Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein, Senate Candidate Jodi Habush Sinykin, and Concerned Constituents Hold Press Call on Anniversary of Social Security
MADISON, Wis. — This morning, before becoming the GOP nominee for Senate, Eric Hovde went on a conservative podcast to promote a conspiracy theory that the deaths of Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin were political stunts by Democrats to manufacture outrage in the Black community.
In the shocking and blatantly false comments first reported by the Washington Post, Hovde accused former President Barack Obama and the Democratic party of weaponizing conflicts between police and Black men to create “maximum anger” before the election, spreading blatantly false conspiracy theories about these tragic deaths.
By: Patrick Svitek
Eric Hovde, the Republican nominee for Senate in Wisconsin, has accused former president Barack Obama of using conflicts between police and Black men to try to generate “maximum anger” before elections.
Hovde made the comment in a podcast interview with conservative commentator Chris Salcedo that was published Tuesday. The two were discussing the backlash that some Republicans have received for suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris, who is Black and Indian, was picked for her job due to her race.
“This is all started with Obama,” Hovde said. “Obama ran on hope and change and bringing us together, and then he used race as a tool and a weapon. And he would find, six months before any election, some incident between the police and a, typically a young Black man, and then they would whip it up to create anger in the Black community.”
Hovde mentioned as examples Freddie Gray, Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin — two Black men and one Black teenager who were fatally shot by police. Hovde said it was “always an incident some time in May or June because it was about six months out so they could get maximum anger generated.”
The deaths of those three men happened in April 2015, August 2014 and February 2012. Brown’s death in August 2014 was the only one that occurred within six months of a major election — the November 2014 midterms — and Obama urged calm in a statement about Brown’s death.
“We should comfort each other and talk with one another in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds,” Obama said.
Hovde is the Republican front-runner to challenge Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races. The primary is Tuesday, and Hovde has the support of the Senate GOP campaign arm and former president Donald Trump.
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