Ruh-roh. Erick Erickson, editor of RedState.com, has some explaining to do. It all started when he sent out the following tweet on the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor:
Twitter users far and wide ridiculed the tweet and mocked his family’s annual racist tradition and noted many of the people who lived in the area around Pearl Harbor at the time (and still do today) are Asian-American. Not to mention the fact that many countries in Asia were allies of the United States in WWII.
Just when Erick thought the drama was likely dying down, J.K. Trotter at Gawker reached out to his mother to confirm the story:
“I’ve never heard that before,” Erickson’s mother, Kathleen Erickson, told Gawker when we asked about Erickson’s statement in a telephone conversation this morning. After we read aloud her son’s tweet to her, she insisted, “Whatever you heard, I think that is completely your idea, I have never heard of that before. Somebody is making that up about my son.”
Well, that sounds a little different than Erick’s story. Reached again by Gawker, Erick’s mother went further:
Ms. Erickson added, “As far as Asian food, we love Asian food. As far as the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, I’m very grateful that many of the Japanese people became Christian. We know many people who are Japanese, they are a very nice people.”
So, what say Erick Erickson now?
Ah. Now he seems to be insinuating it was a one-time event. But that isn’t what he’s been saying on Twitter for years.
So, which is it? A total lie? A one-time event? Or an annual racist tradition to never eat Asian food on December 7th?
And one final note and a little food for thought—his defense seems to be that his mother, at age 73, is too elderly to possibly remember anything—yet nearly all the candidates he supports want to raise the retirement age in this country to age 70 years old. And the candidate he was eagerly defending just two days ago, Donald Trump, is 69 years old. He’d be 74 at the end of his (never going to happen) first term. Does Erick consider him to be too elderly for the office?