Remember Pete Hoekstra, the Michigan Congressman who made national news by running a racist attack ad against Debbie Stabenow during the Super Bowl? [Stabenow went on to kick his ass in their 2012 race for Senate.] Well, guess what? He’s back in the news. And, once again, it’s for being a lying, racist asshole.
Remember how we’ve talked in the past about how very few competent people want to serve in Trump’s Diplomatic Corps? Well, Hoekstra, it would seem, is one of those people who stepped up in the absence of qualified applicants, offering to serve as Donald Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands. And, it would seem, the people of the Netherlands aren’t terribly happy about his portrayal of their country as a place where there are “no-go zones” full of Islamic militants who are wrecking havoc and setting people on fire. Here’s Ambassador Hoekstra being questioned about his comments by Dutch journalist Wouter Zwart just recently. Hoekstra, as you would expect from a Trump appointee, calls the assertion that he’d ever said any such thing “fake news.” Then, just a minute or so later, after apparently being told that video exists of him saying exactly that, Hoekstra says to the bewildered journalist that he never used the phrase “fake news.”
Just perfect.
Dutch journalist to new US Ambassador: you said there were 'no go zones' in Netherlands, where are they?
Ambassador: That's fake news, I didn't say that
Journalist: We can show you that clip now.
Ambassador: Err pic.twitter.com/8ohIOzmYAc— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) December 22, 2017
I know it’s not much of a silver lining, but at least Trump got Hoekstra out of Michigan.