Charles Barkley Slams Republicans On CNN: "I Call Them Fake Christians", The Word 'Conservative' "Makes Me Sick"

Basketball legend Charles Barkley appeared on CNN's Late Edition, with Wolf Blitzer, this morning, and made some controversial remarks about Republicans. Barkley, who continues his career in basketball off the court as a TV commentator for the NBA, is supporting Barack Obama for president, and was defending Obama against criticism that he is inexperienced in foreign policy and other areas, when he veered off-course, and began a classic Barkley non-sequitur. Barkley started by saying, as a resident of Arizona, how much he respects John McCain, but then quickly began slamming Republicans and conservatives in general. Barkley said, "Every time I hear the word conservative it makes me sick to my stomach because they're really just fake Christians, as I call them." Blitzer asks Barkley to elaborate a bit on the phrase he used, "fake Christians." Barkley does so, essentially accusing conservatives of being hypocritical. Blitzer warns Barkley that he's probably going to a lot of "feedback" about his harsh criticism of the GOP, but Barkley is unfazed, offering this priceless response: "They can't do anything to me. I don't work for them."

Watch the video from CNN below, and tell HuffPost whether or not you agree with Barkley's explosive comments:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1417325938http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=1178199204

Comments

[localman]

While I do respect the fact that 'Sir' Charles has no problem speaking his mind. It's too bad to see him fall victim to the bullshit left v. right debate. The vast majority of conservatives have become Neo-Cons and the liberals have become Neo-Libs. Both parties, at this point, serve to further the Neo-Liberal agenda through financial colonialism or neo-colonialism via the IMF and World Bank. I have yet to see any proof that Obama is any different, and I'm quite certain Clinton is not any different. But those of you riding high on 'hope' and 'change' are soon to be let down when an economic illiterate jumps into the White House and presides over one of the worst financial disasters of all time. Either that or the ditching of the dollar in favor of North American integration and the Amero. Mark my words this is the path we are headed down. It's fine to want change but you better be god damn certain of what that change is.

[VitriolAndAngst]

I share your concerns LocalMan.

But the "heart" of Liberals is in the right place. We are not happy with how Democrats have supported Globalism and Neo-imperialism. The Media had to force out the Progressive candidates like Kucinich and Edwards -- which you find much more supported in online venues like here on HuffPo.

Perhaps when Obama is President, he will come around to doing the right thing -- Like FDR, who was a country-club elite before the people needed him.

[localman]

Hmm. I'm not sure I completely agree with you. I don't think the powers that be will allow for an Obama presidency. Whatever it may look like now really doesn't mean anything, political winds shift on a dime. I have always held out the hope that Obama would turn into a JFK type of candidate but Obama's dad is not Joe Kennedy and I don't really know the extent that he is able to steal the vote in the remaining key states (as Kennedy did). I still envision HillBilly Clinton vs. John McInsane with HRC taking it hands down.

But with financial meltdown on the horizon and Obama's sponsorship of the "Global Poverty Act" which will tax Americans $845 BILLION payable to the United Nations (of which American Citizens will not see a penny) over the next 13 years shows me that he either; A) Doesn't have a clue about economics, but wants to be perceived as a 'good guy'. B) Is pandering to the UN, IMF, World Bank crowd. or C) Is selling this country out to the tune of nearly a Trillion dollars that we cannot afford in order to further financial collapse and integration into the North American community.

While the "heart" of liberals may be in the right place their brains are not, a lot of the time. The problem I find is that too many people vote with their heart and not their heads. Politicians know all too well how to play your heart strings. That's what I see a lot of now when I run across Obama supporters people that vote with their heart and not with their heads (same with Clinton and McCain as well). I can promise you one thing though having your heart in the right place is not going to save any of us from impending financial doom. We must be thinking resolutely with our heads about what we are doing with our money in this treacherous time. Not only is our future at stake but generations to come as well.

(continued..)

[localman]

It's my opinion that hearts have no place in the election process. We better stop and think about what's happening and what we need to do, and not grab onto empty rhetoric only to be bamboozled once again. But as usual this all falls on deaf ears as nearly all of the country is partisan hacks that can't see past red state blue state. So in the end we will be fucked.

[Rendon76]

You got a lot nerve calling Obama an illiterate after what we've endured for the last eight years. Millions of people recognize that he is a special candidate brilliant in many regards and you want to come along and lump them with the neocons. You claim Charles is falling victim the bullshit left vs. right debate and in the next sentence you say "The vast majority of conservatives have become Neo-Cons and the liberals have become Neo-Libs." If that's not playing into the left vs right debate I don't know what is. Obama represents a MAJOR change from the way politics are played in Washington and if you have not realized that you must be really disconnected.
Again your #1 concern seems to be money and if so why haven't you said a thing about the trillions that Bush has spent in Iraq. Bush can spend trillions in Iraq but if taxpayer money goes into helping our society and citizens you have a shitfit, just like most other Republicans. Fiscal conservative my ass.

