Conservative radio host blasts Massachusetts Democrats and migrant shelter policy at State House rally
A local conservative radio host went on multiple profanity-laced diatribes against, Gov. Maura Healey, Beacon Hill Democrats and migrants arriving in Massachusetts during a Saturday rally outside the State House that drew hundreds of people.
WRKO’s Jeff Kuhner criticized the local media — including the Herald and its columnist Howie Carr — railed against Republicans in charge of the MassGOP, asked his supporters to start “harassing members of Congress,” and called on state legislators to repeal the state’s right-to-shelter law, which serves as the legal basis for the emergency shelter system.
As the rally was starting, Kuhner likened Democrats in the Legislature to “traitors” for voting down an amendment from House Minority Leader Brad Jones to the chamber’s fiscal year 2025 budget that would have prioritized veterans on waitlists for state-run family shelters.
“They put the priorities and needs of foreigners, of people who have no right and no business being in our country, ahead of our homeless vets,” he said. “… I gotta say this from the bottom of my heart, from the bottom of my heart to Maura Healey … to the Democrats, to the craven RINO establishment. You want me to say it? F— you.”
Related Articles
Mass. emergency shelter residents limited to nine months in system after Healey signs bill
Migrants helping fill ‘well-documented worker shortage’ in Massachusetts, Healey says
Migrant families, homeless will be housed at National Guard armory in Lexington
Murray: Titanic gloom on Biden’s broken border
Mass. Legislature sends Gov. Healey $426M shelter bill that caps stays at nine months
Jones’ amendment was rejected on a 27-129 vote, with all Republicans and a handful of Democrats voting in favor of the proposal.
Housing Committee Co-Chair Rep. James Arciero opposed the measure, and asked lawmakers during the budget debate to “avoid politicizing and pandering by putting these two groups together.”
Veterans and Federal Affairs Committee Co-Chair Gerard Cassidy called the idea a “political ploy to bring the veterans in.”
The rally outside the State House took aim at Beacon Hill’s decision to expand the state’s emergency shelter system to serve up to 7,500 families with children and pregnant women.
Half of the families in the shelter system are migrants who the federal government has legally allowed into the United States through one of several programs, including one for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.
A family who entered the country without legal authorization is not eligible for state-run shelter benefits, according to Massachusetts regulations.
Spending on the shelter system is expected to reach $915 million this fiscal year and $932 in the next, according to the Healey administration. In an effort to control costs, the Legislature approved a nine-month time limit on families’ stay in shelters.
That policy was included in a spending bill that shuttled an extra $426 million to the shelter system for costs in fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
Geoff Diehl, a former state lawmaker who has unsuccessfully run for higher office several times, said “it’s not all peaches and cream” in Massachusetts.
“Right now, things are pretty bad. If we were looking at a clock, it’s midnight. It’s not one minute to midnight. It’s midnight. They’re taking our money,” he said before criticizing vaccine policies used during the pandemic-era.
Talk show host and political commentator Jeff Kuhner speaks during a “Liberty Rally” outside the Massachusetts State House on May 4, 2020 in Boston. (Staff Photo By Angela Rowlings/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)