Proposed U.S. House “America First Caucus” latest example
Full context of Twitter exchanges between Lauf, Hoffman and a congressional candidate from Texas with distorted view of America First
Towards the end of the nearly 33 minute interview of IL-16 Republican candidate Catalina Lauf and freelancer media and outdoor writer Gabriella Hoffman, a topic about the hijacking of America First came up.
The interview published April 9 on YouTube and here on McHenry County Blog is cued to the reference of something that happened in Twitter-land where Hoffman came to Lauf’s defense on March 29.
The interview between Hoffman and Lauf was recorded towards the end of the same week, and published on YouTube on April 9. The exchange of the hijacking of America First lasts 5 1/2 minutes:
McHenry County Blog believes in full context and I witnessed the Twitter exchanges between Lauf and Hoffman, which included conservative activist Scott Presler and TX-14 congressional candidate Joshua Foxworth.
Here’s the play-by-play, with my commentary of what I witnessed and where Lauf, in my honest opinion showed why she is ready to be a member of Congress by the convictions of a real Patriot who firmly supports the real, mainstream America First agenda of 2021.
At the end of the tweets, I will give my commentary on the news stories which broke this week about a proposed new caucus in the U.S. House, the America First Caucus, being the latest example, in my honest opinion, of this hijacking of the America First movement.
Before we begin, my definition of a “patriot” is one I apply from Scripture based on the greatest commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30 NIV).
The 2nd, as the Lord taught in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as you would yourself.” (Mark 12:31 NIV)
So, a real God-fearing, God-honoring Patriot loves God and country, in that order.
Here is the tweet Lauf, sent in response to a tweet with a screenshot from Lauf’s Twitter profile by Foxworth of Texas, and I will be honest, the language gets a little rough during the exchange:
It must be pointed out, the screenshot of Lauf’s Twitter profile shows Lauf Twitter following at “63.6K”. When Lauf announced her IL-16 campaign at 5PM CT on February 23, she was at 63.3K followers, which quickly grew by tens of thousands, so this screenshot was taken on the early evening of February 23.
Enter Hoffman with a 2-tweet defense of Lauf:
Lauf responded to the tweet attack from Foxworth, who responded to Lauf a few minutes after Hoffman’s response:
Hoffman responds with two tweets:
I couldn’t hold back witnessing this exchange, so I responded (note, the “lock” symbol on my Twitter account was in place after April 7. I locked my Twitter account for about 5 days, but my tweets were unlocked to the public on March 29, and are unlocked now):
Enter Scott Presler with some information about Mr. Foxworth and his unsuccessful primarying of Congressman Randy Weber (R, TX-14) in 2020:
And the exchange between Presler and Foxworth on March 29:
Lauf responded to the money quote from Foxworth, and I responded accordingly:
So what is “AmercaN First” opposed to “America First”? Just like Lauf and Hoffman discussed on the interview segment highlighted above in the cued video.
Responding to Hoffman’s tweet:
COMMENTARY: I mean what I said that I pray for anyone who have such distortions about not only America First, but what it really means to be a genuine, God-fearing, God-honoring Patriot, who loves God and country in that order.
In Scripture, the entirety of John chapter 4 deals with centuries of hatred between the Jews and Samritans and how Jesus healed it in less than a day.
Galatians chapter 2 shows how the Apostle Paul applied Jesus’ teaching confronting the Apostle Peter for displaying bigoted behavior.
On the above exchange, Scott Presler’s participation was very welcome to defend Catalina Lauf from the outrageous attack on her candidacy. Presler had predicted such attacks would come:
Indeed, it was Presler’s tweet above that prompted Joshua Foxworth to respond, attacking Catalina Lauf, and Presler’s open support for her candidacy, on Sunday March 28.
Finally, the proposed U.S. House “America First Caucus”. The proposed draft of the platform, which drew the forceful objection of House Republican Leader Keven McCarthy (R, CA-23) this past week, can be viewed here.
Foxworth and others who hold the “AmericaN First” view, as Presler pointed out, tend to talk tough on immigration.
