This Republican Candidate Insults Blacks And Mexican-Americans — and Wants Muslims In “Internment Camps”
MIDWOOD — A Republican candidate for Congress in Brooklyn has insulted women, African-Americans, Mexicans, and LGBT people in a torrent of offensive tweets — and said that his potential Muslim constituents in the diverse 9th Congressional District belong in “internment camps.”
The candidate, Leibish Earl Blumenfrucht, who also goes by Earl Blum, described Parkland shooting survivor and activist Emma Gonzalez as a “bald-headed lesbian prick” in a since-deleted tweet.
Blumenfrucht, a 24-year-old political Trump supporter who hasn’t formally filed to run for the seat, has tweeted (and continues to tweet) the racist, Islamophobic, anti-gay, misogynist, and Obama birther comments under his twitter handle @jewishright.
Blumenfrucht says he lives in Midwood and is running as a conservative.
“I’m an outsider who isn’t taking any special interest money and will work to advance policies and legislation that benefits our community, like fixing the horrible postal service in our district, something Yvette promised and was unable to fix,” he told BKLYNER in an interview.
“I think when the people/voters see my policies put forth, they will ignore the smear campaign over my tweets and vote for change,” Blumenfrucht said. “Change is long overdue. Our former Mayor Rudy Giuliani had a bad [reputation] as a racist, homophobic, and anti-Muslim, and he was able to win voters who are a lot smarter than the media makes them out to be. They will vote for substance not based on innuendo.”
His pinned tweet is his announcement of his congressional run from last May.
He has also criticized Clarke, saying he was tired of her “Marxism.”
And that’s among his milder statements.
Blumenfrucht responded and claimed that President Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya, adding to the false birther movement started by President Trump, when in fact he is not.
Asked about that false smear, Blumenfrucht said: “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that tweet. I stand by it 100 percent. There are a lot of folks with expertise on documentation who claim BHO birth certificate was forged and our president is under that impression.”
Blumenfrucht also describes himself as a supporter of the LGBT community, but his tweets say otherwise:
“I wasn’t stating my personal opinion,” Blumenfrucht told us. “I was pointing out the hypocrisy of mainstream conservatives who tout the constitution & have now flipped sides because it’s politically inconvenient.”
“Ok. Banning liberals from serving was an obvious joke, not a policy suggestion,” Blumenfrucht told BKLYNER, “and my views on transgender people are based on science and religion.”
After Parkland, Florida shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez spoke at the CNN Town Hall on guns, Blumenfrucht didn’t hold back his feelings, calling her a “bald headed lesbian prick.” The tweet has since been deleted.
“I ended up taking down that tweet but that doesn’t mean liberal activist is off limits because she’s lesbian,” Blumenfrucht said.
Blumenfrucht has also tweeted that “no equal pay” and “stay[ing] in the kitchen” are “traditional roles of females.”
“That aligns with my religion. I’m a traditionalist, extremely anti-feminist and believe [that by] keeping women in the roles they always had, a lot of problematic situations would be avoided,” he defended himself.
When we asked Blumenfrucht if he supports equal pay, he responded, “Absolutely not.”
“The only weapon women have to their advantage in the workforce is by offering to work for less since statistically, they are less talented,” he told us. “Equal pay will force employers to hire more men based on talent and financial aspects, which in turn rewards people who discriminate for irrelevant reasons. The whole argument of equal pay for less labor is insane…”
He refers to the women’s movement as “vagina resistance women’s rights movement.” When we asked him if he would say he’s misogynist, he said, “I reject all labels.” He then went on to say that he probably has “the most respect towards women of anyone seeking public office.”
“The feminist movement inflicted more harm toward women than Harvey Weinstein did,” he added.
Misogynist comments and stating he has the most respect for women don’t coincide with each other. When asked if he realizes that, he defended himself by saying, “Actions speak louder than tweets. I made a couple of controversial in jest comments to show I’m a traditionalist. Rapey Bill is considered the god of the feminist movement, so no matter what I say, I won’t do well with the women voting bloc, as I’m running as a conservative.”
“Any research into my personal life will show I have the utmost respect for all people,” he said.”
Does he believe women should be allowed to vote? “Honestly I’d be better off politically if women weren’t able to vote but once it was ratified by the constitution, it can’t and shouldn’t be changed,” he said.
He refers to women who speak out about sexual harassment experience as “attention seeking women.”
He asked us, “You believe that every woman who makes an accusation has to [be] believed at face value?”
“Of course they should be believed and crowned heroes like what happened to Harvey Weinstein’s accusers. However, what happened with Roy Moore was a coordinated attack to elect a hardcore leftist in Alabama,” he said.
