Rep. Duncan Hunter ad features conspiracy theorist who claimed immigrants are diseased and Muslims are trying to secretly conquer America

Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Rep. Duncan Hunter’s (R-CA) racist attack against Democratic opponent Ammar Campa-Najjar features a bigoted conspiracy theorist who has claimed that refugees and undocumented immigrants bring “diseases”; Muslim refugees entering the country represent a “stealth jihadi war of conquest and colonization of America”; and the Muslim Brotherhood has been “entrenched as a dangerous ‘Fifth Column’ throughout the US Government.”

A federal grand jury recently indicted Hunter and his wife on “charges they used $250,000 in campaign funds for personal use and filed false campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission to mask their actions,” as the Los Angeles Times summarized. Hunter has remained in office and been running a racist campaign against Campa-Najjar, a Christian who is of Palestinian and Latino descent.

Hunter recently released a bigoted ad calling Campa-Najjar a “security risk” and claiming that he’s trying to “infiltrate” Congress (Campa-Najjar passed multiple security clearances when he worked for the Obama administration). The ad includes video of Joseph R. John claiming on the conservative One America News Network (OANN) that the Democrat “is being supported by CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood” and it is “a well-orchestrated plan.” The ad’s line of attack is a main theme pushed by Hunter’s campaign.

The Washington Post’s Fact Checker section noted that “all the claims in the ad are false, misleading or devoid of evidence,” adding, “It’s worth mentioning that the OANN commentator quoted as saying ‘this is a well-orchestrated plan’ was not referring to Campa-Najjar’s candidacy but to the conspiracy theories that the Justice Department indicted Hunter for political reasons. A selective bit of editing, however, took this quote out of context.”

Joseph John is a retired Navy Reserve captain and a right-wing pundit who writes online commentary pieces. He also co-founded the Combat Veterans For Congress PAC.

He has a history of bigoted commentary, including about immigrants and Muslims. John has complained that American children have “to spend every day in public school rooms with refugees and Illegal Aliens” who have arrived from “unprincipled and undiscipled (sic) countries” and bring “communicable diseases” (that old trope is a myth). He's also written that allowing Muslim refugees into the country constitutes “the stealth jihadi war of conquest and colonization of America with a ‘peaceful’ invasion.”

He’s also a heavy promoter of the conspiracy theory that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the government. John has claimed that the Democratic Party placed “Muslim Brotherhood Terrorists into sensitive US Government security positions” and former President Barack Obama purposely tried to populate the country with “criminals and Radical Islamic Terrorists.”

Here are some of the worst remarks in his commentary pieces:

John: The Democratic Party platform supports “the continued placement of the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorists into sensitive US Government security positions.” [10/17/16]

John: “Obama has been filling the Washington bureaucracy ... with thousands of members of Muslim Brotherhood, and the Muslim Brotherhood front groups."

Obama has been filling the Washington bureaucracy, including DHS, the CIA, the FBI, DOD, the National Security Council, the White House, the State Department, every Department of Government, every US Intelligence Agency, and the US Armed Forces, with thousands of members of Muslim Brotherhood, and the Muslim Brotherhood front groups. Some of those front groups are the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Political Action Committee (MPAC), and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); a number of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood & their front groups have become a “Fifth Column.” [10/27/16]​

John: “The Muslim Brotherhood is better entrenched as a dangerous ‘Fifth Column’ throughout the US Government.”

Even though the head of the FBI said the Muslim Brotherhood is undermining democracy of the United States and supporting terrorism, for 8 years Obama appointed members of the Muslim Brotherhood Front Groups to highly sensitive leadership positions in US Intelligence, Federal Law Enforcement, National Security, and most Government Agencies creating a very dangerous “Fifth Column” in the US Government designed to destabilize the US Constitutional government. The Muslim Brotherhood is better entrenched as a dangerous “Fifth Column” throughout the US Government, than the Communist Party’s once was as an entrenched “Fifth Column” in the 1940s and 1950s. In addition, Obama and Clinton supported and assisted the Muslim Brotherhood in overthrowing friendly governments to the US in Egypt and Libya, and they established a gun running operation through Qatar to Syria via Turkey, in order to support the MB in deposing Assad and in Syria. [3/14/17]

John on allowing Muslim refugees into the country: “This is the stealth jihadi war of conquest and colonization of America with a ‘peaceful’ invasion.”

