Virginia GOP nominee compared Planned Parenthood to KKK
(CNN) - An outspoken and provocative conservative who emerged from Saturday's Republican Party of Virginia Convention as the party's nominee for lieutenant governor once compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and blasted African-Americans for their "slavish devotion" to the Democratic Party.
E.W. Jackson, an African-American pastor and attorney from Chesapeake, made the comments in a self-produced "message to black Christians" posted on YouTube last year.
"The Democrat Party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions. Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was," he said in the video. "And the Democrat Party and the black civil rights allies are partners in this genocide."
Sensing an opportunity to tie Jackson to the rest of the Republican ticket in Virginia, especially conservative gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli, Democrats have already started highlighting those remarks and others in emails to reporters.
Cuccinelli, the state Attorney General, will face Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, in the November election.
"Extremely divisive rhetoric from Jackson and Cuccinelli reflects the social agenda they would impose on Virginia. At a time when Virginians are looking for leaders who focus on jobs, the Tea Party has nominated a ticket whose careers have been defined by a radical social agenda," McAuliffe campaign spokesman Brennan Bilberry said in a statement.
Cuccinelli and Jackson were nominated at Saturday's GOP convention in Richmond, where Jackson beat out six other candidates for the number two spot on the ticket. Party activists tapped Mark Obenshain to be their nominee for attorney general.
Jackson, the founder of a nondenominational church, is a former Marine and graduate of Harvard Law School. But he is rapidly becoming known for a raft of controversial statements that have bubbled up online in the wake of his surprise victory on Saturday. He has publicly questioned President Barack Obama's faith and has been spearheading efforts to recruit black Democrats to the GOP since last year, when he unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Virginia.
"Shame on us for allowing ourselves to be sold to the highest bidder. We belong to God," he said in the video. "Our ancestors were sold against their will centuries ago, but we're going through the slave market voluntarily today."
As lieutenant governor, Jackson would hold the tie-breaking vote in what is currently an evenly divided state Senate. Republicans currently hold the lieutenant governorship and control of the 40-seat body. But with the unpolished Jackson as the GOP nominee, Democrats are now a safe bet to pick up the lieutenant governor's office and control of the senate.
Democrats will decide their nominee in a June 11 primary. To the frustration of establishment Republicans, GOP activists in the state chose to nominate their candidates at a convention instead of in a primary, a move that gave a relatively small group of conservative activists control over the nomination process.
A purple state, Virginia currently has a Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, but voted for Obama in the last two presidential elections.
Poll numbers so far show neither party with a sizable lead in the race, less than six months before Election Day. Because Virginia voters elect the governor and lieutenant governor separately, it's possible that the winners could be from different parties.
- CNN's Peter Hamby and Ashley Killough contributed to this report.
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Curtis, m black and this guy is a nut. Women choose to abort. It's not some white man criminal conspiracy. FYI, white women have abortions at private facilities at 10 times the rate thus its not reported. I know personally...
Just the look in this fanatic's eyes says it all. But the GOP will salivate all over him–he's just thing for the radical fringe. No wonder these lunatics are the Know-Nothings of the 21st Century. What was the name of the African-American Pizza magnate? He was so forgettable and this dude will be as well. Alan West is also now history. I suppose in this moron's opinion, minority women are so mentally defective that the can't be trusted with their own reproductive decisions. Yet, as I said, the Tea-Party fanatics will worship him and further marginalize the entire Republican party.
lol i think most african americans only heard him say "my name is uncle tom".
Seems to me that if Planned Parenthood aborts so many babies it's because their mothers didn't use birth control to begin with. If they do actually do more services to minorities, then it would seem to me that maybe the non-minorities are better at using birth control.
What is with all the "Sanger was a racist so PP is too" bull going on in these comments?
