A few videos from earlier this evening, at Virginia Wesleyan University in Norfolk, show what Rep. Scott Taylor (Tea Party, VA-02) is really all about: a) absolutely clueless and extreme on guns; b) absolutely clueless on Black Lives Matter; and c) absolutely clueless, nutty and defensive on Christine Blasey Ford, Brett Kavanaugh and supposedly needing a “corroborating witness” in sexual assault cases (which is absolutely false). On November 6, if you’re a VA-02 registered voter, make absolutely sure you get to the polls and cast your ballot for Taylor’s Democratic opponent, Elaine Luria! Now, on to the videos.
In the first video, below, Taylor says the following about guns and about the AR-15 specifically: 1) the Second Amendment isn’t about hunting, it’s “to deal with a tyrannical government”; 2) “I don’t believe that the AR-15 is as powerful as it’s made out to be…it’s like the scapegoat”; and 3) “it’s gotten the best marketing campaign of any gun ever”; and 4) “I don’t believe that the AR-15 is…the monster as it’s made out to be.” For the record, “an AR-15 or a modified version of one was used to commit the attacks in Aurora, Colorado (June 2012); Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut (December 2012); San Bernardino, California (December 2015); First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas (November 2017); and Parkland, Florida in February 2018.”
In the second video, below, Taylor says “I don’t understand what exactly the [Black Lives Matter] movement is.” WTF? Seriously? Has he been living in a hole in the ground the past few years?!? Then asked if he believes Black lives matter, Taylor goes to the right-wing talking point of “all lives matter” (note: of COURSE all lives matter, as if there’s anyone out there who doesn’t know that; the whole point of Black Lives Matter is that for hundreds of years in this country, black lives have NOT “mattered” as much as white lives, and that’s just a sad, pathetic, tragic fact. If Scott Taylor refuses to understand that or can’t wrap his brain around it, then he really doesn’t deserve to be in Congress, representing a district that’s 20% African American.
Finally, here’s Taylor on the Kavanaugh nomination: 1) Taylor claims that it’s somehow possible to agree with both Brett Kavanaugh AND Christine Blasey Ford, which one of his constituents correctly points out is logically impossible; 2) Taylor says “you have to listen to women,” but then says that Dr. Ford had “some trauma in her life” and that Kavanaugh “was believable too”; 3) then Taylor says something about Ford not having a “corroborating witness,” to which the constituent responds, “so to the all the women in here that might ever get assaulted, they better have a witness; 4) Taylor then gets VERY defensive with the constituent, totally deflecting/dodging the issue of a “corroborating witness” in a rape case. For the record, “the vast majority of jurisdictions in the country have eliminated the requirement of corroboration of an alleged victim’s testimony in sexual-assault cases…The notion that, when a witness has testified credibly, some special ‘corroborating evidence’ is still needed in order to make a proper decision is simply incorrect.” So yeah, Taylor is not just wildly wrong – yet again – he’s dangerously wrong…for women’s lives/safety and for justice in this country.
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