TULSA, Okla.–Eddie Huff, a candidate for Tulsa City Council, made a series of Facebook posts in 2015 seemingly defending the Confederate flag and demeaning soldiers captured during war.
These public posts, made over several months, come to light weeks before the election.
The post regarding prisoners of war came on July 18, 2015, in the midst of the presidential race. Huff took to Facebook to respond to Trump’s comments that Arizona Senator John McCain was “not a war hero”.
Huff wrote he did not think Trump “went far enough”.
“McCain is and was not a ‘HERO’,” the post goes on to say. “A real hero saves the day by his actions.”
John McCain was captured after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam war. He survived for six years as a prisoner in horrifying conditions. Many consider McCain’s actions heroic because, despite rounds of torture and abuse, he refused to provide his captors any information about US military locations or strategies.
However, Huff went a step further than Trump, and asserted that military members who are captured or harmed are not heroes because they are simply “doing their job”.
“We have cheapened the word hero by applying it to people who do nothing more than their job. Those are often dangerous jobs, but it is their job.”
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, nearly 80,000 captured U.S. soldiers are still missing from previous conflicts. The department predicts at least 38,000 will never have their remains recovered and returned to their families.
Tulsa City Council Candidate Eddie Huff praised the Confederate flag in multiple posts
Other posts from around the same time period seem to show Huff defending the confederate flag in the wake of the Charleston shooting.
On June 17, 2015, white supremacist Dylan Roof walked into Mother Emmanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston. He joined a prayer group of Black congregation members in the basement, who welcomed him in to their Bible study.
As they began to lead the group in prayer, Roof pulled out a handgun and began shooting–killing nine and wounding another. Roof’s manifesto revealed he perpetrated the shooting in hopes of starting a race war.
In the weeks that followed, state leaders in South Carolina grappled with removing the confederate flag from the State Capitol. The flag, long a symbol of racism and support for slavery, was eventually removed following a vote of the legislature.
On July 3rd, 2015, two weeks after the attack, Huff began making bizarre posts praising the confederate flag.
In the first post, Tulsa City Council Candidate Huff seemingly defended his decision to make the confederate flag his Facebook cover photo.
“You will notice that I have chosen to use the Confederate “Battle Flag” as my cover photo,” Huff wrote. “I do this because when I was a young radical in the late 60s and early 70s, this was not known as the Confederate flag. It was the “Rebel Flag”.
Huff continued, saying “I still have that spirit of rebellion in me, but a spirit of rebellion against the spirit and “prince of this world”.”
“I refuse to conform and be a sheep or slave to those who would want to control us,” Huff wrote, seemingly in response to those calling for the flag’s removal. “They mean no good, they do great harm.”
Huff’s Claims on Aryan Leaders and Confederate Flag vs. Reproductive Healthcare
Two weeks later, on July 17th, Huff again posted about the ongoing controversy surrounding the confederate flag in South Carolina. He wrote “Dylan Roof may yet be successful in… starting a race war”, because of efforts to remove the flag.
Huff said “the head of an Aryan group” contacted him about a blog post he wrote on an Ohio white supremacist march. He claimed this Aryan leader told him that the group’s plan was to commit acts that created controversy.
“The simple solution would have been to ignore the flag, give it no press and watch it die,” Huff continued. “BUT NO, the media whores must get their feeling of ‘being on the cutting edge’, and people will react as predicted.”
He wrote that the push to remove the confederate flag from South Carolina’s capitol is an example of “black folks attacking white peoples property”.
On August 4th of that same year, six weeks after the massacre at Mother Emmanuel, Huff posted an image of the confederate flag next to the Planned Parenthood symbol.
Above the two images was the sentence “Which symbol killed 90,000 Black babies last year?”
Anti-soldier, pro-confederate posts emerge with weeks to go in Huff’s campaign for city council
These and other posts come to light as Huff ramps up his effort to unseat incumbent councilor Lori Decter-Wright.
Amid Huff’s postings about soldiers and the confederate flag, he also made posts calling Muslims the “real enemies” and calling President Barack Obama “an illegal alien“.
Huff, a strong Trump supporter, has seen an influx in backing from far-right groups and prominent GOP officials.
The evangelist and former broadcaster recently posted a photo with U.S. Representative Kevin Hern, who endorsed his candidacy. He also received the backing of Matt Pinnell, the Oklahoma Lt. Governor.
It’s unclear whether Hern, Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell, or other groups or individuals endorsing Huff were aware of these or other comments when providing their endorsement.
The Black Wall Street Times has reached out to Mr. Huff’s campaign for comment and will update this article accordingly.
This is the PUREST FORM of “Yellow Journalism”. Nice trick in saying Huff “seemingly’ says several time. I wonder if this is enough to keep you from getting sued.
Can you please provide full context where Huff actually “Praised the CONFEDERATE flag”? Or where he ever mentioned Dylan Roof in a positive light or defended his actions? Would loved to see that.