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Gay-hating GOP leader humiliates himself (again), this time with wild airplane conspiracy theory

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It’s always a shame when facts get in the way of a bigoted lie.

The antigay head of the Michigan GOP, Pete Hoekstra, shared a post from a Republican member of the state legislature who claims migrants are invading Detroit. The legislator, Matt Maddock, spotted three buses at the city’s airport and posted without evidence that they were filled with undocumented immigrants.

“Happening right now. Three busses just loaded up with illegal invaders at Detroit Metro. Anyone have any idea where they’re headed with their police escort?” he wrote, tagging Hoekstra.

Maddock, who calls himself the “most conservative state representative,” didn’t offer any evidence for his assertion. Nonetheless, his post quickly made its way around Twitter X.

It didn’t take much sleuthing, however, to determine Maddock was spreading racist nonsense.

Maxwell White, an executive producer for Detroit’s ABC affiliate, checked the flight logs and saw a plane from Spokane, Washington landed at Detroit Metro about an hour before Maddock’s post. He cross-referenced the flight log with an earlier photo from Wednesday, which showed members of the Gonzaga men’s basketball team boarding an Allegiant plane on their way to Detroit for this weekend’s March Madness tournament.

An Allegiant plane is clearly visible in Maddock’s picture.

“I have confirmed with Allegiant Air that this flight was carrying the Gonzaga basketball team,” White posted Thursday morning.

Whoopsie!

Despite exposing himself as a compete buffoon, Maddock was still posting about his unfounded conspiracy theory Thursday. “We know this is happening. 100,000’s of illegals are pouring into our country. We know it’s happening in Michigan,” he wrote.

While Maddock may not follow White, there’s no way he could miss the replies to his latest ridiculous salvo.

Hoekstra, for his part, didn’t miss Maddock’s tag. He retweeted the original post, which again, was completely wrong.

Michigan State Senate Majority Whip, Mallory McMorrow, called attention to Hoekstra’s amplification of Maddock’s crazy assumption before he could delete the evidence.

If McMorrow’s name sounds familiar, that’s because the Democratic lawmaker made one of the most impassioned stands against the GOP’s hate-mongering against LGBTQ+ kids we’ve ever seen. Two years ago, one of her Republican colleagues accused her in a fundraising email of grooming and sexualizing “kindergartners.”

McMorrow responded with scorching speech on the Senate floor, exposing Republicans’ desires to further marginalize LGBTQ+ youth.

Her words immediately went viral.

“I realized I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful, scheme, because you can’t claim you’re targeting marginalized kids in the name of ‘parental rights’ if another parent is standing up to say ‘no,'” she said.

Identifying herself as a “straight, white, Christian” woman, McMorrow said her support for the queer community is faith-based.

“Call me whatever you want… I know who I am,” she added. “I know what faith and service means, and what it calls for in this moment. We will not let hate win.”

Hoekstra, meanwhile, is all about spreading hate.

A longtime congressman, he co-sponsored nine anti-LGBTQ+ bills during his time in the House, including the Defense of Marriage Act. A founder of the Tea Party movement, he was also adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage, supported efforts to restrict same-sex adoption and refused to adopt a nondiscrimination policy against LGBTQ+ people in his own office, according to the Washington Post.

Hoekstra’s homophobic views were widely resurfaced in 2017, when Trump appointed him as Ambassador to the Netherlands. Though Hoekstra claimed to identify with the Dutch (he lived in the Netherlands until he was three), they didn’t want any part of him.

The first country to legalize same-sex marriage, the Netherlands boast a strong progressive history. When reporting on Hoekstra’s appointment, a Dutch newspaper said Trump “put a Dutchman in the Netherlands,” before adding Hoekstra is a “Dutchman from the Netherlands of the ’50s.”

At the time, a left-leaning Dutch politician said she would make it her priority to remind Hoekstra “his roots lie in a country that values tolerance, equality and inclusion.”

Judging by his social media activity, the lesson wasn’t received.

Related:

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