Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Bobby Jindal spoke at a religion-themed forum in Iowa over the weekend organized by a man who has espoused death for homosexuals.
Questioned about it this week, Huckabee claimed to know nothing about Kevin Swanson’s viewpoints, despite dozens if not hundreds of articles about it before the “National Religious Liberties Conference,” and calls by organized groups that candidates shun it. From Right Wing Watch:
“Obviously, I don’t agree with that,” Huckabee responded. “I don’t think anyone’s ever accused me of saying that. And I don’t know, did anyone say that from this stage today?”
The reporter responded that while nobody had said such things from the stage yet that day, the organizer and other speakers had previously made such remarks.
“I can’t go with ‘there are some reports that,’” Huckabee responded. “Give me a specific, give me something to react to, that won’t work for me, because I don’t have any knowledge of that. All I know is what I said, I can’t be responsible for what anybody else said on that stage, and apparently nobody said that on that stage.”
If Huckabee had stuck around just a few minutes after his speech, he would have heard Swanson saying exactly that, bellowing to the audience that the biblically ordained punishment for homosexuality is death. If he had stuck around until the next day of the conference, he would have heard Swanson return to the theme, saying that he doesn’t want the government to impose the death penalty for homosexuality quite yet because he wants to give the culture time to change and gays time to repent before imposing his version of biblical law.
Huckabee’s cratering campaign needs any votes it can get, no matter how low it has to stoop .
Swanson is out there. He’s earned headlines also for claiming J.K. Rowling’s Professor Dumbledore was a homosexual mentor to Harry Potter. He also claimed a Nabisco Honey Maid cracker ad promoted homosexuality.