Wisconsin’s Democratic Senate candidate, Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, has spent most of his campaign denying he’s an extremist who hates cops and wants to defund the police.
But some interesting tweets have come to light recently that questions Barnes’s claim of being a “mainstream” candidate. He might have been able to fudge his support for defunding the police and other radical issues associated with Black Lives Matter. But it will be very hard for him to hide his support for some of America’s worst enemies.
“The issue of US govt oppression against blacks is a 100s year-old issue,” wrote Khamenei, adding the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.
Barnes “liked” Khamenei’s post on Twitter and responded to the Iranian leader: “The first tweet of 2015 from @khamenei_ir is #BlackLivesMatter. Let that sink in. May This be a most wonderful year for you and yours.”
Barnes’s social media posts could raise questions about the candidate’s willingness to align himself with anti-American and undemocratic leaders. The news comes as Barnes, the Wisconsin lieutenant governor and former state legislator, has faced criticism over his repeated appearances on RT, a Russian state-run news network that the U.S. State Department has described as “propaganda support for the Kremlin’s foreign policy objectives.”
Barnes also wrote several posts opposing any U.S. effort to oust Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in 2013, while the embattled dictator was massacring his own people and using chemical weapons.
Barnes sees himself as some kind of heroic figure. He expressed a desire to “pull a Rodman” in Syria — referring to former NBA star Dennis Rodman and his trip to North Korea — “I should have hopped that fence to Syria when I had the chance,” apparently alluding to his desire to bring peace to Syria while Syrian dictator Bashar Assad was gassing his own people.
“Seeing school administrators plead for more state aid, but seeing that our country is able to send weapons to Syria makes me more anti war,” wrote Barnes in June 2013.
After the Obama administration opened up diplomatic relations with Cuba in 2014, Barnes wrote that he wanted to work at the “embassy in Cuba” and asked “where would one apply for such an opportunity?”
Perhaps he should have asked his pal Fidel Castro.
Incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson gratefully accepted Barnes’s gift.
“Not only has Moscow Mandela Barnes gone on Russian propaganda TV six times to denigrate American law enforcement, but he has also cozied up to awful dictators and communist groups around the world,” said Johnson spokesman Mike Marinella. “His extreme positions are wrong for Wisconsin and would make our state less prosperous and less free.”
Johnson has taken the lead on Barnes after the Democrat led by eight points as late as August. There’s just no hiding Barnes’s extremism, and in the Dairy State it just doesn’t play well.
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