat has been glorying in his opposition to free trade, comparing the push for free markets to — yes, folks — the push for immigration reform:

Brat likened the push for fast track to efforts to pass immigration reform in an interview on The John Fredericks’ Show. “This is one of the key reasons I’m leaning a solid no on TPA and TPP,” he said. “Because if we’re arguing in the best interest of the average American, we should be able to make these arguments in the light of day and debate.”

So which position does the record indicate?  Free trade to boost economies and lessen immigration to the United States?  Or oppose free trade and entrench one’s anti-immigrant stance?  Brat’s own deflection is simply that — and the dichotomy between his TPA/TPP stance and Brat’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is starting to grate among those who prize logic over emotion when it comes to public policy.

Maybe Brat doesn’t know quite yet, but this much is clear.  Dave Brat is no conservative.

He never was.

…but the conspiracy theories sure are interesting, in an InfoWars sort of way.

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