The top Republican in the Senate marked the weekend of the inauguration by having his campaign send out a hysterical email warning supporters that President Obama and the “gun-grabbers” in Congress are “are about to launch an all-out-assault on the Second Amendment.”
The email, sent Sunday by Jesse Benton, the campaign manager for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, tells gun-rights backers they’re “literally surrounded” by those who want to take their guns away.
It continues:
My friend, our freedom is under direct assault.
From those who want take your guns. From those who want to shred our Constitution, and as our good in friend Rand Paul from Kentucky says, from those who want to be King.
Let me tell you, Mitch McConnell is ready to lead the fight to protect your rights.
The email appears designed to help McConnell shore up his right flank in advance of his re-election fight next year in Kentucky to ward off a primary challenge. And the effort to get close to Rand Paul, an extreme right-winger, is no accident. In 2010, mainstream Republican Trey Grayson, a close McConnell ally, lost the GOP primary in the campaign for the state’s other Senate seat to Paul, who stressed his gun-rights bona fides.
Benton was previously the campaign manager for the presidential bids of Ron Paul, Rand’s father, and has close ties to the right-wing grassroots community.
McConnell has received withering criticism from conservatives since he played a key role in working with President Obama on a deal to avert the fiscal cliff. RedState, the influential conservative blog, referred to the deal as “the McConnell tax hike.”
The email was posted by the Louisville Eccentric Observer, an alternative weekly, which calls it ” false and Alex Jones-esque.”
The full email follows:
Dear Patriot,
You and I are literally surrounded.
The gun-grabbers in the Senate are about to launch an all-out-assault on the Second Amendment. On your rights.
On your freedom.
Just the other night, President Obama urged them to act. And then he went one by I Want This” href=”http://fatlip.leoweekly.com/2013/01/20/mitch-mcconnells-irresponsible-campaign-email-watch-outtheyre-coming-for-your-guns/#”>Rand Paul from Kentucky says, from those who want to be King.
Let me tell you, Mitch McConnell is ready to lead the fight to protect your rights.
Will you stand with Mitch today?
Our Founders fought a revolution to secure our rights. They would have been appalled by what they heard from an American president the other day.
President Obama has the left wing media in a frenzy. And, like his old Chief of Staff, he is determined to not waste a crisis.
The gun-grabbers are in full battle mode. And they are serious.
What’s at stake?
There are almost too many schemes to list. But President Obama’s worst center around:
-The Feinstein Gun Ban, which will criminalize firearms by how they look.-A thinly-veiled national gun by I Want This” href=”http://fatlip.leoweekly.com/2013/01/20/mitch-mcconnells-irresponsible-campaign-email-watch-outtheyre-coming-for-your-guns/#”>close to the end of it.
23 new Executive Orders.
It is almost hard to believe the sheer breadth and brazenness of this attempt to gut our Constitution.
Well, Mitch McConnell is not going to stand aside.
Mitch McConnell will stand and fight. He will lead the Senate Republicans against this unconstitutional agenda, and with your help, we will prevail.
But Mitch can’t do it alone.
That’s why I am asking you to sign the attached Defense of the Second Amendment pledge today to show that you stand with me in this vital fight.
Friend, from his very first run for office, Leader McConnell has always stood strong for your gun rights. Like you and me, he firmly believes that the Second Amendment protects YOU as an individual.
And, he absolutely will not let president Obama or the Senate Democrats take that right away from us.
So please help him fight back today.
For Freedom,
Jesse BentonCampaign ManagerSen. Mitch McConnell
P.S. President Obama and his allies are committed to eroding your Constitutional freedoms. Please sign your pledge TODAY to let him know that we stand with Mitch McConnell in opposing this gun grab.
Zachary Roth