Those 10,000 Muslim refugees that Obama is dumping on the American people are mostly single young males, of the age where they can bear arms and mount attacks on American citizens and US facilities.

These 10,000 Muslim refugees will immediately start clamoring to bring in their wives, children parents, siblings and so forth. The total will amount to thousands of mostly hostile Muslims, over and above the first 10,000 refugees. This is the stealth jihadi war of conquest and colonization of America with a “peaceful” invasion, that Obama has been forcing on the Republic for nearly 7 years. [9/21/15]

John: Obama “is intentionally trying to create a society populated by lawlessness criminals and Radical Islamic Terrorists.”

Obama intentions (sic) can no longer be misunderstood, when the above actions are coupled with his refusal to secure the wide open southern border for nearly 7 years, he is intentionally trying to create a society populated by lawlessness criminals and Radical Islamic Terrorists, and create unrest throughout the country. By these last ditch actions before his term of office is over, and Obama’s actions are endangering the lives of millions of American citizens, further violating his oath of office where he twice swore to protect and defend the lives of all American citizens? [10/7/15]

John: Americans “would not want their children or grandchildren to spend every day in public school rooms with refugees and Illegal Aliens” who have arrived from “unprincipled and undiscipled (sic) countries” and carry ”communicable diseases."

Certain countries are dangerous to even walk around in---I have been in many of them. They have corrupt governments, fail to educate their youth, refuse to take care of their sick and dying, fail to properly feed their citizens, have many bad ideas about governing, have population involved in criminal activities with little concern about right or wrong, have broken cultures, have young males who don't respect women & rape them, in some countries young boys are sexual slaves, in some cultures male adults are engage in sexual activities with barn yard animals, some local water system are full of communicable diseases, in some countries roadside ditches are used as community latrines, some countries have populations who support terrorism, some cultures have extremely poor sanitary & personal hygiene standards, some countries support and promote the drug culture, some countries do not inoculate their citizens to prevent diseases, some countries are full of rubbish on the streets and in the water, some countries have diseased flies and mosquitos repeatedly infecting the population, etc.

When refugees and illegal aliens arrive in the US they are not quarantined, which is required by US Federal Immigration Law and US Public Health Regulations, as immigrants once were at Ricker’s Island. Illegal Aliens have been introducing communicable diseases, that were once eliminated, back into the public school systems. Diseases that were once under control are being exposed to public school children, like ring worm, mumps, Scalia, polio, hepatitis, malaria, scarlet fever, typhus, small pox, yellow fever, etc. Illegal immigrants, without vaccinations, have not only infected school children, they have been infecting many US Border Patrolmen.  

Law abiding and tax paying Americans would not want their children or grandchildren to spend every day in public school rooms with refugees and Illegal Aliens, who arrived from the above listed types of unprincipled and undiscipled (sic) countries, who have not been quarantined to detect and treat communicable diseases? The Progressives, elected members of Congress, the Washington elite, and the well-known TV anchors from the left of center liberal media establishment, send their children to private schools; they don’t have to worry about having their children get infected with communicable diseases, nor to be held back in their education in very slow moving public schools classes because the illegal aliens and refugees can’t speak, write, nor understand English. [1/16/18]

John: “Criminal Illegal Aliens” have been “populating over 300 Sanctuary Cities, who have been stealing autos, burglarizing home (sic), robbing businesses, holding up individuals, dealing drugs, trafficking in white slavery, and killing thousands of Americans.”

President Elect Trump developed a relationship and trust with

...

16 Thousands of family members/friends who have been devastated by the estimated 3 million protected “convicted” criminal Illegal Aliens populating over 300 Sanctuary Cities, who have been stealing autos, burglarizing home (sic), robbing businesses, holding up individuals, dealing drugs, trafficking in white slavery, and killing thousands of Americans for 8 years. [12/5/16]​

In reality, as The Washington Post reported, “Undocumented immigrants are considerably less likely to commit crime than native-born citizens, with immigrants legally in the United States even less likely to do so.

John: The United States is being harmed by the “continued invasion of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens." [4/9/18]