The majority of Democratic organizations give endorsement to Democrats and the same with Republican groups. So GOP groups giving an endorsement to incumbent President Donald Trump is not an outlier.
A Republican group or prominent party member not giving Trump their endorsement would be an indictment of his presidency. But an endorsement is more akin to an acknowledgment that Trump is the current GOP option.
If Senator Kamala Harris gets an endorsement, she was picked from almost two dozen options. Trump would be picked from only two with the second option, Bill Weld, having little chance of winning a primary against an incumbent.
But that did not stop the President from bragging about an endorsement from Log Cabin Republicans to a reporter who asked about his record on LGBTQ equality and recent actions to further erode LGBTQ rights.
Chris Johnson of The Washington Blade—the oldest LGBTQ focused newspaper in the United States—asked:
"Mr President, your administration has been taking steps to make it easier to discriminate against LGBT people in the workforce. Are you OK with those actions?"
The President's response was a bit disjointed.
In addition to not directly addressing Johnson's question, Trump seemed a bit confused by who exactly gave him the endorsement. He also embellished exactly what he got from Log Cabin Republicans and why.
Trump said:
"Well, you know, I just got an award and an endorsement yesterday from the, um, exec group. The group, they gave me the endorsement yesterday."
The President failed to explain what "award" he received because he did not get one.
But as he continued, he implied the group— that's name initially escaped him—had given him an award and endorsement because of how great his record is with LGBTQ equality.
"I was very honored to—is it Log Cabin? The Log Cabin Group—I was very honored to receive it."
"I’ve done very well with that community. Some of my biggest supporters are of that community and I talk to them a lot about it. I think I’ve done really very well with that community."
The President went on to mention his biggest LGBTQ supporters, or rather a supporter.
"As you know, Peter Thiel and so many others are with me all the way and they like the job I’m doing. I just got a big endorsement from the Log Cabin Group."
For those unfamiliar with the group, Log Cabin Republicans is an "organization that works within the Republican Party to advocate equal rights for lesbian and gay Americans" founded by conservative members of the LGBTQ community in 1977.
Based on the President's answer, he seems to be unfamiliar with the group as well.
The question was about a new proposal coming from the Trump administration that would make discrimination against LGBTQ people, women and minorities legal as long as the person claimed they discriminated because of their religion.
But Trump's response struck people more as 'some of my best friends are...but I can only name one' than an answer for the new policy.
The Washington Blade took exception with Trump not even being able to remember the name of the LGBTQ group that endorsed him. They shared a political cartoon by editorial cartoonist Mark Ranslem in response.
Ranslem/The Washington Blade
Others called out Trump on his boast about a fictional award, his second so far this week. Professional Trump fact checker Daniel Dale late of The Toronto Star and now on staff at CNN sounded the initial alarm.
The lie or misstatement caused people to once again question the President's mental acuity.
As previously reported, the endorsement by the Log Cabin Republicans was not unanimous within the organization.
The group has criticized the President over his policies targeting equal rights and equal access, especially his Transgender Military Ban.
The Republican incumbent gained an endorsement from a Republican organization. But he can hardly call it a ringing endorsement of his record on LGBTQ rights.
The book Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBTQ Rights Uprising that Changed America is available here.
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