Harry Kibler of RINO Hunt Had a Packed House Meeting
As Harry Kibler opened up the meeting, he shared his surprise on how many showed up at the first meeting of the renewed RINO Hunt where over 125 attended, many for the first time.
He first, expressed his opinion of bystanders vs. activists, comparing bystanders to those who only comment on Facebook and web pages or who just submits “like” clicks to pages. He said expressing your opinion only is not an activist. It takes more to be an activist!
He continued, “this battle is bigger than us, so we need help from someone who is bigger than us.” Then, he asked Pastor Mark Evans to open the meeting in prayer.
There were elected officials who were recognized: Greenville County Councilman Sid Cates from District 20; SC Rep. Josiah Magnuson from District 38 in Spartanburg; Jonathon Hill from District 8 in Anderson; and Greenville Sheriff Deputy Robert Whatley running for Greenville County Sheriff.
Kibler then energizes the crowd by quoting from the Dalai Lama who said, “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” He said that Democrats are easy targets, but who holds elected Republicans accountable. It depends on organizations like RINO Hunt to hold Republicans to their own self-written platform, which Harry Kibler says he fully supports. He says the RINOs only use the platform for elective opportuneness and care less what it stands for. They claim they believe it, but it is not how they act, especially once elected.
He articulated his concern that not only does America have a deep state problem on a national level, but South Carolina has its own deep state. It is this local deep state that runs interference and protects their chosen elected officials from those who oppose them. These deep state Republican members says to not speak ill against your own party.
At this point of the meeting, Kibler begins to share why he got involved and became an activist.
He started getting interested in politics when he was listening to talk radio faithfully. His all-time hero was talk radio host Russ Cassell on WORD. During this time, he got an email from the current State House Speaker Bobby Harrell. The Speaker was very proud of the Republican leadership in Columbia. He said that they had saved the taxpayers of South Carolina millions of dollars and were holding fast in spending reduction. At the very bottom of this email, Harrell said we need more Republicans in the SC Legislature. After reading the Speaker’s email, Harry was determined to help him get Republicans in office.
After having checked the elected roster and creating his own statistic chart, Harry was surprised that Republicans were already a majority in both the State House and Senate along with a Republican Governor. Harry said this had upset him and he got angry and felt that he had been lied to. At this moment, Harry reminded the RINO Hunt crowd, “You could not blame one thing on a Democrat because they did not control anything.”
Today, Harry says that in the House we have 79 GOP Legislators with one seat open which will probably go back to a Republican. He says there are only 44 Democrats. That means we have a 64.5% majority of Republicans and 35.5% minority of Democrats in the House. Kibler retorted back, “how do you supposed to pass a tax increase with 35.5% Democrats.”
He continued, in the Senate we have 27 Republicans which also includes one vacant seat that will most likely go back to a Republican in Laurens County. And we have 19 Democrats in the Senate which puts us at a 58.7% majority of Republicans in the Senate and 41.3% Democrats. Kibler asked, “How can Democrats pass any legislation in Senate?” The crowd shouts back, “RINOs!”
After having been convinced he was lied to by the Speaker’s email, Kibler set out in 2009 to go after RINOs, which by the way, means Republican In Name Only. He responded to Bobby Harrell’s email stating that he was going to spend his entire summer that year getting rid of you RINOs.
After sharing his reasons to get involved, he began to state his goals for the restart of RINO Hunt.
He said we need to prevent bad legislation from becoming law such as any tax increase. He gave an example. South Carolina was sitting on a billion dollar of surplus revenue that was not even budgeted last year and they still claim they need a tax increase.
RINO Hunt will assist good legislators such as Josiah Magnuson and Jonathon Hill, who were present, to pass good legislation such as Constitutional Carry and Protecting the unborn.
Kibler stated that the most fun he has is replacing Republican lawmakers and county council members and other elected officials with those who will hold to the Republican Party platform. He gave a roster example of those that RINO Hunt has mounted on their metaphorical hunting club house walls.
The first elected official who came into the crosshairs of RINO Hunt was Bob Inglis. Kibler began to tell the story how he took a homemade mannequin turned upside down in a toilet with a banner above saying, “flush Bob Inglis.” This display created a traffic jam of support on Woodruff Road right outside Fuddruckers where Bob Inglis was having one of his “Let’s Talk” townhall meetings.
One of the media reporters asked Bob Inglis, about their display in the back of his truck near the road. Bob responded that “I am not worried, cooler heads will prevail.” Harry said at the meeting, Bob should have worried and therefore he became the first target of RINO Hunt.