The “Biden Border Crisis” was manufactured by Biden and his people.
The overzealous responses against “legal immigration”, to the point people dispute the United States being a “nation of immigrants”, instead calling Americans “settlers” like Foxworth used, or “conquerers” as I’ve seen others use, is part of the distortion I pray is healed.
I thank Lauf, Hoffman and Presler for the maturity to call out the distortion of America First for what it really is.
I’m gonna have to disagree with you bigly on this one, John.
I see it as Pressler and a bunch of run-of-the-mill Republicans who are trying to hijack America First and turn it into something acceptable to the donor class. (Which is such a betrayal because Trump represented a repudiation of that old Boomer Reagan worshiping GOP cult.) There is no AmericaN First, there is only America First. The only person I heard say American First was Catalina Lauf and she removed that from her bio as she did “Latina by heart.”
Do you think people who voted for Trump want LEGAL immigration to increase, remain about the same, or decrease?
For me, that’s a major difference between America First and AEI/Chamber Republicans.
America First candidates aren’t so keen on LEGAL immigration either (not just illegal immigration); the others share the liberal point of view that immigration is good or they may avoid the issue. A chamber Republican is likely to talk about immigration the exact same way a Democrat or a Libertarian would, while an America First person is more nativist. They want to reduce or even halt immigration.
That would be the one takeaway I hope readers get. This issue is like a litmus test. It’s one of the most fundamental differences between the populist right and the not populist “right.”
Foxworth lit Lauf up after she made that weird tweet about eating beans and triggering people.
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/populism-inc-candidate-catalina-lauf-says-were-a-nation-of-legal-immigrants-asks-joshua-foxworth-if-her-eating-black-beans-triggers-him/
If you want to make the argument that these America First people are too toxic or too fringe or just too green or not funded adequately to win a general election, that’s one thing, but I think it’s dishonest or maybe just not well informed to say “No actually WE are the real America First people, not those people who created the movement!”
I see Lauf as the RNC/Donor class approved candidate to take on Kinzinger and prevent a candidate more in line with America First. It’s about gatekeeping. It’s about controlling the narrative/conversation, and ultimately what kind of legislators and legislation we get.
The GOP hasn’t offered anything in the form of policy and ideas. It’s the Groypers and America First who are changing things. Same thing on the left. The energy is with Marxists, not the New Dealers. The Democrats want to keep their Marxists on a leash — same thing on the right. They know that’s where the energy is but they don’t necessarily like those people’s policies (they like the status quo more or less). They can’t really attack their base either.
When you hear Lauf, does she represent something radically different than what we’re doing? Where is the energy? Talking about socialism vs the free market does not excite people. TPUSA has had to backtrack/reverse on issues after the Groypers confronted them. I think Lauf is like a damage control / gate keeper candidate, but I’m being redundant now so I’ll end.
I’m up to the challenge, and I’m not going to quibble over semantics or the purity of America First especially from the point of view from an honestly out-there guy like Joshua Foxworth.
Presler is right, keep up the language and he’ll do even less with voters in his race next year against Weber.
And I’m not going to discuss what the GOP/Republicans have or have not done, because if it doesn’t degenerate into a “RINO” vs. “platform GOP” or any other adjective, quite frankly, I’m not a Republican and haven’t been for a few years.
That could be an indication of what “America First” may become. We’ll see.
I’m a Patriot as I described in the article.
What Lauf described in the video is 100% accurate, and trying to feed a false narrative making her for mass legal immigration is simply a lie, or at very least unproven.
Touting legal immigration doesn’t make one a new definition of an “open borders” person (and a few years back, that phrase meant something different).
The removing of “Latina by heart, American first” from Lauf’s Twitter bio is a red herring, and America First is elsewhere in her campaign like her pinned tweet and her website.
You keep saying on Twitter Lauf is the RNC-candidate, or “RNC/Donor class approved candidate”.
What proof does one have of that? She can raise money?
