Lots o’ lies by Lying Liar Ed Gillespie on today’s “Politics Hour” with Kojo Nnamdi and Tom Sherwood. I’ll get to those below the audio. But first, you might note that Nnamdi and Sherwood are speaking very quickly (great job, by the way, in cutting right to the chase and asking Gillespie pointed, tough-but-fair questions). The reason is that Gillespie only gave them about 15 minutes of his preccccious time, even though this show reaches a large audience in Northern Virginia. As usual with Gillespie, of course, he knows that his stances on many issues are not in sync with people in the DC suburbs (or in Richmond, Charlottesville, much of Hampton Roads, etc.), so he’s trying hard to duck, dodge and weave. See what I mean below the audio.
Evasion/Lie #1: Kojo asks Enron Ed, “Are you inviting President Trump to come to Virginia?” The DC corporate lobbyist/swamp creature dodges by saying he doesn’t talk campaign strategy with the media. Whatever.
Evasion/Lie #2: Kojo asks how Gillespie thinks Trump is doing as president and whether or not he’s good for Virginia. Gillespie starts talking about building more ships and submarines in Newport News, which gets at only a sliver of what Kojo’s asking. Then, Gillespie segues into…
Evasion/Lie #3: Gillespie says he supports repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which he claims was “obviously having a very damaging impact, but not just on coal miner’s jobs in Southwest Virginia, also it’s gonna make it harder for us to foster advanced manufacturing and hurting manufacturing jobs and driving up the cost for consumers when it comes to our electric bills which hits the poorest families the hardest.” Literally none of that is even close to being true.
First, of course, the Clean Power Plan would have had a positive economic AND environmental impact, but the fact is it never even kicked into effect, so of course it wasn’t “having a very damaging impact,” let alone “obviously,” as Gillespie absurdly claims. There’s also zero evidence that the Clean Power Plan would have hurt manufacturing or would have driven up electric bills. To the contrary, “research by Georgia Institute of Technology and Synapse Energy Economics finds it could actually cut utility bills by using conservation and renewable energy…Virginia households taking advantage of energy efficiency programs under the proposed Clean Power Plan would save on average 22 dollars a month, and their bills would then be 128 dollars a month.” As for jobs, note that – according to the U.S. Department of Energy – “5 of the Fastest Growing Jobs” in the United States are in clean energy, with “6.4 million Americans work[ing] in the energy sector” and “300,000 jobs added last year,” largely “in renewable energy and efficiency.”
Of course, it’s not surprising that Ed Gillespie would lie about clean energy, given that he “worked for a think tank that rejects climate science” and that:
…Gillespie clients included the (misleadingly named) Institute for Energy Research (IER) and its advocacy arm, the (astroturf) American Energy Alliance. To quickly summarize, these are key players in framing political discussion in the promotion of fossil fuels, undermining of clean energy (e.g., solar and wind), denial of climate science, and damaging the Federal government’s (and state) programs to help move the United States toward a prosperous and climate-friendly modern energy system…
Of course, it isn’t just IER and AEA that make Enron Ed’s dirty energy pedigree. In addition to helping Enron amid what was one of the greatest frauds in US business history, Gillespie worked for the American Petroleum Institute to fight against improved fuel efficiency.
Evasion/Lie #4: Gillespie evaded a question about theocratic extremist VP Mike Pence by not talking about Pence’s record. For more on that, see Think Trump Is Scary? Check Out Mike Pence On The Issues. (“Trump might blow up the world, but Pence would set the clock back to 1954.”) For instance, Pence “signed the most abortion-restrictive regulations in the nation, banning abortion even in cases where the fetus has a ‘genetic abnormality’ such as Down syndrome and holding doctors legally liable if they had knowingly performed such procedures.” Pence also “helped pass one of the nation’s harshest ‘religious freedom’ laws that would have protected businesses who wanted to refuse service to LGBT people if they cited religious objections.” As governor of Indiana, Pence also “diverted $53 million in the past two years from public school to funding vouchers for private schools, including religious schools, and to charter school programs.” Oh, and Pence is “skeptical of climate change and wrote a letter to President Obama threatening to disobey the new regulations on coal mandated by the Clean Power Plan.” He’s a gun nut, of course, and just as an added bonus is apparently terrified of what he might do if he’s left alone in a room with a woman not his wife. My god. And again, this is someone who Ed Gillespie brags about being his good friend.
Lie/Evasion #5: He dodges whether Steve Bannon might be involved in pushing Corey Stewart to more enthusiastically support him, claiming laughably that the GOP – currently engaged in a nasty civil war – is a “unified party.”
Lie/Evasion #6: He dodges a question about Trump’s sabotage of the Affordable Care Act and massive premium increases that could ensue. All Gillespie has to say, really, is that he has a “plan” to “make healthcare more affordable for my fellow Virginians.” Hahahahaha. Seriously, he actually believes that, even as Trump screws over those same “fellow Virginians,” and even as Gillespie does NOT have a serious healthcare plan.
Lie/Evasion #7: He dodges a great question from a Bolivian immigrant, who says 100% correctly, “I’m worried about you, because last week I watched several ads that you put trying to scare my neighbors and my community, implying by association that immigrants are gang members, and you used coded language to stoke racial tension by preying on people’s fears.” And another caller asks, “Why would you decide now, when you’ve talked about in the past that you thought it was against Republicans’ best interest to…demonize immigrants yet you’re going to sit here and run commercials preying on fears…” Gillespie’s pathetically lame answer, in short: a) no he didn’t do those things (LIE; of course he did – watch the disgusting, race-baiting, fact-free ad!); b) he’s the son of immigrants too (a non-answer); c) he says that MS-13 is “completely opposite Hispanic values” (no shit, but what does that have to do with Gillespie’s race-baiting, xenophobic, wildly irresponsible ads?); d) he claims that “It’s others conflating MS-13 & the immigrant community, not me. I’m making a very clear distinction” – huge LIE; e) he blabbers on again about “sanctuary cities,” which we don’t even have in Virginia. Blah blah blah.
Lie/Evasion #8: On abortion, he tries to claim that his comments about wanting abortion banned and Roe vs Wade overturned were “taken out of context.” Oh yeah? Well here’s some context for you. The bottom line is that this guy would be a nightmare for women of Virginia if he ever were to become governor. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen!
P.S. Note that this is just a partial list of lies and evasions from only 15 minutes of Ed Gillespie answering questions earlier this afternoon. Imagine if he had more time and his lips kept moving? LOL
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