Obama White House Blasts Mike Pence For Lying About Indiana Religious Freedom Law

[babylonsister]

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/03/31/obama-white-house-blasts-mike-pence-lying-indiana-religious-freedom-law.html

Obama White House Blasts Mike Pence For Lying About Indiana Religious Freedom Law
By: Jason Easley
Tuesday, March, 31st, 2015, 2:29 pm


During his daily briefing, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest blasted and debunked Republican Gov. Mike Pence’s lies about Indiana’s religious freedom law.

Video @ link~

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked if President Obama feels a need to amend the 1993 federal religious freedom law.

Earnest answered:

I know that Gov. Pence has tried to falsely suggest that the law that was signed in Indiana is the same as the law that was passed at the federal level in 1993. That is not true, and the reason that that’s not true is that the 1993 law was an effort to protect the religious liberty of religious minorities based on actions that could be taken by the federal government.

The Indiana law is much broader. It doesn’t just apply to individuals or religious minorities. It applies to, and I’m quoting here, ‘a partnership, a limited liability company, a corporation, a company, a firm, a society, a joint stock company, or an unincorporated association.’ So this obviously is a significant expansion of the law in terms of the way that it would apply.

….

At the same time, it is also worth noting that the law in Indiana doesn’t just apply to interactions with the government. It also applies to private transactions as well, which means that this is a much more open-ended piece of legislation that could reasonably be used to try to justify discriminating against somebody because of who they love.

Earnest also described Pence as being in “damage control” mode.

Pence’s two main defenses of the law were pretty much destroyed by the White House Press Secretary. Pence continues to claim that the law does not legalize discrimination and that the Indiana law is just like the federal law that was signed in 1993. Gov. Pence is trying to kill the backlash that he caused without feeding the perception that he is backing down.

The Indiana law is not the same as the 1993 federal law for all of the reasons that Earnest listed. It is also not the same as what Clinton signed because Indiana Republicans based their law on the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling.

Gov. Pence and the law’s defenders have been lying about the 1993 law, and the White House has called them out on it.

The Obama White House has not been afraid to speak out against discrimination, and today’s press briefing debunked the key components of the Republican defense of legalized discrimination.

[misterhighwasted]

1. Excellant! Everyone Pence dragged into his mea culpa should absolutely shove the Truth

..right back in his lying face.
And Pence & his bunch really thought they could just quietly & privately sign this into Law with no one knowing.

This RW b.s. of discrimination in America needs to stop at Pence's feet.
This bright light is shining on all of them today.

[babylonsister]

2. I so agree! nt

[herding cats]

3. Great to see this!

A lot of people have been confused about this because of these lies.

[bluesbassman]

5. Typical RW tactic.

When caught in a lie, immediately try to tie the lie to something legitimate no matter how tenuous the connection.

[Scurrilous]

4. K & R

[tishaLA]

6. The question is whether the media, under fire from Pence and the IN legislature,

will continue their false equivalences or whether they will investigate, finally, instead of being stenographers for RW bigotry. Watching MSNBC and CNN, it appears that the repub lie seems to be gaining traction among the talking heads, especially now that Pence has paid lip service to backtracking.

[SoapBox]

7. That picture taken at the signing, behind closed doors...

I hope some of the MSNBC programs will repeatedly show that pic and tell all about the anti-gay creeps that were right there behind Gov. INtolerance when he signed this Hate Law.

He CANNOT lie/spin his way out of that!

[Zorra]

8. K&R nt

[aka-chmeee]

9. And our local numbskulls here in Kansas,

apparently unable to learn anything from the public response to their fellow numbskulls in Indiana, seem to be busily trying to legislate similar measures here.