She has proven she can raise money, definitely, and given she is the only candidate who shows she can compete with Kinzinger financially, we’ll see how long Lombardi, Marter or the chiropractor lady stay in the race.
The overriding thing I get from Lauf’s detractors, and I saw this from her IL-14 run, is fear.
Many are afraid Lauf is the future, and people cling to the past of rigidity to be conservative is to be unloving, and hateful.
I’ve seen real growth in Lauf since the primary loss, particularly in the past 7 months.
Trump bridged the gap with his MAGA/KAG messaging, which is why significantly more Hispanics voted for him last year, and helped people of color flip congressional seats.
I’ll keep this discussion to the primary, and forget the General Election as far as this district is concerned, because assuming the district stays heavily Republican, who wins the primary will not matter in the General.
If Jack Lombardi stays in the race, it’s going to be really interesting once he gets out from behind safety of his Twitter page and starts being confronted to defend his views.
“What proof does one have of that?”
The company she keeps, who promotes her, being in an RNC video.
Her push isn’t organic, come on.
It wasn’t last time either.
What did she do to deserve such a fast push last time she ran?
She came out of nowhere and was all over the news.
I don’t know what her stance on immigration is other than she says she is against illegal immigration.
Even on illegal immigration, did she ever speak against Democrats trying to get rid of the ICE facility in Woodstock?
I don’t think the PR people in the GOP are going to be able to clean up the image of America First.
Regardless of what you SAY it means, it already has a meaning.
You’re trying to take a controversial term and make it non-controversial.
Do you think the media will let that happen?
The Democrats?
The left?
The America First movement itself?
They’re not going to let it be redefined.
All this is going to do is get people, even more than currently, to equate normie talking points about free markets and the the Constitution with “extremism.”
A bunch of Republicans even came out today and rebuked an America First Caucus.
You really can’t appeal to the fringe AND the normies.
In attempting to do so, you usually alienate both groups.
Lauf is trying to walk a tight rope.
The whole situation in the 16th has me anxious.
I’m hoping Dems delete it and hopefully no more talk about Kinzinger, Lombardi, Lauf, Marter, etc.
Correcting, I agree!
Correcting, let’s look at your proof:
Company Catalina Lauf keeps: OK, high profile company includes the Club for Growth and their Georgia bus tour back in December and early January.
Also, Lauf was invited to Congressman Madison Cawthorn’s wedding, where we see her with pics with Anna Paulina Luna and Morgan Zegers.
Kim Klacik and Scott Presler were guests at Lauf’s campaign meet-and-greet in mid March, plus she appeared with Klacik at a charity event in Florida in late December for the holidays.
Klacik, Luna and Lauf were at Mar-a-Lago together last week.
We know she’s been to Mar-a-Lago at least twice, and Lauf showed up at the Super Bowl in Tampa, which puts her in Florida at least 4 times since late December, and from what I can tell, one of those trips was NOT CPAC in Orlando at the end of February, given she posted nothing on social media from Orlando that weekend.
She’s also made frequent appearances on Newsmax as part of panels, as well as interviewed by OAN, Newsmax, Wilkow Majority and FOX News.
She was a guest on Steve Cortes’ radio show in early January, and he backed her 2020 campaign openly before going to work for the Trump reelection campaign.
I’m sure I’ve left a few out, but that’s for starters.
The RNC video, shown on August 25 at the Republican National Convention featuring Lauf and her sister talking about all the positives and opportunities of President Trump’s term.
If I follow what you’ve pointed out, her association with President Trump and pushing Trump makes her an inorganic America First?
That’s saying America First shedding Trump, which means die-hard America First are doing EXACTLY what Adam Kinzinger has said to do. I know I’m oversimplifying, but that’s what first came to mind reading your recent comment.
I don’t recall her involved with ICE facility in Woodstock debate, but it was not a Federal issue, but a local one involving the Federal government paying McHenry County to house ICE detainees in the jail.
Decision maker in that instance was McHenry County.
In case you’ve forgotten, I was very critical of Lauf’s campaign during the primary of 2020 for some of the what you cite as “organic”.
