Press Releases

President-elect Donald Trump has made two more troubling additions to his transition team.  Frank Gaffney, founder of the hard-right Center for Security Policy, has spent two decades advancing conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is the chief architect of anti-immigrant measures in several states, including Arizona’s controversial and unconstitutional “show me your papers” bill. 

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) released the following statement:

“The president-elect continues to staff his transition team with individuals whose views pose a direct threat to our core American values.

“Frank Gaffney is a conspiracy theorist.  From his perch at an extremist think tank, Mr. Gaffney spent both the Bush and Obama years complaining about the infiltration of the government by the ‘radical left and its Islamist allies.’  He has targeted both conservative and progressive activists, sitting members of Congress, the UN Secretary General, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  He often speaks about the wholly unsubstantiated theory that parts of Europe and the United States have become ‘no-go zones’ for non-Muslims.  His views are so extreme that he was barred from participation in the Conservative Political Action Conference—but apparently he is not too extreme for President-elect Trump.

“According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Kris Kobach, has ties to white nationalist and nativist movements. He is the primary author of the hardline Arizona immigration law that was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2012.  Mr. Kobach helped former Attorney General John Ashcroft create a controversial registration system for Muslim immigrants and has indicated his intention to revive this program—a proposal that flies in the face of the constitution and is a threat to the civil liberties of all Americans. 

“To give President-elect Trump the benefit of the doubt, I recommend he  remove these individuals from his staff, and lead our country away from these bigoted, small-minded policies—before it’s too late.”