As anyone who’s followed the 2024 U.S. Senate race, or the 2022 U.S. House race in VA10 for that matter, will already be well aware how extreme and flat-out bonkers Republican U.S. Senate nominee Hung Cao is. For a brief refresher, see:
- VA10 Republicans Nominate Hung Cao, Who Backs “Off-Label Alternatives” to Treating COVID, Is 100% Anti-Reproductive Freedom, Rails Against “Insidious Grooming…of Students” by “government-backed organizations,” etc. to Take on Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA10)
- Video: New VA10 Far-Right Republican Nominee Rants That the “Left” Is Supposedly “Destroying Gender” and “the Nuclear Family”; Also “Marxism,” “Equity,” “Pure Evil,” the “Enemy,” etc.
- Grading VA’s Leading Democratic, Republican U.S. House Candidates, Nominees on Arguably the Top Two Issues Facing Us: Democracy and the Climate Crisis (On the climate crisis, Cao said “I believe in god and…why we have a rainbow is because that’s god’s covenant to us…he’ll never wipe out the world again, so it’s kind of arrogant for us to believe we can we can destroy god’s creation” and “The left just wants to come up with crazy ideas about, you know, wind power well…what happens when there’s no wind? Solar power; what happens in the winter time? Also what what do you do with the lithium?” Yikes. And on democracy, Cao is a 2020 “Big Lie” proponent. For instance, see here to listen to Cao opine about how it’s “very difficult for me to understand what happened in 2020, when the person sits in their basement for the whole election cycle and they got more votes than Barack Obama…I’m just saying it’s just very hard for me to understand and decipher that …and you know you can’t change the rules halfway through like in Pennsylvania.”)
- Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA10): “Comparing abortion to the horrors of the Nazis’ atrocities against Jewish people is a disgusting and deeply offensive comment from my opponent—and an outrageous lie.”
- DPVA Releases “Why Hung Cao Is Too Extreme for Virginia” (Cao Praised Violent Insurrection, Supports Total Abortion Ban, Denies Climate Science, etc.)
- Audio: “Hung Cao’s attack on ailing Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton is even more disgusting when you hear it for yourself.”
- New Digital Ad: “In His Own Words” Highlighting Hung Cao’s Bizarre Statements (“Cao called himself ‘African American’ because he lived in Africa…Cao declared that there is a surge of witchcraft in California…Cao admitted that he has friends who were investigated over their activities related to the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol…Cao said he would take down members of Congress ‘with a platoon.’…Cao requested that he be given a KKK hood with “the little slits and not the circles so I can see better'”)
Completely insane, right? And frighteningly, there’s much, MUCH more where that came from. Yet THIS is the guy Virginia Republicans nominated to replace the superb Tim Kaine in the U.S. Senate??? Shudddderrrr…
Anyway, just in case you thought maybe Cao’s gotten saner and/or less extreme recently, check out his batshit crazy responses to this questionnaire. Here are ten of his most false and/or extreme and/or bonkers responses. Check them out, then make sure you vote to reelect Sen. Tim Kaine if you haven’t done so already!
- “Supports Trump’s tariff plan on imported goods that economists say will pass increased costs to consumers.” (In fact, experts say that Trump’s ” plans to impose huge tariffs on imported goods, deport millions of migrant workers and demand a voice in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies would likely send prices surging.”)
- “Life begins at conception.” Was “thrilled” when Roe v. Wade was overturned. Supports access to IVF, but government should not pay for it. Says he would vote against a Senate bill to limit contraception access. (In sum, Cao would completely ban abortion – because that’s what “life begins at conception” means – as well as forms of contraception that operate POST-conception, etc.)
- “Supports Trump’s proposal to move over 100,000 federal positions out of D.C., saying Virginia “may very well be a net beneficiary.” (Fact check: not only would Virginia not be a “net beneficiary” from this crazy plan, it would be devastating.)
- “We can address so many problems in our country by simply refusing to spend American tax dollars on illegal aliens and sending them back where they came from.” (Totally false that this would be an effective means of bringing down the deficit, as BY FAR the biggest drivers of the deficit have NOTHING to do with this whatsoever. In fact, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, “An increase in immigration over the 2021–2026 period boosts federal revenues as well as mandatory spending and interest on the debt in CBO’s baseline projections, lowering deficits, on net, by $0.9 trillion over the 2024–2034 period.” That’s right, LOWERING DEFICITS by nearly a TRILLION DOLLARS over the next ten years! So yeah, Cao is completely full of it. Also note that by far the biggest federal budget expenditures are Social Security, Medicare/health care, interest on the debt and U.S. national security, with revenues being sucked away by Trump’s massive tax cuts for the wealthy and for big corporations. Again, NOTHING TO DO WITH immigration!)
- “A “hyper-focus” on race and gender is “destroying years of work that ensured equal opportunity for all Americans regardless of race, sex and religion.” Against expanding Title IX protections, because he doesn’t want his daughters ‘to compete against a man.’” (This is just complete bulls*** and idiocy. Seriously, this dude needs to get a grip.)
- “Needs ‘a lot more data about climate change’ to be convinced and said it’s arrogant to believe people can damage God’s creation.” (This comment *alone* should automatically disqualify Cao from holding ANY public office EVER. In fact, there’s massive, overwhelming scientific evidence that human activites – burning of fossil fuels, destruction of forests, agricultural practices, etc, etc. – are driving global warming and doing MASSIVE damage to the Earth’s environment. There is literally ZERO doubt about any of this…except in Hung Cao’s deranged mind.)
- “Supports mass deportation.” (That would be a disaster for our economy – who do you think grows/picks/processes our food, for instance??? – in addition to being completely inhumane, for absolutely no good reason whatsoever.)
- “Secure the border, secure the border, and secure the border. Everything flows from there.” (Sure, secure the border – most everyone agrees with that! – but no, of course everything doesn’t “flow from there.” This was a question, by the way, that asked, “Three ways you will work with Congress to prioritize Virginians’ needs?” And this was Cao’s response – not health care, not homeownership, not reproductive freedom, etc, etc. Just totally warped.)
- “…we have millions of people who should not be here, including terrorists, gang members, and run-of-the-mill criminals.” (That’s wildly distorted and xenophobic. In fact, “According to a consistent, overwhelming amount of criminology research, immigrants to the United States, both legal and undocumented, have committed less crime than native-born Americans going all the way back to the 1870s.” Also note that “Since 1975, no one has been killed or injured in a terrorist attack in the United States that involved someone who came across the border illegally, according to Alex Nowrasteh, the vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.” So yep – yet again, Cao is completely full of it.)
- “There are thousands of Americans that are homeless right now due to Hurricane Helene, and we need to put them into hotels and get room service instead of giving it to illegal aliens. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Tim Kaine spent billions of taxpayer money for disaster relief to feed and house illegal immigrants, and now American families in need have been left out to dry.” (That is, of course, a wild lie – debunked many, many times, including by the WaPo, which noted, “Donald Trump falsely accuses President Biden of redirecting disaster funds, a budget maneuver Trump himself approved in 2019.”)
So, as always, is the “mainstream media” going to call Cao out on these wild lies, or is it just going to uncritically amplify this crap? (Spoiler: it almost certainly will be the latter, because that’s how they roll…)
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