Today’s GOP may be vehemently against all things Black Lives Matter, but they will always sing the praises of Martin Luther King Jr., even while blocking voting rights bills, which King fought for. Sometimes they even try to claim the civil rights leader as one of their own. On Wednesday, that’s what anti-Trump news anchor-turned-MAGA candidate Kari Lake did. Luckily, she got a smackdown from someone close to him: one of his daughters.
“If MLK, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, if JFK were alive today, if our founding fathers were alive today, they would be America first Republicans.”
– Kari Lake, claiming that MLK would support the party trying to kill the Voting Rights Act he fought to enact pic.twitter.com/jC0iDHeHUF
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 19, 2022
Lake was at a campaign event alongside former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, who said she’d initially been drawn to the “party of Dr. Martin Luther King and by the party of JFK.” However, “that party doesn’t exist today,” she said. “It’s a very different party.”
It was then that Lake chimed in. “Actually, I think [that party] does [exist],” she said. “I’m a true believer that if MLK, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, if JFK were alive today, if our founding fathers were alive today, they would be America First Republicans.”
All the while, Gabbard looked on in apparent delusional agreement as Lake claimed that a progressive activist murdered by a racist would fraternize with people who regularly demonize BLM.
The claim did not go unnoticed by Bernice King, his youngest child, who was five when he was assassinated.
Dear @KariLake:
What you share here is false and dismissive of Daddy’s seminal work and beliefs, including:
•Ending/preventing voter suppression
•Treating all, including immigrants, with dignityI invite you to study my father via https://t.co/CrTgmzSrti#MLK https://t.co/9BESeOYSSA
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) October 19, 2022
“What you share here is false and dismissive of Daddy’s seminal work and beliefs,” King wrote, then pointed out two such views: “Ending/preventing voter suppression” and “Treating all, including immigrants, with dignity.”
Lake, like many in the MAGA wing of the GOP, believe in making it harder to vote, perhaps suspecting that most people won’t vote for Republicans, especially those like her. Immigrants, meanwhile, are the GOP’s biggest boogeypeople. Indeed, on Tuesday, those simply trying to watch the latest Phillies playoff game were treated to a vile, xenophobic ad perpetrated in part by Trump higher-up Stephen Miller, who regularly demonizes immigrants.
But maybe apart from those voter suppression and immigrants, sure, Martin Luther King Jr. would be cool with the party all about dog-whistling. Or maybe not.
(Via The Daily Beast)