March 26, 2011: Tea Party Leader Advocates Military Coup against Obama

Laurie Roth, a tea party activist who co-hosts a radio talk show in Spokane, Washington (see February 2010), says she agrees with a suggestion to orchestrate and carry out a military coup d’etat against President Obama. Roth, who says she believes Obama is not an American citizen, says that Obama’s election “was not a shift to the left like Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton. This is a worldview clash. We are seeing a worldview clash in our White House. A man who is a closet, he’s more of a secular-type Muslim, but he’s a Muslim. He’s no Christian. We’re seeing a man who’s a socialist communist in the White House, pretending to be an American. I don’t believe, looking at all the evidence that I’ve looked at and interviewing Philip Berg (see August 21-24, 2008 and October 21, 2008) and [Leo C.] Donofrio (see October 31, 2008 and After) and Alan Keyes (see November 12, 2008 and After) and all the people that have sued him, he wasn’t even born here.” After further tarring Obama as a “socialist communist,” a “globalist,” and a “Manchurian Candidate” who wants to establish an Islamist Caliphate as a stepping stone to becoming an “international president,” Roth engages in a discussion with an audience member; the two discuss whether arresting Obama, impeaching him, or removing him via a military coup would be the best solution. Roth initially advocates impeachment, but when the audience member says Obama cannot be impeached because he is not a citizen, Roth asks for the member’s recommendation. The member responds: “By having the authority of five governors, five senators, march on the Supreme Court, who have abdicated their power and authority to simply render that he is not a legal president. And send the US Marshals to arrest him.” Roth says: “I couldn’t agree more. What we need is a move like Zelaya in Honduras. We need the military, we need somebody to do that, or impeachment, or something like you said. We need something more than we’ve had.” [Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, 10/19/2010; CDAPress (.com), 4/19/2011] Roth is referring to a military coup carried out in June 2009 against President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras, who was kidnapped from the presidential palace and forcibly exiled to Costa Rica. The Honduran Congress used a forged letter of resignation to accept Zelaya’s removal, and named one of Zelaya’s most prominent opponents as his “successor.” [BBC, 6/28/2009]