Skip to main content Accessibility
The Intelligence Report is the SPLC's award-winning magazine. Subscribe here for a print copy.

Extremism in the Mainstream

“YOU NOW HAVE A ‘MUSLIM’ on the City Council!!! What A SHAME!!!!!”

  —Keller, Texas, school board trustee JO LYNN HAUSSMANN, in Facebook comments about a newly elected Southlake City Council member that resulted in her June 2 apology for what her own board described as an “unacceptable” statement

 

“I believe I did use the ‘N’ word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse. For this, I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.”

—Wolfeboro, N.H., Police Commissioner ROBERT COPELAND, in a letter to a constituent that led to his resignation on June 6 after a public outcry

 

“Lying c---. I hope she gets shot in her ass f--- face.”

ANTHONY CUMIA, co-host of the popular radio show “Opie and Anthony,” in a racist July 2 Twitter tirade about a black woman who supposedly attacked him that resulted in his being fired by SiriusXM

 

“[B]eing hung, drawn and quartered is probably too good for him.”

—Center for Immigration Studies Senior Policy Analyst STEPHEN STEINLIGHT, an anti-immigrant activist, referring to President Obama on July 17

 

“I think we would be totally in the right to do it.”

SCOTT ESK, Tea Party candidate for Oklahoma’s State House District 91, in July 29 Facebook comments endorsing the execution of gay people because they are “worthy of death”

 

“This is part of the war on whites that’s being launched by the Democratic Party.”

—U.S. Rep. MO BROOKS (R-Ala.), in an Aug. 4 comment about the Democratic Party’s immigration policy

 

“Ebola could solve America’s problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography and abortion.”

RICK WILES, suggesting on his Aug. 5 Trunews online radio program that mass deaths would give a needed “attitude adjustment” to people he doesn’t approve of

 

“[T]hat person should be shot, he should be hanged, he should be wrapped in a carpet and thrown in the Potomac River.”

RICH LOWRY, National Review editor, in an Aug. 21 comment about what should be done with any Republican who says there are jobs “Americans won’t do”

 

“This entire federal government is geared up to fight a war against white people.”

MICHAEL SAVAGE, speaking on his radio show, “The Savage Nation,” on Aug. 21 about the lack of a federal crackdown on black protesters in Ferguson, Mo.

 

“Islam is a cancer on the nation that needs to be cut out.”

—Oklahoma State Rep. JOHN BENNETT (R-Sallisaw), in a Sept. 15 talk that was criticized by rights activists but backed by state GOP Chairman DAVE WESTON