The Republican National Committee’s executive committee voted on Wednesday to censure Michigan national committeeman Dave Agema over racist and anti-gay comments he has made over the past year, according to Time Magazine.
The executive committee also called for Agema’s resignation from the RNC in a closed-door vote at the winter meeting in San Diego. According to the Washington Times, the RNC cannot remove Agema, but the committee asked the Michigan state party “to investigate a means to have the state party remove him.”
“Dave Agema’s history of harmful and offensive rhetoric has no place in our party, which is why the RNC executive committee acted in the swiftest way possible to avoid giving him a platform,” RNC Chairman Reince Preibus said after the vote, according to Time. “We have voted to censure him, and we are urging the Michigan GOP and their voters to explore options to discipline Agema for his actions. Today, we used all available tools to remove him from the committee.”
Agema on New Year’s Eve posted an essay from American Renaissance, a white supremacist magazine, to Facebook. The essay’s author described how he felt “blacks are different by almost any measure to all other people.”
Agema said the article was “enlightening for anyone who is concerned about crime in America.”
Following the Facebook post, Republicans renewed calls to remove Agema from his position in the RNC. Virginia GOP Chair Pat Mullins circulated a letter urging his colleagues to oust Agema from the committee’s winter meeting and from the party.
Numerous Republicans had already called for Agema to resign a year ago, but the committeeman refused to step down.
Agema has compared being gay to alcoholism and claimed that gay people want free medical insurance because they have AIDS. He also posted a comment on his Facebook page asking, “Have you ever seen a Muslim do anything that contributes positively to the American way of life?”
Please remove Agema from the committee…he is a burden on the Repubican party and a blot on his church.
He goes to church?
Forget censuring him – how about FIRING him?
Oh, right: Agema’s views dovetail with the rest of your “base.”
I’m kind of blown away that they are even censuring him. We must be making some sort of progress towards “all (people) are created equal”, because I’m pretty sure it’s not that long ago that this guy wouldn’t have even gotten a private talkin’ to. Anti-gay and racist comments can be considered a corner stone of the RNC. Maybe the cockroaches won’t inherit the earth after all.
The Party of Pretext cannot tolerate, nor long survive, officials who willfully refuse hide their true beliefs behind the officially sanctioned and focus-group tested pretexts.