Sanger died in 1966, Roe Vs Wade didnt pass until 1973. In what way did Sanger directly move PP into ethnic neighborhoods to kill ethnic babies with abortion when she died before abortion even became legal? She was an activist for birth control, so you could argue that she tried to stop ethnic pregnancies with BC; but not that she actively sot to kill black fetuses.
Also, to those saying "it is no secret that PP is mainly in ethnic neighborhoods" maybe it's because a lot of the impoverish neighborhoods also happen to be ethnic as well. Just because they help impoverish women with their health does not mean they are specifically targeting black babies for abortion.
Comparing them to the KKK just because they have supposedly killed more black babies than the KKK did black people in general (and I would still like to see actual, factual stats showing this), does not make them as bad or worse than the KKK. Last I checked, abortion was a choice decided by the pregnant mother and the KKK took unwilling black people from their homes and lynched them. That seems to be a HUGE difference.
Yes advocates for women's healthcare just like the KKK. Obviously this guy is trying to approximate a women's right to make her own decisions with the lynching of African Americans all through the south.
It's an oxymoron to be anti abortion, but pro death penalty.
Abortion is not necessarily a bad thing. Look at it this way: if you cannot support, then abort!
What's the objection here? Unfounded comparisons to the KKK are pretty common in today's political environment.
Only democrats are allowed to be melodramatic enough to compare people to the KKK?
When I was a young woman with no sense or insurance, Planned Parenthood allowed me to recieve afforadable (not free) annual check ups and affordable (not free) contraception so I could AVOID pregnancy and remain healthy.
I support Planned Parenthood and all they stand for.
If I may take some liberties with the quote:
"The Republican Party has created an unholy alliance between the NRA and the second amendment right to bear arms, the effect of which which has killed healthy black people by the millions. The lack of gun control has been far more lethal to black adults and children than the KKK ever was. And the Republican Party and the NRA are partners in this genocide."
Neo-con jerk...
For most of my life, I could get along with the Republican Party. Then these self-righteous religious crazies came along and ruined things.
But the jerk is right about the "slavish devotion" of blacks to the Democratic Party–how anyone, white or black, could be so lacking in integrity and self-respect as to support a party based on envy, dependency, and a repudiation of self-responsibility and self-reliance, escapes me.
" Whether it was appropriate to say or not, his logic is perfectly sound." Of course it's not, and Planned Parenthood doesn't do abortions. Do you just blindly believe everything you hear? Counseling families to wait a few years and put money in the bank before rushing into parenthood is a long, long way from killing "unborn black babies by the tens of millions." Don't be such a dupe for your Party's nutcases.
It's like the GOP is trying to be as irrelevant and wrong as possible. And it's working.
The founder of planned parenthood was racist
Can anyone tell the percentages for abortions by race?
If planned parenthood is a branch of the KKK, then the Republican party is a branch of the Nazi party!
Romney is desperately trying to get this guy for VP in 2016
The difference between Planned Parenthood and our religions is that Planned Parenthood will help live women and children – Our religions just care about a couple of cells in some other woman's body – they don't show up when there is a dirty diaper to change..
This just proves some people will do or say anything for money and or personal gain,no matter how big the lie.
"how anyone, white or black, could be so lacking in integrity and self-respect as to support a party based on envy, dependency, and a repudiation of self-responsibility and self-reliance, escapes me."
...wait are we talking about the Democrats or the Republicans?
I'm so confused!
Sounds like Jackson wants to become the first black man honored by the KKK.
I'm black, and I love it when some wanna-be uses the black-card to say ridiculous things. This is the only way he could get on the news – by vocalizing idiocy.
Like most people, I have never heard of this guy until now. His plan worked.
– The Real Tom Paine
Not remarkabl(y) ignorant nor ignoring the rol(e) that conservatives played in the revival of the KKK. Just making people aware of who started the KKK. Not one of the responses to my comments on this have addressed this fact. Same as always, change the subject.
As to the recent history comment. Who was the party that championed the Jim Crow south?