A top Vermont Republican plans to travel to Israel Saturday on a trip financed by a right-wing Christian group that has espoused racist, homophobic and Islamophobic beliefs.
Susie Hudson, a Montpelier resident and longtime Vermont representative to the Republican National Committee, will join roughly 60 fellow RNC members on the nine-day tour, according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. The trip was organized and sponsored by the American Renewal Project, an arm of the Mississippi-based American Family Association.
AFA has been called “extremist” and a “hate group” by the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Basically an offer was extended, from what I understand, to RNC members, political folks and members of the media to go on this trip to Israel,” Hudson said Thursday. “We were just told it’s being made possible by the American Renewal Project and the American Family Association.”
The AFA, which says its mission is “to strengthen the moral foundations of American culture,” has repeatedly denigrated gays, African Americans, Latinos, Muslims, Native Americans and other groups, according to SPLC research. Bryan Fischer, who served as AFA’s spokesman and director of issue analysis for six years until he was demoted Wednesday, has blamed the Holocaust on gays.
Asked about the trip Thursday after blogger John Walters wrote about it on the Vermont Political Observer, Hudson said, “I mean, I know there’s been some stuff that’s been out in the press yesterday, but it’s my understanding that there was an individual who made some inappropriate comments, and I certainly don’t agree with them, and it’s my understanding they are no longer with the organization.”
Hudson said she was referring to Fischer.
Asked whether she was familiar with the AFA’s beliefs, Hudson said, “I mean, obviously I’m somewhat familiar with them, yes.”
But, she said, “I did not know that whatever group you said has called them a hate group.”
Hudson, who was elected national secretary of the RNC earlier this month, repeatedly declined to say what she understood AFA’s beliefs to be.
“All I can tell you is an offer was extended to go on a wonderful visit to Israel, visit the holy land and walk where Jesus walked, and it was an incredible opportunity that was offered to us as members, and that’s what I know,” she said.
After learning more about the trip’s sponsor, was she still planning to take part in it?
“I guess the question is, ‘Why wouldn’t I go with my peers?'” she said.
According to Time, RNC chairman Reince Priebus emailed all 168 members of the national committee last November to invite them on the trip. He wrote in the email that the all-expenses-paid tour was “made possible through the generosity of David Lane’s American Renewal Project and the American Family Association.”
Lane, an evangelical political operative, has committed to helping 1,000 Christian pastors win election to public office in 2016, the Washington Times reported in November.
As media scrutiny of the RNC trip intensified, AFA president Don Wildmon told MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” Wednesday that he had removed Fischer from his post, saying the organization rejected Fischer’s comments linking Nazis to gays. Mediaite subsequently reported that while Fischer had been removed from his posts as spokesman and director of issues analysis, he would continue to host a radio show for the organization.
In a letter sent Wednesday to SPLC emeritus board member Julian Bond, AFA general counsel Patrick Vaughn wrote that his organization “has concluded that it must renounce some statements made by” Fischer. Vaughn said the AFA “has never held these views,” specifically listing eight claims Fischer has made over the years targeting gays, African Americans, Latinos, Muslims, Native Americans and Hillary Clinton.
SPLC president and CEO J. Richard Cohen responded Thursday in a letter saying “it’s difficult to see the AFA’s disavowal as anything other than an effort to quell the negative press attention you’re receiving in connection with” the RNC trip. Cohen noted that Fischer “has been making bigoted statements for years” and that he remains an AFA radio host.
Indeed, when Seven Days wrote about the AFA’s inclusion in a state charitable giving campaign in September 2013, the organization made Fischer available to explain its beliefs.
“The truth is, we don’t hate anybody,” Fischer told Seven Days. “We love everybody and we love them enough to tell them the truth about homosexual conduct.”
“And that truth is?” we asked.
“That it is immoral. That it is unnatural. And that it is unhealthy,” he responded.
And does he really believe gays are responsible for the Holocaust?
“The truth is that the Nazi Party was formed in a gay bar in Munich. The truth is, the bulk of Hitler’s storm troopers were homosexuals. These are indisputable, historical facts. They are not open to interpretation,” Fischer said. “So if someone has a problem with those assertions, their problem is not with me. Their problem is with the historical record.”