He also tweeted his support for Bill O’Reilly who paid $32 million to settle sexual harassment allegations.
“I’ve voted for Donald Trump and watch Fox News even though they made sexual harassment payouts,” he said. “[Settling] an allegation doesn’t equal guilt. There was no proof against Bill O’Reilly. It was a times smear campaign after he mocked crazy Maxine.”
He also wants President Trump to “punish women for killing their babies.”
“Trump floated the idea of punishing women for killing their children (fetuses) not my suggestion,” he said. “Whatever he would put forth i.e. a fine or some other proposal, I would support.”
Blumenfrucht also seems to have an issue with Muslims. He believes in surveilling Muslim Americans and banning all “practicing Muslims from residing in Democratic countries.”
“Islam isn’t compatible with our country,” he told us. “Muslim Ban got Trump elected. We have to monitor mosques, expel hate-preaching imams to keep Americans safe!”
He has also tweeted that he’ll feel safe once Muslims are put into “internment camps.”
“All Muslims that believe in Shariah – there should be an option to put them in internment camps, any steps necessary to keep Americans alive,” he said. “As to ‘peaceful’ Muslims, of course, they don’t deserve to have their constitutional right to freedom of religion stripped away because of a lot of bad apples.”
“Notice the reason I said we cannot punish every Muslim is because the constitution restricts us,” he said. “However, a blanket ban on Muslim migration is well within executive bounds.”
Blumenfrucht’s Twitter account is also filled with racist comments regarding black people and Mexicans.
He agreed with President Trump’s “shithole countries” comment and is a supporter of the wall.
He referred to Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man who was shot and killed by cops in Ferguson, Missouri, as an “overweight black thug.”
He claimed that the Black Lives Matter group is a “terrorist organization,” referred to its members as “Disgraceful thugs,” and said, “black lives don’t matter.”
On May 2017, he tweeted about “black students making a strong case for segregated schools.”
He’s in favor of not having to “share a country” with black people.
He referred to Mexicans as “invaders” numerous times.
He wants undocumented Mexicans to be rounded up and deported by a deportation squad.
Blumenfrucht also claimed Mexican immigrants are “destroying the values & culture this country was found on.”
When asked if he realizes that he is racist, he said, “I oppose any label which is thrown at people who want to put America first and reject political correctness.”
If you’ve still got the stomach for it, here’s where Blumenfrucht stands on other policy issues affecting CD9:
Affordable Housing
“As a free market conservative, I generally oppose government assistance/intervention. However, we must take care of the needy,” he said. “If we loosen regulatory burdens on developers, more housing in my district will be built, causing the prices to drop; typical supply and demand scenario.”
Preventing Mass Shootings
“Hire ex-military and policeman to guard schools. Invest an insane amount of money towards protecting our future generation children by improving school security,” he said. “I support raising every legal aspect to 21 and barring bump stocks.”
He also does not believe every single teacher should be armed, “but some qualified teachers should have the ability to arm themselves,” he said.
Temporary Protected Status
When asked how he feels about it, he responded, “I stand with the president.”
“TPS is a temporary protection for immigrants from countries that suffered natural disasters,” he said. “Haiti and El Salvador have already recovered to pre-disaster state, so I believe their temporary deportation relief is up.”
Legalizing Marijuana
Blumenfrucht is a big proponent of marijuana legalization. “It’s not a dangerous drug and everyone does it anyway. So why should we punish our people for such a petty crime?”
Jumping Turnstiles
“That’s stealing from the city,” he said. But he doesn’t believe they should get arrested for it. Instead, they should be ticketed.
The MTA
“The MTA needs major renovation,” he said. “I’d vote for any bill put forth that would increase spending for New York’s transit.”
Does he believe he can win? Yes, even though he believes the state GOP might see this as an un-winnable case.
“Historically, this district has voted Democrat, Yvette is popular, Trump isn’t popular, and they considered young candidates inexperienced.”
“I don’t want to keep name-checking Trump, but he was also abandoned by the RNC.”
Blumenfrucht has not yet filed the required paperwork to appear on the ballot in November, mistakenly thinking he needed to be 25 to run. (You do need to be 25 to hold the office).
Adem Bunkeddeko and Joel Anabilah-Azumah are also challenging Clarke.
Blumenfrucht does not have a website, but he said that once people get to know him, they’ll love him.
“I believe if the orthodox Jewish turnout is high and I can make inroads with the African-American community, there’s a good shot I can unseat the incumbent.”
This story was updated to include Blumenfrucht’s full name.