Discredited right-wing author and conspiracy theorist Ed Klein was featured on Eagle Forum Live with Phyllis Schlafly, where he discussed his erroneous book The Amateur and deplored Obama’s character and presidency. Klein has previously promoted claims that Obama is Muslim, and has contended that Bill Clinton raped his wife Hillary in his highly contested book, The Truth about Hillary. The Amateur alleges that Obama is ill-suited for the presidency, charging that his temperament and lack of experience make him unqualified to fulfill a role in governance. The book reflects long-standing conservative allegations against Obama, painting a portrait of the president as a Muslim, a closeted socialist and an inept, ungrateful leader.
According to those Klein interviewed, the book contains scenes that did not occur or were immensely misconstrued. Media Matters reports that The Amateur is filled with “lazy research, bad writing, bizarre generalizations…and gossip forwarded by anonymous sources.” But conservatives like Dick Cheney and Schlafly continue to praise Klein as a truth-teller who is unearthing Obama’s true incompetency.
In his interview with Schafly — who believes that “feminists completely control the Obama administration” — Klein assailed Obama’s relationship with feminists and disclosed that Michelle Obama is a domineering wife and the true power holder in the White House, calling Obama “a hen-pecked guy.”
Schafly: You can see he is kind of already in hoc to the feminists.
Klein: Very much so, in hoc to—he married a big, big feminist. Michelle Obama is really the person who wears the pants in the family, and Barack Obama admits to that. He says when they have a difference of opinion he says “Yes Ma’am!” to his wife. He’s a bit of a, you know, a hen-pecked guy, let’s face it. And Michelle is very strong-willed, and Barack I think, surrounds himself with feminists, and people who espouse that, what I would call, extreme feminism, including and up to abortion on demand, paid for by the government, up to and including the ninth month of pregnancy.
Klein also did not fail to insinuate Obama’s supposed connection with Islam, citing birther Jerome Corsi as a valid source and floated his new “Muslim ring” conspiracy.
Caller: I was wondering about the ring that Obama wore in college, you know the Islamic and Arabic one about there’s only one God but Allah and he’s the only prophet, Mohammed’s the only prophet. Do you know anything about that?
Klein: Well, if you’re asking me that question…I can only tell you that I spoke to Jerome Corsi, who has been the person following this story, breaking this story, and exposing this story. And Jerry Corsi tells me that, he’s been, as you said, wearing this ring since college, and that it does have this Islamic inscription on it. I have not seen the ring, I can’t comment on it.
Schafly and Klein contended that Obama is waging a war on capitalism, alleging that it is Obama’s plan to increase dependence on the government and suppress free market capitalism. Klein warned of Obama’s executive orders, cautioning that if Obama is re-elected, he will have achieved a “Roman Imperial presidency.”
Schlafly: There are people who think he’s following the Frances Fox Piven strategy of breaking the capitalist system by simply loading so many people on welfare and on dependency on government.
Klein: It’s very strange, Phyllis, this debate on whether he’s a socialist or not a socialist, I don’t think, quite frankly, that’s an important debate, what is important is what he’s actually doing. And I think what you’ve just described is what he’s doing—making this country more and more dependent on a central government that is taking over the role of deciding who are the winners and who are the losers…who to back, who do give money to…it is the opposite of what this country is founded on which is free market capitalism.
Schafly: Well, that’s why I called my book No Higher Power, and it applies to a lot of these things…he just thinks the federal government is the last word, and it’s even higher than your conscience, it’s higher than your religious liberty, it’s higher than his issuing executive orders that are a violation of congressional laws, and etc.
Klein: And I think that if he is re-elected, I think that’s going to continue unabated for the next four years. And that could turn this country permanently into something different than what it was before. These executive orders, in violation of congressional laws that you just pointed out, that’s a very dangerous constitutional matter. And I can see this happening more and more if this man is re-elected, kind of a Roman Imperial presidency.