The Vermont Democratic Party appears interested in capitalizing on Hudson’s participation in the trip. It linked to Walter’s story in a Facebook post Thursday, writing, “Meanwhile, check out what Susie Hudson, prominent Vermont Republican and Secretary of the Republican National Committee is up to…”
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I am not a Republican and not a conservative. I do not agree with the current Republican party on any issue. I certainly do not agree with the positions of the group that is sponsoring the trip to Israel. I am gay. At the same time, Ms. Hudson has the right to associate with whom she will and to travel where she wants. The Republican National Committee is a political organization, not a government body. She is not an elected official in Vermont, she is not on the public payroll to the best of my knowledge, and none of this, no matter how much I dislike it, is any of my business. Should Ms. Hudson choose at some time to run for public office in Vermont, that would be a different matter and this might then be relevant, but that has not happened yet. She is a private citizen free to travel under circumstances of her choosing.
In Holocaust history, the statement that the Nazi party, the SA or the SS, were homosexuals is what is known as Holocaust Revisionism. It is an attempt to make the victims of Nazi persecution responsible for the crimes committeed against them. There are no facts behind such statements, and are part of the systematic attempt to continue to propogate National Socialism into the next century.
We also know that some Christian fundamentalists anticipate the end of Judaism with the complete “ingathering of the exiles” in the land of Israel. In their view, Zionism will help initiate the Second Coming of Christ, and thus provide the opportunity to be a political supporter of the State of Israel and to pray for the complete and final elimination of the Jewish people.
Could you please return to the Secretary of the Republication National Convention to see whether or not she endorses these views, and if not, why is she willing to receive gifts or financial support from organizations that do?
Excellent reporting. Complements to Paul Heinz and Seven Days,
Dr. Eric Jacobson
University of Roehampton
London (UK)
Everyone knows that’s a BIG TIME hate group, and acting ignorant won’t make that go away. One thing I liked about Vermont, until reading this article, is that the politics are more respectful and as with most Vermonters, the GOP is a much more enlightened group and not as prone to fall into that tea party ignorance.
Rachael Maddow has been all over this trip for the last 2 nights. Great story.
“All I can tell you is an offer was extended to go on a wonderful visit to Israel, visit the holy land and walk where Jesus walked, and it was an incredible opportunity that was offered to us as members, and that’s what I know,”
I am confident that if I were offered a free trip to anyplace, by anybody, I would have an absolute grasp on who was offering and what their motivation is/was. And, if I want a trip to where “Jesus walked”, or where Mickey Mouse hangs out, I would buy my own ticket and go on my terms. This is beyond lame and naïve… it is uninformed, strange and very sad… and further evidence that VT’s republicans are as out of touch with the progressing and modern world as the national brand is. Susie, it is okay to be gay… really.
She’s a player on the national political scene, yet the SPLC is “whatever group you said”?
This, folks, is what’s wrong with the Republican Party.
This hit piece on Conservative beliefs is filled with hurled labels like racist, extremist, homophobic, & Islamophobic. Where is the tolerance of other people’s beliefs? There is none. The Southern Poverty Law Center is “a heavily politicized organization producing inaccurate and biased data on ‘hate groups’ – not hate crimes.” Where once SPLC’s hate list was reserved for groups like the Aryan Nation and the KKK, in 2010 SPLC started citing as hate groups those Christian groups that oppose same-sex marriage or believe homosexuality is not inborn, or are otherwise critical of homosexuality. That kind of thinking is strictly forbidden by NGO’s like SPLC The sooner that the Gay community gets over itself & realizes that 95% of the public is Christian, heterosexual, & more than accommodatingly tolerant, the better it will be for our culture as a whole. Forcing your belief systems on others has never worked well, has it? http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/20…
“I guess the question is, ‘Why wouldn’t I go with my peers?'” she said.
Shame on you, Susie Hudson, for not knowing the answer to this question. As a prominent flag bearer for the Vermont (and now, National) Republican Party your feigned ignorance of the organization paying for your junket is no excuse. In fact, Susie, we are often judged by the company we keep. I hope you have a good time in the Holy Land.