March 23, 2017 11:01 AM UTC

Tom Tancredo Behind Racist Joe Salazar Smear?

• 9 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #2: Salzman still on the case:

Jimi MacFarland of N Jeffco TeaParty tells me he posted ISIS Salazar meme, approves of it, but didnt make it. Won't say who did #copolitics

— Jason Salzman (@BigMediaBlog) March 23, 2017

For our part, we stand by our original assertion that the Salazar/ISIS graphic was made by the same person who made various graphics for Tom Tancredo shown below. This shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.

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UPDATE: Via Jason Salzman, Tom Tancredo denies being the source of this graphic:

.@ttancredo tells me he’s not responsible for Salazar ISIS meme & doesnt like it #copolitics

— Jason Salzman (@BigMediaBlog) March 23, 2017

So, maybe he needs to call his graphic guy.

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House Bill 17-1230, the Ralph Carr Freedom Protection Act, passed the Colorado House yesterday after debate turned nasty–with freshman Rep. GOP Phil Covarrubias defending the internment of Japanese-Americans as a way to disparage Democrats’ choice to name the bill after Colorado’s wartime Gov. Ralph Carr. Carr, as local history students know well, stood up for Japanese-American internees arriving in Colorado under threats of violence.

Today, the bill’s sponsor Rep. Joe Salazar was subjected to a rather shocking racist and xenophobic attack from an anonymous social media source. Pardon our reposting, which isn’t meant to endorse its objectionable message:

So, this graphic appeared on the Twitter #copolitics channel, posted by an anonymous account that seems to be devoted to attacking Rep. Dan Pabon. But if you take a look at the colors and font used to make this Photoshopped image, there’s somebody else out there posting graphics that are strikingly similar–and not anonymously at all:

You can see clearly the same typeface being used in these Photoshopped graphics, produced either by former Rep. Tom Tancredo personally or someone working for him. Also, that’s the same pic of Rep. Salazar in the image above as is Photoshopped onto the ISIS commander in the latest image. All things being equal, this is about as close to being caught red-handed as the anonymous internets allow without a court order.

As anybody who knows his history knows well, Tancredo doesn’t shy away from controversial statements–he’s made a career of them, after all. So it’s interesting to see Tancredo hiding behind an anonymous Twitter troll to lob this kind of nastiness at Rep. Salazar.

Maybe even Tom Tancredo realizes when it’s going too far? Because this latest insult against Rep Salazar certainly does.