{"id":52352,"date":"2020-08-04T11:43:26","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T17:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-house-candidates-distancing-from-cowboys-for-trump-leader\/"},"modified":"2020-08-04T17:43:26","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T17:43:26","slug":"u-s-house-candidates-distancing-from-cowboys-for-trump-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-house-candidates-distancing-from-cowboys-for-trump-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. House candidates distancing from Cowboys for Trump leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"In
In this 2019 file photo, Otero County Commissioner and Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin denounces gun control and pro-abortion rights bills in the New Mexico State Legislature at a protest outside the Statehouse in Santa Fe. The group said this week seek arbitration in a fight with the New Mexico Secretary of State over fines and required reports.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Associated Press<\/p>\n

RIO RANCHO, N.M. \u2014 Two U.S. House hopefuls in a crucial southern New Mexico race are distancing themselves from a Cowboys for Trump leader who said some Black athletes should \u201cgo back to Africa\u201d as he faces mounting pressure to step down from his county commissioner\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n

Democratic U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small said in a statement late Saturday that recent remarks by Couy Griffin were \u201canother example of dangerous rhetoric\u201d coming from someone who also is an Otero County commissioner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis type of divisiveness strikes at the heart of our New Mexican values. His comments should be condemned by all, and I call on Yvette Herrell to join me in denouncing them,\u201d Torres Small said.<\/p>\n

The campaign of Republican former state lawmaker Yvette Herrell sought to distance itself from Griffin\u2019s remarks after Torres Small\u2019s statement. \u201cYvette also disagrees with Commissioner Griffin\u2019s comments,\u201d Herrell\u2019s campaign manager Michael Horanburg said.<\/p>\n

Griffin was a strong supporter of Herrell during her recent GOP primary. He also took a photo with Torres Small after he delivered a glass of sand that had brushed off then-White Sands National Monument for Christmas. The monument is now a national park.<\/p>\n

Last week, Griffin faced criticism after he posted a Facebook live video where he said some Black NFL players should \u201cgo back to Africa\u201d if they wanted to stand for \u201cLift Ev\u2019ry Voice and Sing\u201d \u2014 traditionally known as the Black national anthem \u2014 as a gesture of solidarity against racial injustice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to destroy our country. They want to talk about playing a Black national anthem before football games? I got a better idea, why don\u2019t you go back to Africa and form your little football teams over in Africa and you can play on a(n) old beat-out dirt lot and you can play your Black national anthem there. How about that?\u201d Griffin said in the video. \u201cThis is America, we play the National Anthem in America today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin also offered to give people of color what he called a \u201c101\u201d lesson on racial identity and said anyone who does not identify as \u201cAmerican\u201d first or opposes the Second Amendment right to bear arms should leave the U.S. or \u201cgo home.\u201d Statements like \u201cgo back to where you came from\u201d is a racist insult aimed for decades at immigrants and African Americans in the United States.<\/p>\n

Griffin told The Associated Press he used a poor choice of words in the video but said he was not a racist. He told The AP that after news of the video spread the reelection campaign of President Donald Trump told him it would be distancing itself from Cowboys for Trump.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some residents in Otero County have begun a recall petition against Griffin to remove him from his county commissioner\u2019s seat. Critics say Griffin has embarrassed the county and often travels out-of-state with no benefit to area residents.<\/p>\n

Griffin posted another Facebook live video Monday and questioned the motives behind the recall. \u201cWhat\u2019s the reason for the recall? Because you don\u2019t like the live video feeds? Because you don\u2019t like Trump?\u201d Griffin said. \u201cI\u2019m sorry for all of the above if that offends you but it\u2019s just who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republican Party of New Mexico has declined to comment on Griffin.<\/p>\n

Griffin said he would step down if recalled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Griffin: Some Black athletes should \u2018go back to Africa\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52352"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}