Source: NICHOLAS KAMM / Getty
A gay Black man who is also a Republican conservative appears to be very surprised that he was called racist and homophobic slurs during a MAGA event, and, well, let’s just say he’s not the only one who is clearly confused.
Meet Rob Smith.
Smith is a conservative commentator and contributor for Turning Point USA, the conservative anti-think tank founded by loud and proud anti-Black and anti-LGBTQ bigot Charlie Kirk. In December, Smith posted a video on X as he wined about being called the N-word and the homophobic f-word at a Turning Point event in Phoenix.
Now, the guy who sounds like he would also be surprised to find out the KKK doesn’t offer a DEI program is claiming that one of the right-wingers who racially harassed him was Missouri State Rep. Chris Lonsdale, a Republican conservative who was elected into office in 2022.
From Newsweek:
Video sent by Smith to Newsweek appears to show Lonsdale near a crowd that heckled and chanted a homophobic slur against Smith. Lonsdale was seen pointing his finger toward Smith. However, the video was taken from behind the lawmaker, and it remained unclear whether he was among the individuals chanting the slur.
“One of the individuals is a Republican elected official named Chris Lonsdale, a State Rep for MO district 38,” Smith wrote in an X message to Newsweek.
Lonsdale has yet to respond publicly to the allegation and Turning Point said in a statement to Newsweek that chanting of bigoted slurs didn’t happen at the actual event, it happened after Smith went to a “separate bar/venue that is some distance from the convention center after the program had concluded for the day.”
OK, we’re kind of putting the sunken place cart before the white nationalist horse here. It isn’t surprising or even the least bit interesting that a Republican official might have joined in on the racist heckling. After all, this month alone, we’ve reported on a self-described “honorary” KKK member who is running for governor of Missouri as a Republican, and the Republican leader of a white nationalist organization that citizens of a small town in Oklahoma are currently trying to recall after electing him into the city council.
The real question is—WTF did Smith expect?
If a person who is allergic to pet hair goes to a dog park and complains about getting the sniffles, you’re probably going to look at them like they’re stupid, right? Well, regardless of what your political and ideological leanings happen to be, if there’s a shindig being thrown by the party that hates DEI, affirmative action, critical race theory, Black voters, non-whitewashed Black history, Black Lives Matter, gender studies, LGBTQ+ studies and educational material about different sexualities, but loves pushing legislation to ban all of the above into white nationalist and heteronormative oblivion—maybe that party isn’t a safe place for a gay Black man to attend.
Anyway, over the weekend, Smith announced on his show, Can’t Cancel Rob Smith, that he is officially leaving the Republican party and, for the most part, responses on social media were predictably unkind.
Smith also whined about conservative media outlets not giving him a call to talk about how bigots at a bigot event surprisingly responded to his gay and Black presence by being bigots. (Seriously, this guy is next-level delusional.)
Meanwhile, folks who appear to be on the other side of the MAGA divide are accusing Smith of fabricating what happened and intentionally provoking the bigoted heckling he received, which, to be fair, would be like provoking a dog into chewing on a large steak bone that still has a little meat on it.
It’s getting weird in the MAGA world.
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