Via Suzy Khimm at Mother Jones: A longshot Republican gubernatorial candidate in Idaho says in a new interview that he has no problem with militias showing “a little force behind the scenes.”
ABC’s Nightline caught up with Rex Rammell at a training session of the North Idaho Lightfoot Militia. Rammell, who last made national headlines in August when he joked about buying tags to hunt President Obama, is seen in the ABC segment firing a large scoped semi-automatic rifle.
He addresses the role of militias in the context of fears about the new health care legislation.
“It’s because of the current administration’s politics — the more they force upon the states, the more noise there is,” he says. “The more concern people have, the less freedom there is. Lots of Idahoans believe the health care bill is very intrusive on our individual rights. … We are not going to allow them to come into the state and make what we believe are unconstitutional mandates. Even if they can get them passed in D.C., we are not going to all that to happen. These guys want to show a little force behind the scene… I don’t have a problem with that.”
Rammell adds: “I think the way politics is going in the United States and the Tea Party movement — the whole atmosphere promotes people wanting to get prepared. And I think that is what this is about.”
The man who won 5% of the vote when he ran for Senate in 2008 is “running on the platform of supporting a statewide militia,” according to ABC.
The Web site of the Christian militia Hutaree links to the Lightfoot Militia site, ABC points out.
Check out Rammell’s comments starting at about 6:15 in this video:
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