I’ve also said, and facts bear this out, she’s come a long way since March of 2020 IMHO, particularly late August (RNC) forward.
Her Defense of Freedom PAC, biggest example.
Back in primary 2020 campaign for IL-14, I openly asked, on multiple occasions, for someone she’s worked with to give a reference.
None came forward.
Her Defense of Freedom PAC, started on a $5K initial start-up had raised over $111K through late January.
Too bad her PAC in an odd-numbered year is not required to file a disclosure report until the end of July for the period of January 26-June 30, but that’s the FEC rules, and we’ll know how her small business PAC is doing then.
We do know, and Daily Herald cited this on Friday, is Lauf gave her campaign $5K from her Defense of Freedom PAC, in essence, taking back the start-up money she donated originally from her 2020 campaign account before closing it.
On the issues, she’s been VERY solid, particularly on the PRO Act, which is a huge issue in Congress right now, to the point Joe Biden has tried (and looks like he’ll fail) to include it as part of his “American Jobs Plan”.
She’s also been vocal on court-packing and H.R. 1 and the Biden Border Crisis.
That’s all I have (though I could write more) for now, but keep eye on tomorrow, as one of the women Catalina has kept company with on multiple occasions in past 4 months discussed immigration Friday night.
Video to post tomorrow morning on the blog.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/04/rino-adam-kinzinger-calls-anyone-supports-america-first-caucus-removed-committee-assignments/
I suggest a new TV program entitled “America’s Got Patriots”.
Let the contestants battle it out to show who’s the most patriotic of all.
The viewing audience votes (like Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour) and the winner gets a ballot spot for a seat in Congress.
IP- that makes as much sense as most of our democratic republic’s functioning these days.
Speaking of caucuses, the Democrat Party has for decades condoned and encouraged a group, a caucus, in the US Congress whereby only members of a particular race can join it. It has members from both the House and the Senate.
She left the Reagan Dinner in LaSalle County before the forum began.
Supposedly she had to “catch a flight to DC.”
To a lot of people it looks like she just ran away because she was afraid of answering questions.
The announcement from the moderator or whoever that was speaking sounded like it was news: that people weren’t aware she had left.
Wasn’t the entire schedule of the event posted beforehand, so how did she not realize how late the event would go?
Now people think she has poor math and time management skills, and that whatever she needs to do in “DC” is more important to her than local constituents.
Bad and bad.
There’s also the part about how she doesn’t do that good in debates or interviews unless it’s someone doing a fluff piece on her, and how leaving early plays into the narrative that she is handled carefully because she is a paper tiger.
A perception of her is that she’s flaky and will ditch people by not responding to them, not showing up at events she’s supposed to be at, or leaving early.
Last night did not help her combat any of the negative perceptions about her and made things worse.
She probably would have been better off not going at all instead of going and dipping out before questions were asked.
https://twitter.com/rhondaveit/status/1383773874173607946
https://twitter.com/em_2127/status/1383610208346271756
https://twitter.com/UAmerica333/status/1383590101951737865
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reagan-day-dinner-and-candidates-forum-tickets-145774947793#
Catalina Lauf is not ready for prime time.
She was on Flannery Fired Up (channel 32) in late Feb/early March and couldn’t answer a simple question.
Then she asked for that portion of her interview not to be shown cause it would make her look bad!!
She called Obama’s immigration policies “idiotic”.
She was then asked to name one and she admitted she could not.
WTF.
I’ve searched endlessly for the video but can’t find it.
I suspect she’s a splitter to keep Kinzinger in office.
JMHO
I’m a little fed up with Lauf.
Does she have a job or is she a professional Hispanic conservative talking head?
I wanna know something, why are all these illegals coming here other then the free money and cheese.
Then rioting against the very gov. who allowed them to escape into our country.
Why if they have all this gumption.. do they NOT STAY and fight their own GOV, like they do here and then they can live from hence they come from …?
