A New Low for Leah Vukmir?
GOP candidate for Senate smears Sen.Baldwin, branding her a “terrorist.”
Leah Vukmir labels Tammy Baldwin as part of “Team Terrorists.”
Those following the U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin know that the news for the past week has primarily centered on Republican candidate Kevin Nicholson, who made headlines after he questioned the “cognitive thought process” of military veterans who vote for Democrats.
Those comments were considered tasteless, and led to many lawmakers — some of them vets themselves — to demand Nicholson apologize for them.
Apparently not wanting to be outdone by Nicholson, another Republican candidate, running against him in the party’s primary election made comments that are even more disgusting. State Sen. Leah Vukmir attacked current incumbent U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Wednesday, essentially labeling her as a terrorist while doing so.
Seriously. Read on.
Vukmir took issue with Baldwin’s planned vote against Gina Haspel to lead the CIA. Haspel was part of an illegal torture program under George W. Bush in the early 2000s, for which many lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans — are wary of voting to confirm her over.
Yet for Vukmir, the planned oppositional vote by Baldwin proved she was inept to represent Wisconsin.
“Senator Baldwin would rather give the man behind the 9/11 attacks and other terrorists hugs and safe spaces than take adequate action to protect America and confirm Gina Haspel quickly,” she wrote in a social media post on Wednesday afternoon. She further juxtaposed her own image alongside Haspel — and Baldwin’s image next to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s, the man who planned out the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Vukmir’s image team also labeled Baldwin as part of “Team Terrorists.”
Senator Baldwin would rather give the man behind the 9/11 attacks and other terrorists hugs and safe spaces than take adequate action to protect America and confirm Gina Haspel quickly. Unacceptable. #wisen https://t.co/njYuI94GHA pic.twitter.com/sCTCDpIvZs
— Senator Leah Vukmir (@LeahVukmir) May 9, 2018
In no uncertain terms, Vukmir isn’t just saying Baldwin’s vote is misguided — she is labeling the Democrat a terrorist. That is completely wrong, and a disgusting road to take in this Senate campaign.
Vukmir, who is adamantly pro-life, should also oppose Haspel, were she consistent in her views. The current nominee to lead the CIA oversaw a torture program that included one instance in which a pregnant detainee was put through rigorous interrogation methods, including being punched in her stomach near where her fetus was.
Is McCain, a Navy veteran who fought in the Vietnam War and a former victim of torture himself, a part of “Team Terrorists?” Of course not. But using Vukmir’s logic, anyone who votes against Haspel is.
That is utterly wrong, in extremely poor taste, and offensive. Vukmir ought to feel ashamed of her statements, as well as remorse for labeling Baldwin and anyone else opposed to Haspel’s nomination as sympathetic to terrorists.
In the fight against terrorism, there are difficult choices that must be made from time-to-time. But using interrogation tactics that have been proven to be faulty is no way to move forward — and advancing a woman who oversaw those tactics, and what’s more feels no guilt or regret for having done so, is dangerous ground to tread on.
Vukmir has proven herself unfit to represent our state. Her candidacy should be rejected by Wisconsin voters. And she should apologize to Baldwin, and Wisconsin, for her tasteless and immoral comments.
Chris Walker writes a blog at https://trendpinion.wordpress.com/
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She’s a terrible human being.
A terrible human being could be subheading for this article. It clearly sums up the illiterate attitude of those looking for press. Laughable!
Go away now…(nicholson, walker, vukmir)…avoid the rush.
So if you are not with “Team Torture” you are a terrorist? Using “Vukmir logic” the father of our country was also a terrorist. In regards to how George Washington directed the treatment of German prisoners fighting for the British he said,
“Treat them with humanity, and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British Army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren who have fallen into their hands”.
Many of the Germans joined the revolutionaries in their fight against the English and stayed here in America to be free when the war was won. Go figure.
This is simply dispicable, disgusting and wrong. Vukmir is a liar and a schemer. She clearly has no love of freedom, liberty or even basic decency. Outright fear mongering and lying is a sign of desperation and weakness by Wisconsin republicans.
Dump Vukmir 2018!
Dump Walker 2018!
Dump ALL republican charlatans in 2018!
Wait, you haven’t seen anything yet. Nicholson will try and top that add! It’s how stupid these two right wing nuts have become.
2 well-funded lowlifes. Vukmir and Nicholson. Race to the bottom.
At first glance, I thought that was a photo of the IronStache being grouped in with Baldwin in “Team Terrorists.” Wouldn’t surprise me. The Trumpists will stoop to any lows with their tacky and blatant ads that seem to appeal to their base. Really. Who writes these ads? 12 year olds?
If this is OK, then it sounds like Leah Vukmir should be happy branding herself with the KKK or the Nazi’s?
There is no bar too low for the ALEC Queen.
It’s also telling that Nicholson and Vukmir think that attacking Dems as “Un-American” helps their chances in getting the WISGOP endorsement for the Senate race this weekend. They think the GOP “base” is hateful human garbage that responds to such bigotry and divisiveness.
Well GOP, is that true?
There are always two questions that should not be smushed together. The first: is torture effective/does it “work”? As soon as you have even engaged this question, you have answered the second one: is it immoral/do we torture other human beings? The answer becomes, “Yes, if it works.” Like Donald Trump, Dick Cheney, and the people on Fox News, along with lots of others, Leah Vukmir believes that “it works,” and that it is morally acceptable based on what “they” had done to “us” or would do to us. And, in our sad times, a club that can be used to beat on an opponent.
Left out of the discussion by those who would readily order other humans to be tortured is a third group: those that these people are wiling to send to do the torturing. What happens to them? Trump, Cheney, Haspel, Vukmir and the rest don’t think much about them. (Maybe they’ll label them “heroes” and give them some medal.) Those sent to do the torturing would appear to break into three groups: the lucky ones who are able to screen out what they are doing and put it into a “doing my job”/patriotic duty context; the frightening ones who actually enjoy their work; and, a large group, those who will forever be haunted by what they have done and what they have seen. What does Vukmir have to say about those groups?
And, if practices like sleep deprivation, waterboarding, forced feeding, stress positions, isolation and the rest are just “enhanced interrogation” techniques to them, even though they all fit the legal definition of “torture,” will they subject themselves to a waterboarding and have it shown on television to further rally the base? Here is an opportunity for a 60 second Leah Vukmir spot guaranteed to go viral.
Vukmir’s attack on Baldwin as a TERRORIST is more reprehensible than Nicholson’s attack on Democrats who serve in our military. Can WI Republican’s find a more credible candidate than the above bozos before the primary?
Thanks to Trump this kind of talk and behavior is now acceptable by many. The impact of this sexual predator, serial liar, racist, and mobster will be felt for decades. It won’t be fun to listen to.
Sometimes an attack ad tells us far more about the candidate sponsoring the ad than about her opponent.
We should thank Leah Vukmir for the window into her character.