Source: Kevin Hagen / Getty
A Black Republican and former U.S. Congressman who unsuccessfully tried to get the first African American president impeached was recovering in the hospital after his motorcycle crashed following a protest demanding the state of Texas reopen for business. Allen West, who represented Florida in Congress for one term, suffered “a concussion, several fractured bones, and multiple lacerations,” according to one of the frequent updates about his condition that have been regularly posted to his Facebook account since the accident near Waco on Saturday.
The current candidate for the State Chair for the Republican Party of Texas said he was only “alive by the grace of God” after his motorcycle collided with another following the Texas Freedom Rally, where he led a caravan of motorcycles and cars from Dallas to Austin in a protest that was held with the purposes of “securing our civil liberties, defending the constitution, and making sure Texas is open for business,” according to a press release about the event.
It was one of the latest anti-lockdown protests in a series of them being held across the country as citizens demand a return to normalcy as the coronavirus continues to ravage the South. While Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has taken steps to re-open the state, it apparently isn’t being done as quickly as West and the other people who attended the Texas Freedom Rally. As of Sunday, there were more than 56,000 cases of the coronavirus in Texas and at least 1,500 people had died of complications from contracting it.
West is also a former Army colonel who was all but forced to retire in 2004 after he was charged with assaulting an Iraqi. The Nation reminded readers of how “West let the soldiers under his command beat the Iraqi man, whom West believed was involved in an attempt on his life. (No evidence was ever found implicating the man). Then, he staged a mock execution.”
As far as his political career goes, West has never kept it a secret how much he resents Barack Obama, who was already the president when West won his congressional election in 2010. Citing the infamous prisoner swap with the Taliban that freed U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, West called for Obama to be impeached in 2014.
“Obama’s breaking of the law in this case presents serious national security concerns — for all Americans,” West said at the time. “This is aiding and abetting the enemy, which goes along with the collusion of this administration with Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations and supplying weapons and arms to Islamists.”
West, ever the loyal Republican, was silent, however, when Donald Trump attempted to complete a prisoner swap with the Taliban just last month.
Still, we wish West a speedy recovery.
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