Kemp Defends Campaign After Bias Incident

WALTHAM, Mass. —  Republican presidential candidate Rep. Jack Kemp defended his campaign on Tuesday as fair, following a second incident in which a Kemp supporter embarrassed the campaign by making critical statements about religious or ethnic groups.

The Rev. Tim LaHaye, a prominent conservative evangelist, resigned Monday as Kemp’s national co-chairman after some of the New York congressman’s most influential backers expressed outrage at LaHaye’s published criticisms of Jews and Catholics.

In September, a former New Hampshire state senator was removed as an honorary county chairman of the Kemp campaign after making a racial joke about the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Democratic candidate for President.

Kemp, speaking to students at Brandeis University, said he regretted LaHaye’s statements and said he thought it was appropriate that LaHaye resigned, but insisted that what LaHaye has written does not reflect the values of the Kemp campaign.

Kemp also said he was not familiar with LaHaye’s writings before he appointed LaHaye and his wife, Beverly, as national co-chairs of his campaign.

In a 1985 book, “The Coming Peace in the Middle East,” LaHaye wrote: “Brilliant Jewish minds have all too frequently been devoted to philosophies that have proved harmful to mankind.” In another book, LaHaye described Catholicism as a “false religion,” adding: “Rome is more dangerous than no religion because she substitutes religion for truth.”

In his appearance at Brandeis, where an estimated two-thirds of the students are Jewish, Kemp was asked whether he would “condemn and disassociate” himself from LaHaye and his wife, who is still serving on his campaign.

Kemp replied: “I disassociate myself not only from the views that were made in a theological way, but I disagree with the theology. . . .

“I want you to know that I have said over and over again there’s no place in my campaign for any religious, any racial or any ethnic bigotry, prejudice or joke-telling of any kind.

“The question is: Should he be allowed to resign? The answer is yes. Have I disassociated myself from those views? Yes. Am I going to pounce on him? No.”