Rep.-elect Allen West, R-Fort Lauderdale (Pic by Debra Todd, via Facebook)
Rep.-elect Allen West, R-Fort Lauderdale, has picked Joyce Kaufman, a South Florida radio host with a history of incendiary comments, as his chief of staff, reports the Palm Beach Post. Kaufman’s website confirms that she has accepted the post.
“Her 20 years of experience on the political scene in South Florida (always as a radio host) will give me helpful insights and perspective,” West told Page2Live Monday night. “As chief of staff, she’ll be my right-hand person.”
A Democrat-turned-independent, Kaufman also gave West plenty airtime as he ran against Democrat Ron Klein in 2008 and this year. Over the past four years, West is believed to have been on Kaufman’s show more than 100 times.
An afternoon host on WFTL-AM 850 for nearly 20 years, Kaufman has made dozens of comments against immigrants:
- In August 2007, when discussing illegal immigrants, she said on her show, “If you commit a crime while you’re here, we should hang you and send your body back to where you came from, and your family should pay for it.”
- She became infuriated at illegal immigration after she called Comcast and the recording said, “Press 2 for Spanish.”
- She said at a rally, with West standing by, “Calling illegal immigrants ‘undocumented workers’ is like calling a drug dealer a pharmacist without a license.” She was furious that children of illegal immigrants were educated in public schools and received health care at emergency rooms. “There are people who want to change your way of life, and some of them may be your gardeners,” she said.
Her anger is not limited to illegal immigrants. “There’s no way I’m going to live in a country that’s been radically Muslim-ized … and I’m not afraid to say it,” she said at a protest in Jupiter. She also said at the protest that the United States was “this close” to moving towards “fascistic and tyrannical rule.” At the American Freedom Tour in Fort Lauderdale, she wore a T-shirt that said “PROUD MEMBER OF THE ANGRY MOB AND I VOTE,” with the “O” in “MOB” a crossed-out Obama logo.
She said, “Apparently, I’m also a racist just because I don’t agree with the president.”
Kaufman in action:
Luke Johnson reports on Florida for The American Independent.
