Revealed: former colleagues claim Kevin Roberts told them he killed a neighbor’s pit bull around 2004

Revealed: former colleagues claim Kevin Roberts told them he killed a neighbor’s pit bull around 2004

The man behind Project 2025, the rightwing policy manifesto that includes calls for a sharp increase in immigrant deportations if Donald Trump is elected, told university colleagues about two decades ago that he had killed a neighborhood dog with a shovel because it was barking and disturbing his family, according toformer colleagues who spoke to the Guardian.

Kevin Roberts, now the president of the Heritage Foundation, is alleged to have told colleagues and dinner guests that he killed a neighbor’s pit bull around 2004 while he was working as a still relatively unknown history professor at New Mexico State University.

…

Two other people – a professor and her spouse - recall hearing a similar account directly from Roberts at a dinner at his home. Three other professors also said they heard the account at that time from the colleagues who said they had heard it directly from Roberts.

None recall Roberts – who worked at the university as an assistant professor from 2003 to 2005 – ever saying that the dog he allegedly said he killed was actively threatening him or his family.

  • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
    103·
    2 months ago

    I member when Mitt Romney got backlash for puttting his dog in a travel carrier for a road trip.

    Apparently Republicans didn’t think that went far enough, and now we have at least two who have bragged about murdering dogs multiple times. Truely the party of family values!

  • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
    80·
    2 months ago

    Seems like a lot of GOP folks out there brutally killing pets and maybe some projection with this weird ass accusation of immigrants being the ones harshing on pets?

  • macarthur_park@lemmy.world
    75·
    2 months ago

    Republicans have been spreading racist lies about immigrants eating dogs, meanwhile they have:

    Kristi Noem: shot a puppy in a gravel pit (and then a goat to fully sate her bloodlust).

    Head of project 2025: beat a dog to death with a shovel.

    RFK Jr: claims to be willing to eat almost any animal “except dogs”. Given his whale and bear carcass stories, I assume it’s just a matter of time before the dog eating story drops.

    • 2pt_perversion@lemmy.world
      42·
      2 months ago

      The Kristi Noem one, when I heard the news I assumed it was just unavoidable farm life type of shit. Like the dog got rabies or seriously injured and putting it down was just the right thing to do…

      Then I read the story and holy hell that woman shot a perfectly healthy dog out of spite. South Dakota has animal shelters, Kristi, you psycho.

      • holycrap@lemm.ee
        36·
        2 months ago

        Puppy trained to retrieve pheasants goes after neighbor’s chickens. A puppy can’t tell the difference. Everything about that was infuriating.

        • 2pt_perversion@lemmy.world
          42·
          2 months ago
          1. Take dog that’s not well trained to a pheasant hunt.
          2. Get mad at dog for not being a well-trained pheasant hunting dog.
          3. Realize you don’t have enough cages to take all the dogs back safely. Leave the untrained dog in the back of your truck hoping it jumps out and dies or runs away because you’re mad at it.
          4. Stop by a friend with chickens. OMG the untrained dog that was left unsecured in the back of your truck that you’ve been teaching to hunt birds has killed some chickens.
          5. Shoot the dog because you’re angry.
          6. Shoot a goat as well because you’re already on a rampage and hate it too.
  • Pasta Dental@sh.itjust.works
    15·
    2 months ago

    🫨🫨I can’t wait for the articles saying Republicans eat the innocent dogs of the good American citizens! That will happen right! The articles about the Haitians weren’t just racist, right?.. Right?!

  • son_named_bort@lemmy.world
    13·
    2 months ago

    If I had a nickel for every prominent conservative during this election season who bragged about killing a dog, I’d have 2 nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

    • Zahille7@lemmy.world
      13·
      2 months ago

      I’m almost afraid to ask how, but let’s see your racism for what it is.

      How is “pitbull” used as a racist dog whistle?

      • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 months ago

        It is and was common to outlaw pit bulls in cities across the US on the misinformed grounds that they are aggressive. This was absolutely the case around the time this shit stain allegedly did whatever he claimed to do. What this law did in practice was to make it difficult for black and brown people to get occupancy permits in those municipalities, those who most commonly had them. Neighbors could use the ordinance to harass and complain about other “unsavory” neighbors. This guy is a piece of shit for killing a dog and for being a racist scumbag. Bragging about it and you don’t think they’re intrinsically related?

        • Zahille7@lemmy.world
          12·
          2 months ago

          I get what you’re saying, but I honestly feel like you’re being disingenuous here. Only in exaggerated media (shows, movies, music videos) do predominantly POC own pit bulls, which is where the stereotype came from.

          Where I live, it’s mostly white people that own pit bulls and such. And it’s also those same white people that are mostly impacted by such legislation. Personally, I think it’s utter bullshit to ban an entire breed of dog and I’ve seen so, SO, SO many people literally saying all put bulls should be put down.

          I call those people “dog racists,” and they always fail to see how their line of thinking could extremely easily be switched to a group of people rather than dogs.

          • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
            3·
            2 months ago

            Just because people have done great work to undo that horrible unjust stereotype does not make the lived experience of people like me and so many others any less real.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              8·
              2 months ago

              Whether or not he’s a racist, a pit bull is a pit bull. My dog is half pit bull. Does that make me a racist when I say it?

              • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
                1·
                2 months ago

                No. It does not. Like a lot of language, context is important. That’s part of the definition of a dog whistle. Pit bull is still a trigger word, hell most if not all animal shelters avoid using the term for dogs like yours and mine. They call them terrier mixes instead.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                  10·
                  2 months ago

                  What are you even talking about?

                  If that was the breed of dog, what was he supposed to call it? Scotties are terriers. Jack Russels are terriers.

      • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        It’s not. What’s going on here is that dogs were bred for different things. Retrievers retrieve. Pointers point. Herders herd. Pitbulls lovers don’t like that pitbulls were bred to fight bulls and then bred to fight other dogs in pits. So they say “it’s all how you raise them” and any discussion about genetics they say is doggy racism, the same as human racism. Problem is dogs were specifically bred with artificial selection for hundreds of years (which is a ton considering dog years and big litters).

    • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      dig whistle

      I know I already replied with a joke, but just wanted to point out that it is the literal name for a common breed

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Pit_Bull_Terrier

      The American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) is a dog breed recognized by the United Kennel Club (UKC) and the American Dog Breeders Association (ADBA), but not the American Kennel Club (AKC).

      • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        Yep, I know! It still can be a coded way for white supremacists to complain about and harass neighbors. There were laws on municipal books outlawing pit bulls that were used against people of color.

        Edited the original comment for the spelling correction. Thanks!