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Iowa RNC Official Believes Obama Is a Secret Muslim

Top GOP figures have generally pledged to take the president at his word, that he’s a Christian, tacitly leaving the door open for speculation among the

Jul 31, 202030K Shares834.4K Views
Top GOP figures have generally pledged to “take the president at his word,” that he’s a Christian, tacitly leaving the door open for speculation among the party’s fringe elements that he’s secretly a Muslim while covering their own tracks. Not anymore, reportsThe Iowa Independent:
Kim Lehman, one of three Iowans on the Republican National Committee, said first on her Twitter account and then in several media interviews that she believed President Barack Obama has admitted he is a Muslim. The statement garnered national attention, as Lehman was the first member of the RNC to publicly support the conspiracy theory.
As to whether they supported Lehman’s views, top Iowa Republicans were split down the middle:
Ted Sporer, a former chair of the Republican Party of Polk County and veteran political strategist, wrote on his blogTuesday that Lehman “continues to fill the biggest of gaps in the Republican Party leadership.” Part of leadership is addressing problems, Sporer said, and “Barack Obama’s cultural and religious heritage is among the biggest of problems endangering the American people.”
Not everyone was so supportive of Lehman.
“After the most recent distraction, many Iowa Republicans think Kim Lehman is a Democratic Manchurian candidate intent on damaging the Republican Party from the inside,” said Jeff Patch, a long time Iowa GOP strategist who now works in Washington, D.C. “The role of a Republican National Committeewoman is to help grow the party at the grassroots, not to Tweet nonsense about Barack Obama’s Muslim roots.”
Lehman’s doubts about Obama’s faith reflect a growing trend not just among the fringe, but among RNC officials. Politico’s Ben Smith noted yesterday that the RNC’s new-media director, Todd Herman, insinuated the same in a tweetthat said, “Is @BarackObama amongst the 20% who think he’s Muslim?”
The tweet was quickly downed, however, and RNC spokesman Doug Heye argued, “An errant, or sarcastically-intended tweet aside, the RNC has never spoken about the President’s Christianity because it is both crystal clear and a non-issue.” It’s clearly still not kosher among GOP pols to call the president a secret Muslim, but it’s becoming frightening common.
Paula M. Graham

Paula M. Graham

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