In the News: Freedom Foundation podcast pulled after host laughs at Democrat’s Middle Eastern name
Seattle Times: The Freedom Foundation podcast host said he was not mocking the “possibly even Muslim” surname of a Washington state Democratic Party spokesman.
A local conservative think tank has taken down a podcast in which the host and a Republican state lawmaker laughed at the Middle Eastern surname of a state Democratic Party spokesman.
The podcast host, Jeffrey Rhodes, with the Olympia-based Freedom Foundation, said in an email he’d chuckled at the Democratic spokesman’s name because it sounded Middle Eastern and “possibly even Muslim.”
The Freedom Foundation last week had posted Rhodes’ podcast interview with state Rep. Jay Rodne, R-Snoqualmie, who in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks made controversial comments opposing Syrian refugees entering the U.S. and called Islam “barbarian medievalism.”