The Southern Poverty Law Center revealed disturbing information about Rep. Jim Bridenstine, the Trump administration’s selection to lead NASA. It appears that he’s a bigot. This isn’t “new” news.
His nomination is already controversial because he is not a scientist. While not exactly headline news, it has been covered in the mainstream press (link to Google News).
You have to dig deeper to find out why Bridenstine is a reprehensible person.
He’s an anti-Muslim bigot:
Here’s an excerpt from the Southern Poverty Law Center article:
But it was Bridenstine’s associations with anti-Muslim extremists like Frank Gaffney Jr.that was perhaps the most alarming revelation to emerge from his Senate confirmation hearing.
Gaffney is the founder of the anti-Muslim hate group Center for Security Policy (CSP), known for propagating paranoid conspiracy theories about the supposed infiltration of the federal government by the Muslim Brotherhood. Gaffney’s CSP is so extreme that it has been banned from participating even in the conservative conference CPAC.
But Gaffney isn’t too extreme for Bridenstine. The representative from Oklahoma has appeared on Gaffney’s radio show seven different times. Even so, when Sen. Tammy Duckworth pushed him Wednesday to explain their association, Bridenstine denied knowledge of Gaffney’s Muslim-bashing.
“Ma’am, I am not aware of that,” Bridenstine told Duckworth. “I didn’t know that he had ever made those comments. If I did know that, I would have refuted it.” CONTINUED
He’s an anti LGBT Bigot:
Quote:
Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), a freshman U.S. House member, took to the House floor this week to criticize what he called the “intolerant left” for efforts such as repealing the gay ban in the Boy Scouts.
“The left’s agenda is not about tolerance, and it’s not about diversity of thought,” Bridenstine said. “It’s about presenting a worldview of relativism, where there is no right and wrong, then using the full force of the government to silence opposition and reshape organizations like the Boy Scouts into instruments for social change.”
Bridenstine concluded,”To my friends on the left, this is not tolerance. But here’s the good news about true tolerance: the most tolerant one of all has the ability to redeem us all.” From The Washington Blade.
Excerpt from: Trump's Climate Change-Denying NASA Nominee Has Some Repulsive Anti-LGBTQ Views
In 2013, before the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, Bridenstine wrote on his blog, “many studies have shown that both a mother and father are essential for raising successful and healthy children.” The Oklahoma congressman continued by announcing his sponsorship of a bill that defined marriage as strictly between a man and a woman.
Bridenstine also expressed his uniquely illogical opinion on the Boy Scouts allowing LGBTQ members to join in 2013. “The left’s agenda is not about tolerance, and it’s not about diversity of thought,” he said. “It’s about presenting a worldview of relativism, where there is no right and wrong, then using the full force of the government to silence opposition and reshape organizations like the Boy Scouts into instruments for social change.” Hm.
On more than one occasion, Bridenstine appeared on Tony Perkins’ radio show. Perkins is the President of the Family Research Council, an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as specializing in “defaming” the LGBTQ community and pushing junk science to suggest the community threatens American society.
When the tape of Trump boasting about “grabbing women by the pussy” leaked, Bridenstine defended him and criticized Speaker Paul Ryan for refusing to do the same. Pressed on his long history of abhorrent anti-LGBTQ views, Bridenstine his opinions would not interfere with his leadership at NASA.
from: Tru
“It is rather hypocritical to have an individual so entrenched in his idea of ‘traditionalism’ to be nominated to lead an agency that has for almost 60 years pushed to expand our understanding and knowledge,” Matt Thorn, executive director of OutServe-SLDN, told Politico. “Rep. Bridenstine doesn’t have that same view. The Senate should block this nomination.”
“The Trump administration has hired unqualified anti-LGBTQ blowhards from day one and shown they are more concerned with furthering attacks on marginalized communities than selecting leaders who will better our country,” added GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.
…
“I believe that marriage is intended to be between one man and one woman for life,” he said in a statement on his House website after the 2015 ruling. His online statement on the DOMA decision called it “contrary to millennia of human experience” and cited studies showing that “both a mother and father are essential for raising successful and healthy children” — but, of course, many studies indicate that kids raised by same-sex couples do equally well.
He cosponsored a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and a proposal to impeach Eric Holder, President Obama’s first attorney general, in part because Holder had ceased defending DOMA.
In 2013, as the Boy Scouts of America’s governing body was about to vote on admitting gay youths, Bridenstine gave a speech on the House floor calling liberals intolerant.
Who is picking these people?
It can’t be Trump because he simply doesn’t have the time, and probably wouldn’t know someone like Rep. Bridenstine from a hole in the wall. Besides, during the campaign he was one of the three co-chairs of the Veterans Coalition which supported Ted Cruz.
Besides, it isn’t even clear what Trump actually believes — about anything besides his own personal superiority. What we do know is that he will pander to alt-right bigotry anytime he thinks it will accrue to his benefit.
I find it hard to believe Trump though that nominating this guy would score points with the climate change deniers as well as with his alt-right base. Of course, I could be wrong!
Some hateful person must have the authority to put these names in front of Trump and my educated hunch is that Trump just approves them.
Someone had to offer Briderstine up for their own reason. Who might it be? Who would risk the bad publicity that would come out if this bigot’s background were revealed by the mainstream media?