We can depend on our elected representatives to fully support our troops?
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Phoenix, AZ - A state senator is in hot water after making controversial remarks last week in an interview with Arizona Foothills Magazine. The full interview, which is to be released Friday, includes contentious quotes on military service-members, the constitution, and defense spending.
Senator Linda Lopez (D-29, AZ), a member of the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, was apparently quoted during the interview as saying “the troops should just go fuck themselves.” Lopez continues to claim that her remarks have been “taken out of context” and that she is in fact a huge supporter of the U.S. military.
It’s not the first time Lopez is being questioned for something she said. In the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting, she told an interviewer that the shooter was “probably a veteran of Afghanistan.“ The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, had no military experience.
Her most recent remarks come after a vote in the Committee to improve education benefits and mental health services for veterans of all service branches. Lopez opposed the bill and was the only no vote, telling reporters that she opposed it on constitutional grounds. When pressed further, she admitted however, that “she hates the fucking constitution.”
Minutes after making the remark, she told reporters that she misspoke and didn’t mean to use profanity.
“I only voted no on the bill because I support the troops, but don’t support the war,” Lopez said. “Besides, if these numbskulls would quit enlisting, we wouldn’t need to support the stupid fucks. That last part’s off the record, by the way.”
Lopez has maintained that the full context of her interview quote was about supporting the troops and giving them fleshlights as a way “to go fuck themselves in the warzone and at home.”
Although The Foothills refuses to release Lopez’s full remarks until the interview hits news stands later this week, TDB did obtain partial transcripts.
“Frankly, the troops should just go fuck themselves. Let’s be honest here,” Lopez remarks in the interview. “I’m really tired of these people complaining all the time.”
Lopez is not the only politician who has made a gaffe during interviews or public events.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) once told a crowd that “he served in Vietnam” although he never deployed as a Marine reservist during the 1970s, and Representative Todd Akin (R-MO) recently came under fire after talking about “legitimate rape” and the female body’s amazing ability to defy biology.
After TDB confronted Lopez with additional context from the interview transcripts, the Senator backtracked and attempted to explain further:
“In my defense, I was responding to the troops’ demands for a constitutional amendment limiting elected offices to either veterans, uniformed police and fire personnel, or civilians who held conscientious objector status throughout their entire period of eligibility for selective service, with all others forced to wear velcro shoes and overalls,” she explained. “Fuck them.”
She has since apologized for her remarks, saying that she “just went full-on retard with what she said.”
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