A few things you need to know as you watch this fascinating NLS interview (great job by Ben Tribbett, by the way…can’t wait to see what else he came up with at the RPV freak show…er, convention). First, Bob Fitzsimmonds is not some random guy, but the treasurer of the Republican Party of Virginia who served as Ken Cuccinelli’s legislative aide in the Senate for most of Cuccinelli’s time there, and who is still a very close ally and adviser to Cuccinelli. Second, following President Obama’s reelection this past November, Fitzsimmonds wrote on his Facebook page, “When Obama is 90 years old and he dies and goes to Hell, he is going to say ‘This is all Bush’s fault.'” At the time, DPVA Chair Brian Moran said, “Taking to Facebook to muse on the death of the President of the United States and whether or not he will go to hell is well below the standard of conduct Virginians set for their public officials and political leaders.”
Finally, note that in the interview, Fitzsimmonds says a few…uh, “interesting” things. And again, keep in mind that this guy is a VERY close adviser to Ken Cuccinelli (and would be powerful in a Gov. Cuccinelli administration).
1. Starting at 7:45, Fitzsimmonds starts ranting about sex education and “the spread of STDs.” He claims that “HIV’s kind of hard to catch, abortion happens if you get pregnant, but we’re on the trajectory for 50% of the American people to have herpes…and that is a profound not only health but sociological crisis that’s facing this country, and it’s not even as prevalent as HPV.” Fitzsimmonds adds, “we have a disease [HPV] out there that’s killing women more than HIV is, and we don’t even talk about it.” Hmmm…actually we do talk about vaccinating young people against HPV (see this video of Del. Patrick Hope, for instance) but isn’t Cuccinelli against that?
2. Starting at 9:10, Fitzsimmonds claims, “We have an entire generation of children who are in their teens, 50% of the ones that are sexually active have an STD…we never lived with this kind of crisis; so I think we absolutely have to address that, and I think Ken will do it.” Alrighty then.
3. Starting at 11:50, he talks about his 501c(3) waiting for approval from the IRS; “it doesn’t say ‘Tea Party” in the name, but it does say ‘Christian abstinence.‘” Yep, that’s apparently Fitzsimmond’s big thing: “Christian abstinence.” Is that what the people of Virginia want in their governor? I guess we’re going to find out.
4. Starting at 13:30 he says, “I’m not a big fan of contraception, frankly...I think there are some issues with giving morning-after pills to 12 year olds, and pretty soon I guess we’ll hand them out to babies, I don’t know.” Giving out morning-after pills to babies – hahahahaha, very funny. That WAS meant as a “joke,” right? Wow.
By the way, these are just excerpts, I encourage you to watch the entire video. It’s an eye opener into Ken Cuccinelli’s thinking, and to use Fitzsimmond’s words in a different context: “it’s chilling, it’s scary.”
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