[localman]

I said that the next president would be an economic illiterate. That's kind of presumptuous of you to assume the next president will be Obama, no? Hope and change are not mutually exclusive to Obama you know. Simply because millions recognize him as a special candidate doesn't necessarily make it so. What's your point. Millions also still recognize Bush as a strong leader. Does that make it true? I really don't think so.

It's true that the two major parties have, by and large, become neo versions of their former selves (and the number of them is growing sadly). I don't see how pointing this out is playing into the left v. right debate. The fact is that both Dems. and Reps. are pushing forms of economic colonialism albeit via varying means but no doubt both are dramatically in favor of a 'globalized' world, with the US of A sitting in the throne. That's a matter of fact. If your opinion differs fine. Tell me what you think.

If Obama represents MAJOR change I have yet to see it in any form other than rhetoric. What's his voting record tell you? Tells me he's essentially about as much change as HRC. Talk is cheap Rendon. Can you explain to me how he's changed or is going to change the way politics are played in Washington? What's his plan for the looming financial disaster? I tell you what though doling out $845 Billion to the UN isn't going to help our situation.

(continued..)

[localman]

My #1 concern, Rendon, is not money but the impending financial disaster that you're seemingly are oblivious to. It's my opinion that this should be every Americans #1 concern. But you want to talk about Bush's trillions.. alright well then lets talk about the ongoing authorization that the Democratically controlled congress insists on giving Bush to spend. No money equals no war. More correctly even no FIAT money equals no wars that are not necessary. But now we're talking about things that your heart can't feel like 'change' and 'hope'. I know you know this already but you seem to have a problem obfuscating facts, Bush cannot spend any money the Congress does not give him. Simple as that. By the way look up the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 looks an awful lot like something a neo con would draw up, no? Hmm, a Democrats bill whodathunkit?

I am an independent you shit head. And yes I am a fiscal conservative. End the Iraq war today, get rid of our fiat monetary system that enables actions such as the Iraq war, abolish the Federal Reserve System, get rid of the personal federal income tax, repeal the Patriot Act I&II, do not include immunity for telecoms, seal our borders, close our bases around the world, and focus on taking care of ours here at home, don't you think it's time? Here's where you get all huffy and emotional with your head full of half truths and your heart so filled with hope for change.

[OhPlease2007]

Say what you will about Sir Charles, but he is a very intelligent man. When Sir Charles talks, ... people listen. Of course, it definitely doesn't hurt that he is an Arizona State University sports fan, as well; go Sun Devils! :)

[ManyColored]

I love Charles. He says what he thinks without his superego getting in the way to change what he thinks to something different.

[priorzola]

Charles is right. So many of the neo-con fundies that call themselves Republicans are the ones who tend to have a literal interpretation of the most fantastical parts of the Bible (ie Revelations, the Resurrection, Virgin Birth--all the things that conveniently can't be proven or measured and don't pertain to the day-to-day necessities of life) yet they conveniently skim over the parts of the Bible about charity for the poor, respect for your fellow man, judge not, etc because they are actually relevent to our contemporary existence and require a level of compassion, hard work, and acceptance on their part. This is what Barkley means by "fake Christians". Believing in a myth is easy; applying the lessons of those stories to each our lives is difficult and requires a bigger leap of faith in humanity than believing in angels, the devil, or heaven.

I have always said that you can tell a lot about a group of people based on how that group of people believes that they reach immortality. For a lot of fundies they literally believe that their immortal lies in being accepted into heaven. However, in order to get into heaven (according to their myth) a judgement must be cast. Nobody knows for sure whether that judgement will go in their favor or not so that the only way they can, in their own minds, feel themselves worthy of going to heaven is to judge others as unworthy. This is why most fundies live their lives in perpetual judgement of others, not because they care that others will not get into heaven but because they fear they themselves will not. This is their ultimate concern, self-preservation in a make-believe after-life. This is what makes them FAKE CHRISTIANS. They care not for the soul of others; only for the fate of their own.

[Danny]

priorzola -- why can't we hear more voices like yours and Charles Barkley's on our airwaves? Because they have been hijacked and stolen by the rightwing. For decades. Their grand experiment in brainwashing is failing. Now we have to regain our right to diversity by reforming the FCC, and the election process by rejecting ANY machines in our electoral process.

