The son of former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson was heard on videotelling voters that they will have the opportunity on Nov. 6 to send President Barack Obama “back to Chicago or Kenya.”
Jason Thompson, whose father is now running for a U.S. Senate seat, made the off-color remark about the president during a Republican Party of Kenosha County brunch event. The extremely partisan crowd on hand was clearly receptive, but, to most viewers, the remarks are a blatant example of race-baiting birtherism.
The brunch was also attended by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brad Courtney, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The video was taken by a Democratic Party operative and posted online.
A spokesperson for the Thompson campaign said that “Jason Thompson said something he should not have, and he apologizes.”
Wisconsin’s governor from 1987 to 2001 and the former Secretary of Health and Human Services under George W. Bush, Tommy Thompson claims not to have seen the video as of Sunday.
Jason Thompson has been regularly been involved in his father’s campaign for an open U.S. Senate seat against Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin.
His comments prompted laughter with one woman saying, “We are taking donations for that Kenya trip,” the Journal Sentinel said.
A group of Obama critics promotes the discredited “birther” and racially-tinged argument that he was not born in the United States. Obama’s father was Kenyan, but the White House released Obama’s birth certificate last year showing he was born in a Hawaii hospital. The Republican governor of Hawaii has verified the records as legitimate, but the “birthers” continue with their claims.
What makes the Thompson incident so unique is Tommy Thompson’s stature within the GOP establishment. Most of the Republican Party hierarchy has disavowed the birther movement or at least intentionally kept their distance at best from the extremist right group.
Priebus and Courtney did not return calls, the Journal Sentinel said.
The former governor backed away from his own remarks Sunday after he called his opponent “anti-Jewish” when commenting on allegations she flip-flopped on Iran sanctions.
Later he clarified that he meant to say Baldwin was “anti-Israel.”
