President Donald Trump made history last week, when he became the first sitting president to address the annual Values Voter Summit hosted by the conservative Family Research Council (FRC). But rather than focus on the content of Trump’s speech, news outlets like Newsweek chose to malign the president’s decision to attend the event by citing a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), in which the progressive think tank labels the FRC as a “hate group” and “rouges’ gallery of the radical

right” for its “anti-LGBTQ” positions. “Donald Trump To Speak At Hate Group’s Annual Event, A First For A President” read the headline of the Newsweek piece that ran on Thursday. The article quoted SPLC president Richard Cohen, who told The Independent that Trump’s appearance at the event “is lending the legitimacy of his office to a hate group that relentlessly demonizes LGBTQ people and works to deny them of their equal rights.” “His appearance puts the lie to his campaign promise to be a friend to the LGBTQ community,” he said. “Bigotry is not an American value, and our president should speak out against it.” READ MORE


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