Another target of RINO Hunt was Pro Tempore Harry Cato Speaker from Travelers Rest. According to Kibler, the media asked Cato what are you doing out on the golf course when the RINO Hunters are really upset with you? Cato responded that he was not worried. He outspent his opponent around $150,000 and his opponent spent only $30-40,000 on the campaign taking the vote by 70%.
Harry Kibler said he met with State Sen. David Thomas, his next example, on several occasions to discuss bad legislation, begging him not to do it. He ignored RINO Hunt. So Kibler, with his own money, started to put radio ads about having a retirement party for David Thomas at Chiefs Wings and Firewater. With these ads playing during primetime talk radio morning hours, Thomas called into Russ Cassell’s show saying he is not retiring. Russ Cassell told him if RINO Hunt says you are retiring, then you are retiring. At least 300 or more people showed up at the retirement party. Harry reminded everyone that David Thomas was forced to retire when he lost his reelection.
Kibler also reminded everyone about Larry Martin in Pickens County, Jake Knotts in Lexington and Doug Brannon in Landrum. But Kibler left the best for last, the one who started Harry Kibler down the path with RINO Hunt, House Speaker Bobby Harrell. Kibler asked the RINO Hunt crowd, how many more Republicans would it take to make a difference when you already have a majority?
Bob Dowd from the crowd started a discussion with Kibler about his amazement that former Lt. Governor Kevin Bryant supported Greenville City Councilwoman Amy Ryberg Doyle in the recent State Senate District 6 race, who Kibler clearly stated that she was a RINO and would have fitted nicely with those in Columbia.
After a few more open discussions with the crowd, Kibler had Republican activist Justin Alexander introduce Greenville TEA Party Chairman Pressley Stutts who is running for Greenville County Republican Chairman against the current Chairman Nate Leupp. Justin and Pressley made an announcement that the next Precinct Reorganization meetings will be held on Monday, March 18th, with time to be determined. The Greenville County GOP Convention will be held Tuesday, April 2nd.
Stutts presented Harry Kibler with a Make American Great Again cap from Presidential Trump’s campaign. For the next few minutes he presented his campaign for the Greenville GOP Chairman position and encouraged all attending to go to their precinct meetings and bring neighbors, friends and family who are registered to vote in Greenville County.
After speaking, Stutts shared a text feature where you can text GROWGOP to 85100 to be kept informed. He also shared his website votepressley.com and his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/votepressley.
Harry Kibler introduced the main speaker, President of South Carolina Policy Council Ashley Landess who spoke on the items of action that the South Carolina Policy Council was taking on.
Landess recommended legislation to RINO Hunters as targets where legislators were proposing to allow counties to create a gas tax on top of the state gas tax, creating a property tax on the state level, to create another revenue stream for SCANA to refinance their debt that she says will be paid by the Utility customers and gas tax legislation that is not paying for what they claim is taking care of our roads. She went on emphasizing the Red Flag bill, legislation that has been introduced in the state of South Carolina where a judge can decide if you are a threat and can take away your weapons where there will be no trial or hearing and you must prove you are sane to get them back. She also mentioned that since SC Policy Council has been raising a little bit of Cain, the General Assembly has criminalized criticism of them, forcing them to reveal their donors so they can harass them. There is legislation to give legislative committees subpoena power of private citizens, private companies and their financial records.
Landess also pushed for the governor taking full control of the executive branch. Right now, the Legislative leaders control the executive branch almost entirely: transportation, utilities, education and who becomes a judge. She says get rid of all the boards of commissioners and let us allow the governor, for whom all the people vote, control his own executive branch.
She also proposed a need for a shorter legislative session to knock down this corrupt machine, and to reform the Freedom of Information Act where legislators have exempted themselves from FOIA.
After talking about the Policy Council exposing John Hardee, a longtime former commissioner of the S.C. Department of Transportation for corruption tactics, she announced that she just got word that he was indicted by the feds. Hardee who is the son-in-law of one of the state’s most powerful politicians, State Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, has agreed to plead guilty to a federal felony charge alleging he took part in a cover-up by trying to destroy evidence in a criminal investigation.
After Landess spoke, Kibler gave the podium to Seth Powell from the Freedom Action Network who also shared the same concerns that were being brought up in the meeting. He shared a text feature where you can send the word “TEXT” to 52886 to be kept informed of the things that have been talked about during the meeting.
After some further open discussion about Red Flag laws, Harry Kibler adjourned the meeting.
It became obvious from Friday’s meeting, that RINO Hunt is back and ready to take on, not Democrats, but GOP elected officials who claim they are Republicans and say they support the Party platform when they don’t.
In such a red state as South Carolina, BLUE meat is considered spoiled meat and not of interest. But when it comes to RINO Hunt, the hunt is on, and RED meat is on the menu.