Gaffney was banned from CPAC, the annual conservative event, after he promoted the bogus charge that two of the event’s organizers were secret agents of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Then he got banned from the “Weyrich Lunch” of right-wing figures.
A witch hunt against Muslim-Americans serving in the Obama administration, crafted by Gaffney and spearheaded by then-Rep. Michele Bachmann, drew severe rebukes from Republican leaders such as John Boehner, Lindsey Graham and John McCain, who delivered a rousing floor speech on how his attacks had “no logic, no basis and no merit.”
But recently, things have changed. This year Gaffney returned to CPAC, and today it was announced that he has joined Ted Cruz’s foreign policy advisory team. It’s quite a turn of events, as one would think that Gaffney had lost all credibility when he said the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would lead to the reinstatement of the draft, wondered why liberal groups and Jewish leaders are “making common cause” with Islamists and said that Boehner and McCain, in opposing his anti-Muslim crusade, were “parroting the Muslim Brotherhood line.”
He has also endorsed the birther conspiracy theory, said President Obama is aiding terrorism and said that Muslims who believe in Sharia should be prosecuted for sedition.
Most recently, Gaffney interviewed and praised the work of an infamous white nationalist writer, although he tried to distance himself from the racist activist after being called out for it.
Despite this outrageous record, most of the major GOP candidates this cycle have appeared at Gaffney’s “national security action” summits, including Cruz and Donald Trump. It was at a Gaffney event that Trump accused Obama of barring non-Muslims from the country; later, Trump cited a bogus statistic from Gaffney’s group to justify his proposed ban on the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims from entering the country.
Seeing that the two top Republican candidates have used conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim rhetoric to score political points, it can’t be too surprising that Gaffney is no longer a right-wing pariah.
