The execution of gay Americans is "slightly" too extreme for Cruz campaign
Greg White
Staff reporter
In late December, then-Cruz campaign spokesman Rick Tyler denounced the homophobic remarks made by pastor Kevin Swanson at the National Religious Liberties Conference in Des Moines, Iowa that Cruz attended the previous month.
The Gayly reported that in late November, 2015, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow did a segment on Swanson, a right-wing extremist pastor and radio commentator. During the conference, Swanson made repeated calls for “the biblical punishment for homosexuals.” According to him, that punishment is death.
In a video of the conference, Swanson says, “Yes, Leviticus 20:13 calls for the death penalty for homosexuals. Yes, Romans Chapter 1 verse 32 the Apostle Paul does say that homosexuals are worthy of death – his words, not mine – and I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
According to a USA Today story from December, just weeks ahead of the Iowa caucuses Tyler called Swanson’s comments “reprehensible” and said Cruz has spoken out repeatedly against anyone who calls for hatred or violence against homosexuals.
“Senator Cruz is passionate about religious liberties” Tyler said in an email. “Many respected organizations were sponsoring [the conference], but, given these offensive comments, it was a mistake for Senator Cruz to appear at the event.”
According to a recent Towleroad report, when asked back in November if Cruz cared to denounce the anti-gay comments Swanson made, comments actually said right before Swanson introduced Cruz on stage at that event, Tyler commented that Swanson’s remarks were “not explicit” enough to warrant a denunciation or even a comment about the hate mongering. So while that call to kill the gays was apparently not explicit and not worthy of comment in November, by December that had changed. At that point the Cruz campaign finally admitted it was a “mistake” to have attended that event.
Last week, Rachel Maddow brought attention to the Cruz campaign’s apparent about-face on Swanson’s kill the gays rally while discussing disturbing poll numbers that found significant support among Donald Trump supporters in South Carolina for banning all homosexuals from entering the United States. Maddow pointed out that while Cruz is sticking to his guns, quite literally, when it comes to embracing extremist pro-gun advocates, Swanson’s remarks went “too far.” So, she suggested, we now know where Senator Cruz draws the line on right-wing extremism. Advocating for the execution of gay Americans is apparently ever-so slightly too extreme to warrant his support.
Ironically, the Cruz spokesman who declared that it was a mistake for Cruz to attend Swanson’s rally was none other than Rick Tyler, who yesterday was fired for tweeting a link to a video that purported to show Marco Rubio slandering the Bible. Tyler ultimately took the tweet down and apologized on Fox News. However, that was not enough to save his hide.
The Gayly- 2/23/2016 @ 3:30 PM CST