The worst Secretary of State in the nation strikes again.
Kris Kobach took to his local radio program this week to discuss with Kansans the impact of the Obama presidency. Part of his audio, here from RightWingWatch on SoundCloud, talks about what he thinks of President Obama.
From The Kansas City Star:
Kobach makes these statements partly to cater to his ultra-conservative base on talk-radio shows. But a few days ago, even for Kris Kobach, he went shamefully overboard.
Kobach told listeners it was “not a huge jump” to think Obama might try to stop future criminal prosecutions of black people in America.
Kobach goes on and says "It's not a huge jump" to believe President Obama intends to suspend the laws of the country in order to make sure African Americans cannot be prosecuted.
Kris Kobach is Secretary of State of Kansas. He is also an attorney in Kansas, and considered one of the driving forces behind ALEC written legislation. His demeanor in consoling a caller who implies laws may be suspended for African Americans continues the race baiting policies that have epitomized his time in Kansas.
There is certainly a responsibility of those in power to deal with reality - and Kris Kobach would have none of it. By playing to the fears and base suspicions of his base, he continues to whip up those who believe in this claptrap.
2:06 PM PT: Update
Kris Kobach has went on the record defending these comments:
http://www.kansas.com/...
Kobach dismissed criticism.
“My point was to bring attention to the Obama Justice Department’s position that some civil rights statutes can’t be enforced against people of color,” Kobach said. “For example, one of the Obama administration’s first actions it took in 2009 was to drop the slam-dunk charges against the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation.”
Kobach said the Justice Department dropped the charges specifically because of race, a claim that has been disputed.
Christopher Coates, a former Justice Department official who headed up enforcement of voting laws, testified before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in 2010 that there was resistance in the Justice Department to enforce the laws against African-American defendants. Attorney General Eric Holder has said that race did not factor in to the decision to drop the charges.