A volunteer for the Republican Party of Clay County in Florida was caught on an answering machine falsely claiming that President Barack Obama believes in Islam.
During the call, which was first obtained by WMNF community radio, the woman warned that Obama wanted to end Medicare and turn the United States into a socialist country.
"You don't want Obama," she said. "You really don't want Obama, because he'll get rid of your Medicare. You might as well say goodbye to it... I don't know if you've done any research on Obama or not, but he is a Muslim. He [has] a socialistic view on the, you know, economy, the government, the whole nine yards. If he had his way we would be a socialistic country. Really do pay attention to Fox News, if you can get out and watch that movie 2016 that has a lot of good information. Just really read the newspapers and Fox News will help you out."
The call was made as part of a phone bank for Mitt Romney's campaign. Leslie Dougher, chair of the Clay County Republican Party, said the volunteers had been given a script to follow and that the unidentified woman went far off-script.
"Those are clearly not the views of the Republican Party of Clay County or the Mitt Romney campaign," she told the Florida Times-Union.
The call was recorded by a man who identified as a Republican and wished to remain anonymous, according to News4Jax.com. He described the call as "pretty lousy."
Gallup found last year that 18 percent of Republicans believed Obama was Muslim, even though the President is a church-going Christian.
“Both Obama’s religion and his birthplace have been points of controversy in his public career,” Gallup noted. “These data show that in terms of his religion, most Americans do not adhere to the belief that he is a Muslim. However, the fact that almost one in five Republicans do hold this belief suggests the potential for continuing controversy on this issue in the months ahead.”
