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.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 month 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
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        1 month 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
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          1 month 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.

          • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Fucks sake, I’m not trying to gas light you. Maybe you don’t live in such a hyper racist and segregated city. I’m tired, my back is killing me and just because you gave me one site doesn’t prove your point.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              What the fuck are you talking about? I never said you were trying to gaslight me. I also never called you stupid, I called my dogs stupid. I also don’t live in a hyper racist and segregated city. I literally live in a neighborhood with a mix of white people and POC- mostly black and south Asian. We are all friendly to each other.