澳彩开奖

But the RNC isn鈥檛 answering any questions about its American Family Association-funded trip, scheduled to begin tomorrow. Email and telephone messages left Friday with Kirsten Kukowski, the RNC鈥檚 national press secretary, were not returned. Presumably the trip is still on despite a week of bad press for the AFA.

Last week, the 澳彩开奖 wrote to all 168 members of the RNC urging them not to accompany the AFA on the trip because of the group鈥檚 long track record of bigotry and hate. The 澳彩开奖 has named the AFA as a hate group due to its history of making false, demonizing statements about the LGBT community.

Longtime AFA Bryan Fischer, for example, has claimed that 鈥淗omosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler 鈥� the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews.鈥� He has also characterized African Americans as 鈥減eople who rut like rabbits.鈥�

The AFA responded by seeking to distance itself from Fischer and redefine its character by removing him from his duties as its chief spokesman and director of issues analysis. Fischer, however, will remain as a talk show host on the AFA鈥檚 radio network 鈥� a bullpen of bigoted pundits known for incendiary statements.

In a letter this week to the 澳彩开奖, AFA general counsel Patrick J. Vaughn wrote, 鈥淎FA has concluded that it must renounce some statements made by American Family Radio talk-show host Bryan Fischer. In its 37-year history, AFA has never held these views and wishes to clarify that it still rejects such sentiments.鈥�

澳彩开奖 President Richard Cohen responded in a letter, 鈥淸T]he AFA鈥檚 11^th-hour disavowal of Mr. Fischer appears to serve only one purpose: to give the AFA a degree of plausible deniability while it continues to spew hateful rhetoric. It鈥檚 a shell game and a transparent one at that.鈥�

While the AFA has taken a job title away from Fischer, he isn鈥檛 the only mouthpiece spewing hate on its network. AFA officials, including its president, Tim Wildmon, and founder, Don Wildmon, also have made similarly bigoted statements. 鈥淗ollywood and the theater world is heavily influenced by Jewish people,鈥� Don Wildmon once said.

The RNC has predictably chosen to remain nearly silent on these developments, and at least presumably, some of its members are still planning to make the trip to Israel. Kukowski told MSNBC鈥檚 Rachel Maddow that they were 鈥済lad AFA has severed ties with him.鈥�

But just like the AFA trying to weather the storm by 鈥渞ejecting鈥� Fischer鈥檚 statements while keeping him on the payroll, the RNC not talking about the trip won鈥檛 make the questions about its relationship with a known hate group go away.