I don’t get it… you got the balls to come here and take all the FREE stuff then complain when when its not enough, but you don’t have the cahonnies to do so in your own land?
do you have any idea why we are the way we are here, in our Legal USA?
do you ?
Correcting, first, let’s not blow-out the LaSalle County Reagan Dinner of the proportion that it really is, a manufactured controversy that will be forgotten before the end of the month and will have no bearing to how primary voters cast ballots on March 15.
And that’s even assuming LaSalle County, all or in part, remain in the district.
I agree, the optics of Lauf leaving early, and I accept the campaign’s explanation of catching a flight to DC at face value, doesn’t look good.
I’m sure Lauf and her campaign will review what happened, and adapt.
The buffoonery of 3rd-tier candidate Jack Lombardi openly asking Lauf on Sunday to leave the race on Twitter because of the manufactured event Saturday night, obscured his optics, along with posting tweets in the wee hours this morning wanting to know where Lauf was.
The buffoonery is laughable and if he were serious he would have approached Lauf’s campaign privately.
He did what he did as a publicity stunt.
Throw that in with his gaslighting he tried with me on Twitter throughout the day yesterday (a real serious candidate would not be tweeting like he was yesterday, again, he’s 3rd-tier).
But the appearance of cyber-stalking, IMHO is creepy, and betrays Lombardi for the lack of maturity he really is.
Did James Marter do the same who was also at the event and spoke?
And also, Saturday night’s Reagan Dinner was not a “forum” where questions are asked from the floor of candidates on stage.
It was simply speeches, where each candidate on stage, and the stage was shared with candidates for U.S. Senate and governor, to address the attendees after the meal for up to 10 minutes.
Questions from the floor not allowed during the candidates speeches.
Lauf was at the event, and worked the room, and anyone could have asked questions at that time of her, and the other candidates.
She’s not afraid to answer questions, and we all know Lauf is a terrific public speaker, which makes the reason she had to leave all the more believable.
As far as events and the plans even weeks in advance, things change, and if Lauf says she had to be in DC (and she was at North Carolina the previous weekend of April 3, and Mar-a-Lago on April 10), she needed to be in DC. and a top-tier candidate knows how to multi-task.
Doesn’t betray “poor math and time management skills”, it’s real life of the duty of a top-tier candidate for Congress, or what a member of Congress must actually do.
Kinzinger himself has shown scheduling faux pas, like with the ERA vote he missed (2nd year in row), and he didn’t make arrangements for a NO vote to be cast by proxy, which was an option this year.
As far as Lauf’s debates, we’ve talked about that before, and Correcting you graded her more favorably when she went head-to-head against Cristina Castro last September.
She has made improvements since then.
Again, it’s a long road to March 15, and when the time is right for a head-to-head with candidates to take place, it will take place.
But one final note about debates, and where the IL-16 primary campaign stands right now. And this is my own opinion, Catalina Lauf with last week’s FEC filings, emerged as the only viable alternative to Adam Kinzinger.
Lombardi didn’t even file his report due to lack of fundraising, Marter is Marter, and Dr. di Amore I see as a shill candidate against Lauf, and lesser against the other men.
Until Lombardi, Marter, di Amore and anyone else emerges with real metrics, like fundraising, their Financial Disclosure or a credible independent poll, Lauf should not share the stage with anyone unless Adam Kinzinger is on stage, too.
That’s just campaign politics when running against a 6-term incumbent where Lauf is at right now.
Thanks for all the info Mr. Lopez, I appreciate it.
But what are the chances Bad Kinzinger will be the odd man out when the musical chairs music is silenced and IL loses a Cong. Seat thanks to the exodus of smart citizens?
You’re right about the questioning.
Lauf did not speak to the room though?
She left before candidates introduced themselves?
She did not speak to the crowd?
Jack Lombardi is a hard worker.
He’s got a lot to say and is young.
Marter is a patriot who knows the Constitution and would follow it!
I’m interested in the woman do or who is also running.
We need someone who can address healthcare not the sick are we have now.
She’s also young, and her name is Dr. Leona Di Amore, also former military.