David Vitter Backdates Letter Warning Obama About Refugee Threat

I sent that letter weeks ago! Didn't I?

Louisiana politics is always entertaining, and the governor’s race this year did not disappoint. As voters go to the polls today, David Vitter is hoping he can pull this one out. He has been hammering the scary Syrian refugee fearmongering tactic for the past week, even though his wife is the attorney for the Catholic Charities of Louisiana, the refugees’ main sponsor. When confronted with this, he denied it, and later claimed his wife didn’t know about it. 

His latest ad blitz includes the claim that he warned the Obama administration “weeks ago” about the danger those dastardly Syrian refugees pose — all 14 of them, the number actually settled in Louisiana so far. Louisiana blogger Robert Mann checked with the State department, who confirmed that they received the letter November 17, this past Tuesday

Here’s the text of an email to Robert Mann from the State Department:

The State Department on Tuesday received the letter dated September 28 along with a separate November 17 letter. The Department appreciates the concerns expressed by Senator Vitter – as it does those concerns of his congressional colleagues – and we will respond directly.

Nice move. There’s no evidence of the September 28 letter on Vitter’s website or anywhere else — until it popped up in his TV ads and attached to the November 17 letter.

Another good catch by Robert Mann — Vitter missed two of the three Senate Armed Services Committee meetings on Syria. His interest in this topic is a recent development, apparently.