Reprinted with permission from American Independent

The Republican Party's Senate campaign arm has given an award to a conservative activist who complained in 2012 that "racial hypocrisy" had increased in America under President Barack Obama and that "the heat has really been turned up by the Blacks in this country."

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) on August 17 announced that the National Republican Senatorial Committee's "Champion of Freedom" award had been given to Colorado-based activist Maria Weese. Scott is chair of the committee.

In a remote broadcast on earlier in August from his office, Scott described Weese as someone who "has promoted the ideas that have made this country prosperous, a country which she became a citizen of at age 21. People like Maria make our country so great."

Weese has in the past made racist comments about Blacks in America, President Barack Obama, and South African President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nelson Mandela.

In a July 1, 2012, post to her Facebook account, Weese wrote, "Every excuse is being made to create the impression that the Whites in America are still persecuting and suppressing the Blacks in America. ... It must be an election year and you can see the wagons circling around Obama led by the Blacks, the far left liberalists, the unions, environmental activists, the members of the American communist party, the minorities getting government checks in the mail, the fat cats in the entertainment industry, and the rest of the uninformed and naive liberals in this country."

In 2013, according to the website Colorado Pols, Weese wrote on Facebook after the death of South African President Nelson Mandela:

Call it for what it is ,
Mandela was a Communist and and Obama is too….
Mandela won an election based on his race Obama won an election based on his race…
Mandela was made famous world wide by media for his Marxist ideology, Obama was made famous world wide for the media hiding his Marxist ideology…
Mandela endured prison Obama endured Michelle….

While the "Champion of Freedom" award is new in 2021, Weese is not the first person to receive it, nor the first with a history of racist comments.

The first person given the award was former President Donald Trump, who received it in April despite his own legacy of racist remarks.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.