Controversial radio host pushing anti-Rubio protests in Florida

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
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A controversial South Florida radio host named Joyce Kaufman is among the voices helping stir up attendance for protests of Sen. Marco Rubio tomorrow in Florida.

Floridians for Immigration Enforcement (FLIMEN) is planning the protests. They’ve created an anti-Rubio video called “Amnesty Man,” and previously posted billboards attacking Gov. Rick Scott.

And Kaufman is among those using her perch to help generate protesters:

According to the group’s website, “Citizens are called to protest Senator Marco Rubio’s betrayal
at the St. Lucie County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner.”

There will be other events.

Attendees are also asked to tell friends, and, “bring a sign.”

If Kaufman’s name sounds familiar, she was briefly hired to be Allen West’s Chief of Staff, before almost immediately being forced to resign.

A former Zero Population Growth advocate, Kaufman hosts a show on WFTL-AM (850) broadcasting from Fort Lauderdale.

And she has a track record of making incendiary remarks, including the remark that prompted her resignation from West’s staff: “If ballots don’t work, bullets will.”

Other Kaufman hits include this: “If you commit a crime while you’re here, we should hang you and send your body back to where you came from, and your family should pay for it.”

Speaking of immigrants, Kaufman reportedly said: “They live, you know, 10 to a household; they bring disease with them.”

This is not to say that anyone who opposes the immigration reform bill is in the Kaufman camp. But it is to say that some of the harshest voices and most rabid opponents — the people ginning up support for this protest, for example — hardly fit within the mainstream of conservative thought.

Interestingly, Rubio is also facing protests from Democratic groups over his vote against gun control.

Should be a great week in sunny Florida for the senator.

Matt K. Lewis