"Cowboys for Trump" defends 'go back to Africa' comments

[left-of-center2012]

The founder of the 'Cowboys for Trump' political support group urged people who support performances of the Black National Anthem at football games to “go back to Africa” and condemned as “vile scum” people who portray the Confederate flag as racist, in a live Facebook video that has since been removed.

The selfie video of Otero County (N.M.) Commissioner Couy Griffin was recorded Sunday on Facebook and watched by at least 2,200 people before it was removed from the 'Cowboys for Trump' website. Griffin says he did not remove the video.

The 35-minute speech from Griffin on themes of God, faith, politics and country takes place on a mountaintop in southern New Mexico, where Griffin says he fasted for three days as he contemplates the nation’s political fate as the November election approaches.

In one passage, he sharply criticizes those who support performances at football games of the “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” — traditionally known as the Black National Anthem — as a gesture of solidarity against racial injustice.
“They want to destroy our country. They want to talk about playing a Black national anthem before football games? I got a better idea, why don’t you go back to Africa and form your little football teams over in Africa and you can play on a(n) old beat-out dirt lot and you can play your Black national anthem there. How about that?” he said. “This is America, we play the National Anthem in America today.”

https://apnews.com/2c88eda9d396776bedc558e85c6c6715

[Alliepoo]

1. Flippin jackass.

[TheBlackAdder]

12. The guy looks like a beaver incarnate. Hide any wood product.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. I would suggest going back to Europe

but they wouldn’t have him.

[Srkdqltr]

3. Good grief.

[Submariner]

4. African Americans have been forced to live in this country

involuntarily since Columbus's time in 1500.

I wonder if anyone has anyone ever told these white trash racists, like Griffin here and his Cow Wimps for Trump, that it is likely their racist white trash ancestry probably didn't start until one to three centuries after the Blacks arrived on our shores, so STFU about who should go back where and when.

[Tanuki]

5. Aside from his obvious racism, I can't imagine why these lyrics would

be so offensive to any American.

https://www.naacp.org/naacp-history-lift-evry-voice-and-sing/


Lift Every Voice and Sing

Lyrics (by James Weldon Johnson):

Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

 

[Botany]

7. Well, he looks smart

He is from the no diving end of the gene pool

[HotTeaBag]

8. As an Eagles fan, I am not surprised.

[edhopper]

9. Cowboys?

Give me a fucking break. If this guy doesn't work on a ranch or play for Dallas, he ain't no cowboy.

[Mariana]

10. "Most of my morals and principles do come from my faith," he said

when he ran for the County Commission seat in 2018. He's a Christian preacher.

Couy Griffin believes his experience as pastor of the New Heart Church in Alamogordo will help him administer the needs of the county.

“Most of my morals and principles do come from my faith,” he said.

https://www.alamogordonews.com/story/news/local/community/2018/10/30/republican-candidate-county-commissioner-griffin-faith/1763610002/

[Eyeball_Kid]

15. nonsense. Most of his morals and principles come from used toilet paper. n/t

[TheBlackAdder]

11. It's getting that you can't tell the Russian Redneck Cowboys from the Trump Redneck Cowboys.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

13. Guys, I think Couy Griffin might be just a tad bit racist.

Something just tells me that. I don't know what it is.

[Eyeball_Kid]

14. fasting for three days... Now there's a spiritual leader if I ever saw one.

Yes, sir, that fasting really cleared his head out. Now he's unencumbered by frivolous nonsense about everyone having a place at the table, of a human species in search of a sustainable quality of life. And THAT'S when his "Back to Africa" meme took solid footing. Next, he'll decide that not flossing his teeth is a good idea.

[JHB]

16. No mystery why he loves Trump. He likes his own "kind"

Showboating, demagoging, grifter politicians recognize each other.

From last October:

https://apnews.com/d35ef4cbe4e645a38c535fc09ac29c64

October 26, 2019
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s Democratic state auditor is investigating a county’s travel reimbursement to one of its commissioners who founded the group Cowboys for Trump.

***

Griffin traveled to Washington in part to attend a Sept. 12 conference with representatives from western states. A travel voucher listed a meeting with President Donald Trump as the reason for the expense. The reimbursement of more than $3,200 included mileage for the trip made while hauling a horse trailer.

Griffin said discussions with the president were centered on county business and not done as a representative of the for-profit group, which bills itself as an organization of people around the U.S. who support the president and are concerned about liberal agendas eroding the principles the nation was founded upon. The group has held rallies on horseback in New Mexico and elsewhere.

Griffin returned the money after consulting with county officials about possible violations of established travel requirements. “Taking his horse trailer would never be a justifiable taxpayer expense,” State Department of Finance and Administration Local Government Division Special Director Michael Steininger said via email.

"[R]eturned the money after consulting with county officials about possible violations of established travel requirements."

Translation: He consulted with county officials about possible violations of established travel requirements after he'd already put his stunt show expenses on the taxpayer tab, auditors flagged it, he was facing bad press, and only then did he return the money.

Edited to add: Just to fill out the bingo card, when he's not being a demagoging, grifter politician, he's a showboating (and maybe the rest) pastor at a place called New Heart Cowboy Church and the Griffin Brothers Wild West Show and Rural Ministries.

Also, back in May he was calling for Democratic governors to be executed:

During the interview, published Wednesday, Griffin said top Democrats, such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, are traitors who deserve the death penalty. Both governors have imposed restrictions to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“You get to pick your poison: You either go before a firing squad, or you get the end of the rope,” Griffin told the Daily Beast.

He was asked if people protesting pandemic-related shutdowns are increasingly considering violence. “I’ll tell you what, partner, as far as I’m concerned, there’s not an option that’s not on the table,” Griffin replied.

Griffin again insisted he was speaking politically, not literally, when he said last week at a church in Truth or Consequences that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/cowboys-for-trump-leader-calls-for-democratic-leaders-to-be-executed/article_017dba42-a066-11ea-bac0-efd8a4e0120e.html

https://www.democraticunderground.org/10142502058

[dalton99a]

21. +1

[JDC]

17. Is that a squirrel wrap on his shoulders? How do clowns like this get attention?

*typo

[JHB]

19. Coyote, I think

And that's how.

[Shrike47]

20. It's Trump's old toupee.

[Pharlo]

18. The only other time I have ever heard of the name

Couy, or Coy, used was in Ray Stevens' song "The Shriner's Convention". This individual looks like he would fit.

[Midnight Writer]

22. Uh oh. The Republicans are turning their intellectuals lose on us. Look out.