Representative Allen West, a Republican from Florida, called Democratic lawmakers ‘communists’ and it got him into a little bit of hot water recently. West was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a fundraising event for his district chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Saturday. The NAACP decided to cancel the event and told West that he was not welcome to attend when it is rescheduled in the future.
“There’s a certain statement he made about Communists,” Jerry Gore, president of the Martin County NAACP, said “That statement alone … we do not represent that type of atmosphere.”
The event, which was to be a banquet, is going to be rescheduled by the NAACP for September 15 and it will feature a brand new keynote speaker. A spokesperson for West told reporters in the area that he understood why he was no longer wanted as the keynote speaker at the event.
West met with constituents at a town hall meeting earlier in the month of April, which is when he got himself into trouble by saying that 80 House Democrats “are members of the Communist Party. It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.” Representative Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said in response that “not even Joe McCarthy would have said anything so stupid.” West did say afterwards that he has no regrets about the comments and the situation.