Congressman Peter King (R-NY) will receive an award tonight from the right-wing Center for Security Policy, the group led by Frank Gaffney that is behind the anti-Muslim witch hunt advocated by King’s Republican colleague Michele Bachmann.
Last year, King hosted roundly-criticized hearings on the “radicalization” of Muslim-Americans and continued to make the false claim that 80 percent of U.S. mosques are “controlled by radical imams.” While King did not sign Bachmann’s letters targeting Muslim-American officials serving in the Obama administration, Gaffney was behind the misleading information that led to Bachmann’s letters.
Along with the Family Research Council’s Jerry Boykin, who authored the CSP’s “Team B II Report, Sharia: The Threat to America,” Gaffney warned that Huma Abedin and other Obama administration officials are part of a stealth Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. government. The CSP even hosted a National Press Club briefing by Andy McCarthy to defend Bachmann’s witch hunt. However, when asked about Gaffney’s support for birther conspiracy theories or his belief that Obama is a secret Muslim, McCarthy admitted that Gaffney’s views were “nutty.”
Gaffney may be giving King his “Keeper of the Flame” award, but he accused King’s leader, House Speaker John Boehner, of “parroting the Muslim Brotherhood line” by denouncing Bachmann’s witch hunt. King is even receiving the award despite signing Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge, as Gaffney believes that Norquist is a Muslim Brotherhood agent, a claim that has gotten Gaffney banned from two leading conservative conferences.
