Corey Stewart aide compared GOP establishment to a 'house negro,' disparaged civil rights leaders

[DonViejo]

Source: CNN



By Andrew Kaczynski and Chris Massie, CNN

Updated 2:40 PM ET, Wed August 1, 2018

(CNN)A top consultant and spokesman for Corey Stewart, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Virginia, has used the term "house negro" to criticize the GOP establishment and disparaged prominent Civil Rights figures John Lewis and Rosa Parks.

Rick Shaftan made the comments in tweets newly uncovered by CNN's KFile. The previously unreported tweets come on the heels of a report from the Daily Beast that he described majority-black cities as "sh**holes" and told his followers not to open businesses in black neighborhoods.

Shaftan's consulting firm, Atlantic Media & Research, has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Stewart's campaigns for governor and Senate, according to election records. He previously worked on Stewart's gubernatorial campaign and for a super PAC that backed Paul Nehlen, a candidate for Paul Ryan's congressional seat who has made racist and anti-Semitic posts on social media. Shaftan told the Daily Beast that this came before Nehlen "went wacko." Fellow Stewart aide Noel Fritsch previously worked for Nehlen's campaign.

Stewart, who has faced scrutiny of his own for defending Confederate symbols and publicly associating with white nationalists in the past, is challenging Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine in November.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/01/politics/corey-stewart-aide-twitter/index.html

[comradebillyboy]

1. Trump didn't appeal to economic anxiety, he appealed to racism

and xenophobia.

[maxrandb]

2. Please don't post stuff like this...UNLESS you include the actual crazy shit this racist said

- In April 2017, Shaftan also hinted at the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, joking on Facebook, "You all know we never saw the REAL Obama Birth Certificate because it had Politically Incorrect 1961 language on it."
Responding to a comment saying that he thought the birth certificate might have said "illegitimate," Shaftan wrote, "Or 'bastard', or 'colored', or 'Negro', etc."

- Shaftan wrote of Democratic Georgia Rep. John Lewis in January 2017, "So what has John Lewis done besides get beat up 50+ years ago? #PompousAss." In 1965, a then- 25-year-old Lewis was beaten badly by state troopers while marching for voting rights in Alabama.

- A closer look reveals that in a tweet on October 2014, Shaftan wrote, "There are a lot of parallels between the 'House Negro' and the GOP Establishment." In September 2015, Shaftan again used the derogatory term, which refers to slaves who worked in the house of their master as opposed to in the fields, implying that the slaves' loyalty lay with the master rather than with their fellow slaves. "Notice how Obama calls the Speaker 'John', like he's a plantation owner talking to Malcolm X's House Negro," he tweeted.

- In September 2015, he suggested that he did not admire civil rights figure Rosa Parks, tweeting, "Rosa Parks. Give me a effing break. How about PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY?" Schlafly was a conservative political activist.

[moriah]

4. No offense, but...

... in LBN, the OP is limited to four paragraphs of the article and must use the article title as the thread title. Usually I try to get the four that summarize the who/what/where/when at least. This is because of DU being sued in the past for copyright infringement for posting articles in their entirety.

Is there a reason you're requesting that people choose a different four paragraphs to quote than the ones chosen in this case? I realize seeing the actual text of the Tweets makes it even more appalling, but unfortunately four paragraphs leaves little room for full detail.

Thanks. I agree these type of people need to be fully shamed for their rhetoric. (Seriously, dissing Rosa for Phyllis? Years ago I'd assume someone saying that had to be trolling. It's sad that I can't anymore.)

[maxrandb]

5. Just being a bit facetious

or giving out some grief.

Clicked on the OP and there was nothing there about what the asshole has actually said.

IMHO - It resonates more if we actually show the racist hate-filled statements the guy made.

Didn't intend any malice...just wanted to add context to the discussion.

[moriah]

6. Understand completely.

Just wanted to make sure.

I agree actually seeing the Tweets makes for a hell of a lot more outrage, if for no other reason that if he remembers Phyllis and Anita, he'd actually equate either with civil activism. It's the kind of "insult every Liberal demographic at once" shit we used to dismiss as trolling or insanity.

And maybe that was at least my mistake, to dismiss those people. To think no one would ever be educated enough to know of all those figures yet say something like that.

[Mc Mike]

3. Not surprised Shaftan from Atlantic Media and Research, is a racist nazi freak.

But these far rightie whackjobs who are doubling down on tRump's repuglinazi agendas -- you'd think their constant threats against the top establishment gopers would give those establishment leadership people some pause.

Odd that they can't connect the dots, add 2 + 2, follow the trail of breadcrumbs, and come up with 'tRump's radical mutant freak pervert nazi base is coming for us.'

[riversedge]

7. reminds me of trump--who pals around with bigots