Washington Democrat Darcy Burner has talked to “actual members of the Taliban,” she says.
It’s not everyday that you hear a U.S. House candidate flaunt her experience yammering with America’s enemies. But Burner — who is running for the open seat in Washington state’s 1st congressional district — seemed comfortable weaving the mention into an answer about her immigration reform plans, should she be elected.
“I do think we need to secure our borders. I’ve talked to, unfortunately, actual members of the Taliban, who are very bad people,” Burner claimed at a Friday candidate’s forum, and in video obtained by The Daily Caller. “I do not want them sending people here with bombs.”
A noble position to be sure. But when did she chat with the Taliban?
“She was a member of the Afghanistan Study Group,” elaborated Burner’s press aide, Dean Nielsen, in an email to TheDC. “As such, she was invited to an international conference in Berlin in November 2011 where she participated in a number of panel discussions, including with the Taliban.”
Burner, a former executive at Microsoft, is an all-star among staunch liberals and has been lauded by the far-left bloggers at Daily Kos as “one of our own,” “a champion of progressive causes,” and “a true progressive.”
In fact, reported Seattle-area blog PubliCola, Burner is much further left than President Barack Obama. In at least two August 2011 tweets, Burner referred to the president as a Republican for negotiating with the opposing party on Medicare and Social Security reforms.
“In 2008, I gave thousands to @BarackObama. OFA [Obama for America] called recently for $, I told them not 1 dime: I don’t support Republicans,” reads one tweet.
“@BarackObama isn’t a bad Democrat — because he’s not a Democrat. He’s a Republican. In that context his choices make sense,” she said in another, though she said she intends to vote for Obama in November.
She also called for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder in another tweet, reported PubliCola.
Burner’s last two runs for the House — in 2006 and 2008 — saw her fall by 3 and 6 percentage points, respectively, to Republican Rep. Dave Reichert.
She lead her present-day Democratic opponents by a huge margin at the end of January, according to her campaign’s internal polling.