[covington]

Heck, they neo's think the Flinstones was a doumentary.... people and dinosaurs living together the world created in 6 days...Whatever!

[Pacific231]

This is a little off topic, but one of the "Answers in Genesis" creationist kooks was quoted in a beliefnet.com article that early humans looked pretty much the same as humans today. Which means the Raquel Welch movie "ONE MILLION YEARS B.C." was a DOCUMENTARY!

LOL

[Fernando]

Good points, although I don't think "pseudo-Christians" (now that I think of it - why don't we call them something like that to differentiate them from the ones who actually live their faith?) believe they'll get to heaven by judging per se.

The problem is this type of Christianity is merely a veneer to justify an economic and socially intolerant, Southern white conservative agenda. If you think about it, you can see a lot of parallels between it and Bush's own life: It's all talk and no action, it promises salvation with no works, merely loyalty, and it's retrograde and anti-science. Really, this arm-chair Christianity is just a right-wing agenda wrapped in religious cellophane.

I miss the times when Christians were not overbearing and arrogant but humble people, because they knew their path was hard and lacked the utter certainty that leads these lesser Christians to judge others for "sins" that many of them are themselves doing. When they seemed to judge less or at least preached to the choir and not through their political mouthpieces. And before the Bush White House turned their churches into money making schemes.

It remains to be seen, but for the most part that political force has lost momentum and credibility.

[scandals&skeletons]

ok found it:
from colbert show:
Georgia congressman Lynn Westmoreland, a republican­,co-sponso­r of a bill on the ten commandments, cant even name them.

[PerryWhite]

It's easy: One, Two, Three, Four....

[VitriolAndAngst]

They had some judge in Alabama that was trying to do the same thing -- pushing the Ten Commandments on display with the argument that our laws are based upon them. They aren't, of course, British Common Law came about 200 years before Christianity took hold.

But the funny thing was, he didn't know most of the commandments. Putting his religion in everyone's face and he doesn't even know much about it -- priceless.

[ronconone]

Way to go Charles ..
Your slam dump on the conservative republicans will be a MSM highlight. Maybe even #1 on ESPN as the best play of the day....

[scandals&skeletons]

he wanted to give larry craig, mark foley, and
ted haggard as examples.

ya gotta love charles, he speaks his mind.

[champislove]

Thank you Charles for saying what I want to say but don't have a platform to be heard. These people are only conservative when it benifits the poor. But they are never ever conservative when it comes to a tax cut that go's to the rich, or trying to tell a women what to do with her own body. the make anyone who have half a brain "Sick ".

[WWWoDMOCRATSoORG]

Thank you Charles Barkley. I love God but I do not love his fake Christian Republiklan party fan club. Ohhhh these Republiklan party members profess to love God but do not follow what Christ said to help the poor. I suggest we keep the Republiklan party out of power for 40 years.

Oh and for Independents who read this: If you want to continue the Republiklan party FDA that killed tens of thousands of Vioxx and Celebrex users, and the Republiklan party Fema that killed thousands of New Orleans residents by not showing up for a week, or the Republiklan party NASA agency that killed 14 astronauts in the last 28 years and the Republiklan party Defense department that filed to keep us safe on 9-11-2001 and slaughtered 1 million innocent Iraqis, then go ahead vote for John McCain this fall.

Don't forget that the blame for Bush's reign shall fall mainly on McCain. McCain's not Able.

If people want to help stop the Republiklan party please look at my profile.

[Grulg]

*This is great. Go Charles Go!

*Waiting for the inevitable Karl Malone response.

[gnorrfa]

barkley is so candid and so correct. there are MILLIONS of phoney christians on the right. if you want to watch one of these hypocrites trip all over themselves; one question:"name the ten commandments." they always look at me as though i asked them if they had a baby for lunch.
if you're a republican you cannot be a christian, it's an oxymoron.

[scandals&skeletons]

colbert had one of those preachy right wing politicians on once and during the interview asked him to recite the ten commandments.....he got two or three. i cant remember who it was.

colbert nation i need help

[DemandTruth]

Hell yeah he's right! His whole point is that conservatives go around judging EVERYONE but themselves. It DOES say right there in the bible that they are NOT supposed to judge anyone. That's the whole damn point - that GOD will judge you when you die, so you better be a good person and live a good life! (Pretty good, huh? And I don't even believe in the bible!) And that's all they do all day long! Judge judge judge. THIS person's goin' to hell. THAT person's goin' to hell. Total hypocrisy. Thanks Charles for not being afraid to point that out, and not mincing words about it!

[Irons]

All right, Charles!

[kcflood]

awesome!! I wish he could have said it a little more clearly, but I know what he means

[champlain113]

Chuck is awesome. He hit it right on the head