After a week of disastrous headlines, Republicans are at each other’s throats over controversial “religious freedom” legislation.
Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who ignored public outcry to sign the bill in a secret ceremony with anti-gay activists, caved to overwhelming public pressure– including from Mitch Daniels— and asked for a “fix” only to see GOPers in the business community tell him that wasn’t enough, either.
The damage doesn’t stop with Pence, though. The 2016 Republican presidential field backed Pence’s original law (well, depending on what room they were in), further highlighting just how far the party has to come from their now-farcical 2012 autopsy.
Further down the ticket, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory are running for the hills, telling press they won’t sign the legislation, but refusing to issue a veto threat and neglecting to point out that in both Arkansas and North Carolina, bills can pass into law without the Governor’s signature.
As you might imagine, the GOP’s base isn’t taking their elected officials’ attempts to have their cake and eat it, too, very well. Let’s check in.
Family Research Council:
They “sacrificed the essential rights of their citizens.”
Heritage Foundation:
Legislative language protecting LGBTs “amounts to nothing less than a wholesale repeal.”
American Family Radio:
“One thing is a certainty: Gov. Pence can forget all about 2016.”
Steve Deace:
“It is the worst act of political malfeasance that I have ever seen.”
Published: Apr 3, 2015