Rachel is interviewing Bob Hunter right now, a member of the infamous C Street group known as The Family. Most recently, The Family has been closely linked with the Uganda anti-gay laws up for approval.
Dec 9 Transcript:
In his book on the Family, journalist Jeff Sharlet describes the President Museveni as, quote, "the Family‘s key man in Africa."
Members of the Family in Washington, including Congressman Joe Pitts and Bart Stupak, were instrumental in steering millions of U.S. dollars destined for fighting AIDS in Uganda into abstinence-only and anti-condom programs. After a lot of success using condom promotion, the American-encouraged change in policy is credited with a reversal and Uganda‘s once promising progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
But it‘s not just American politicians in the Family who are associated with "kill the gays" bill in Uganda. It‘s also American religious conservatives more broadly. Just as the Family has been politically influential in Uganda, American religious conservatives have been influential in promoting Ugandan pastors and politicians who are behind this scary bill.
The Family has ties to two recent scandals, John Ensign and Mark Sanford have both "received counseling" from The Family on C-St after their sex scandals broke.
Rachel reported in July:
"These are trying times, and, obviously, with Sen. Ensign and Gov. Sanford, everybody is disappointed," Wamp said. "There is no doubt about that."
Ensign, of Nevada, and Sanford were both rising stars in the Republican Party, and Wamp said their transgressions have hurt the GOP and the conservative movement.
"There's no question that the blows to the party and the conservative movement are painful," he said. "But that just goes to show that no group of people is exempt from these kinds of problems."
Beyond that, Wamp declines to offer any insight into how his housemates are grappling with the scandal. The C Street residents have all agreed they won't talk about their private living arrangements, Wamp said, and he intends to honor that pact.
"I hate it that John Ensign lives in the house and this happened because it opens up all of these kinds of questions," Wamp said. But, he said, "I'm not going to be the guy who goes out and talks."
Some of Rachel's coverage so far:
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