Conservative Scholar Disciplined For Suggesting Obama Be 'Hung, Drawn And Quartered'

Conservative Scholar Suggests Obama Be 'Hung, Drawn and Quartered'

WASHINGTON -- An immigration policy analyst from a think tank often cited by Republicans suggested to a tea party crowd last week that President Barack Obama should be executed.

Stephen Steinlight, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Highlands Tea Party in Florida that efforts to impeach Obama did not go far enough because "there's no court that's going to stop Obama from doing anything."

"We all know, if there ever was a president that deserved to be impeached, it’s this guy. Alright? And I wouldn’t stop. I would think being hung, drawn and quartered is probably too good for him," Steinlight said, according to ThinkProgress. "But you know, this man who wants to rule by the use of a pen, a telephone, let us not forget his teleprompter … the fact is that it would backfire very badly and we’ve got to be grownups and accept that we can’t have everything we want, you know, [like] his head on a skewer.”

The blog Imagine 2050 first noticed Steinlight's comments, which were posted July 20 on YouTube by Highlands Tea Party Chairman John Nelson. That video has since been removed, although The Huffington Post viewed it while it was still publicly available. The site Right Wing Watch also captured part of his remarks and re-posted it on YouTube. (Watch the clip above.)

When reached for comment, Steven Camarota, director of research at CIS, distanced the organization from Steinlight's remarks.

"Steve was speaking figuratively and hyperbolically, obviously, for effect. In that respect his intemperate comments were similar to those who are often critics of President Bush, and I would say like those comments, they are ill-advised," Camarota told The Huffington Post. "I would also say that the Center for Immigration Studies does not in fact support drawing and quartering the president."

CIS officials also said Steinlight had been disciplined and instructed to avoid similar rhetoric in the future.

"I reprimanded him and put a reprimand in his personnel file," said CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian.

CIS is an organization that advocates reducing immigration into the United States. Steinlight has said that Hispanic immigration would lead to the "unmaking of America," and that Muslims should be banned from immigrating to the United States because they "believe in things that are subversive to the Constitution."

"Steve sometimes has used impolitic language and I admonished him to choose his words more carefully in the future," Krikorian said.

CIS research has been influential with Republicans, being cited by lawmakers such as House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).

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