GOP Rep. Schock’s Spox: White House ‘Should Build A Mosque’ For Obama

(Screenshot Credit, TPM)

February 5, 2015

TPMLivewire: ByCATHERINE THOMPSON

Rep. Aaron Schock’s (R-IL) spokesman once said that a mosque should be built on the White House grounds to accommodate President Barack Obama, Buzzfeed reported Thursday.

Buzzfeed obtained more alleged posts from the Facebook page of Benjamin Cole, Schock’s communications director, after ThinkProgress reported earlier in the day that Cole had written posts comparing two black people to zoo animals.

Cole wrote that he “thinks they should build a mosque on White House grounds” in a post dated October 2010, according to Buzzfeed.

When a commenter said that he failed to understand outrage about a proposed mosque at the World Trade Center site, Cole replied “I wasn’t talking about the Ground Zero mosque, I just think it would be nice for the President to have his own house of worship, since he’s not been able to find one suitable in DC since 2004 when he moved here.”

At the time, 18 percent of Americans believed Obama, who is a practicing Christian, was a Muslim. The myth that Obama adhered to Islam seems to have stemmed from the fact that Obama’s father was Muslim and then gained steam among conservative media personalities who repeatedly tied the President to Islam.

Cole has allegedly posted racially charged statements to his Facebook page as recently as last week, when he described an encounter with a black police officer asking him “Do you have a problem talking to me?” ThinkProgress also reported that in one October 2013 post, Colemocked black people walking outside his Washington, D.C. apartment.

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