Sean Parnell — a retired Army Ranger captain who served in the “Outlaw Platoon” in Afghanistan and is running for the 17th congressional district in Western Pennsylvania — told Breitbart News he aims to actually represent the district, unlike Democrat Conor Lamb who has done Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bidding in Congress.
“The Democrats are a really top-down political party,” Parnell said in an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel this weekend. “Five people at the very top of the Democrat Party — and I’m talking they’re far-left, right? — they dictate the messaging, which is why Democrats have the same message everywhere you go, you know?”
Parnell continued, “Democrat in San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi, has the same exact message as a so-called moderate Democrat in Western Pennsylvania … Republicans are structured from the bottom-up. We the people, right? We truly represent the people. If I told Leader [Kevin] McCarthy, like ‘hey, this position that I have here is not in lockstep with the Republican Party platform,’ he’d say, ‘you know what? You be yourself. You do what you think is best to represent the people.’ That’s the fundamental difference between the two parties, right?”
“Conor Lamb said he would oppose Nancy Pelosi, but he votes with her over 92 percent of the time,” Parnell said. “[Lamb’s] very first ad he was shooting an AR-15, now he has an F-rating with the NRA. He said he would support President Trump. At his victory speech, he got up to the podium and said, ‘I really look forward to representing the Trump voters that put me here.’ I remember thinking at that time, ‘okay, that’s fair, I’m gonna give this guy a shot,’ but then he votes to impeach the president on both charges … He campaigns around the district and says he is pro-life but he votes against the Born Alive Act.”
Parnell just released a new ad last week in the district in which he lays out the case to take out Lamb and replace him. The ad, a little bit longer than traditional political ads, has received rave reviews from Republicans for its unique ability to capture the moment of why this particularly congressional seat is so important. He also tries to revolutionize fundraising by creating a “dollar club” with supporters around the country each donating a dollar a month.
Asked about the ad, Parnell told Breitbart News that at first he was nervous putting it out because it is so different than normal political ads, but he decided to go through with it to show how different he is than the rest of the pack.
“So for me that ad, first of all, I was kind of nervous putting that ad out because it’s not a typical political ad,” Parnell said. “Republicans have to learn how to start thinking different and fighting different, especially in terms of fundraising.”
Parnell continued, “Every single nickel that I raise, or other candidates raise, is either digital or on the phone … The vast majority of people that I talk to think that the Party funds political campaigns. There’s an educational component as well, like how much are you willing to invest in the future of our country? It’s not about me. It’s about the future of our country — the future that we want for our children. That worth a dollar to you? Because I will fight to defend your freedom, and a guy like Conor Lamb will nothing except toe the line with Nancy Pelosi and that’s fundamental change for our country and what I mean by that is a wholesale socialist takeover of America.”
LISTEN TO SEAN PARNELL ON BREITBART NEWS SATURDAY:
Parnell is a decorated military veteran, who served in some of the most brutal combat arenas on the planet in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger. He was awarded a Purple Heart and multiple other medals for his service. Asked about his time in the military, Parnell explained that he was called to service after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“I was an elementary education major when I was a sophomore in college — didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life,” Parnell said. “I wake up with a pretty bad hangover, crushed beer cans everywhere. We had a pretty good party the night before. I staggered over to the TV set, I turn it on, and I watch it flicker to light just in time to see an airplane crash into the World Trade Center. In that moment, I was scared, I was angry, I wanted to be a part of America’s collective response. So I got in the fight as fast as I could. I transferred schools to Duquesne University in the heart of Pittsburgh, finished up, became a second lieutenant. I went to the cool, sexy schools the Army has to offer: airborne school, ranger school. Then I went to Afghanistan in 2006 at the height of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.”
Parnell explained, “Our mission was on the border to literally find the guy. We didn’t find him, but we found a lot of bad guys. My platoon, 485 days in combat, put that in perspective. You know the 101st airborne jumped into Normandy on D-Day and fought to Hitler’s Eagle Nest in less time than 485 days, and we were on the front lines of combat each day and we’re talking thousands, like over 5,000, indirect fire attacks, mortars, artillery against my unit. Hundreds of direct fire engagements with the enemy, the vast majority we were outnumbered significantly and so we got shot up pretty badly, took an 85 percent casualty rate. A lot of my men were wounded twice. I think one guy was wounded three times. I was wounded as well … I left the military broke and broken and sort of had to reinvent myself in the private sector in 2010.”
He said, “If people don’t believe this nation is the most exceptional nation on the face of the planet — In just ten years, I had a serious brain injury, right? I went from broke and broken veteran, left the military with next to nothing, to riding in the motorcade with the vice president and getting shoutouts from the president on Twitter. And so, this nation really, truly is the land of opportunity. It’s okay to be patriotic and love this country. It’s okay to believe that America is fundamentally good, and to be honest with you, I think that’s why that ad resonated. We’ve been spoon-fed doom and gloom in this country for months now. Freaking coronavirus has its own theme song on all the news networks, you know? As small businesses start to emerge, looters rampage across this country and burn them, you know? People in this country are desperate for positivity. People in this country want to laugh again. Again, I think the vast majority of Americans want to know that it is okay to love America.”
Pennsylvania’s 17th district is one of those 30 House seats nationwide that Democrats currently control, but it was a district that President Donald Trump won in 2016. Republicans are targeting all 30 of those and an additional 24 seats, for a total of 54 targets, to try to retake the House majority and retire Pelosi once and for all. If the GOP can flip a net 17 seats from Democrat control back into Republican hands, the Democrats lose the majority. Parnell said that his district is critical for that mission, and for President Trump winning Pennsylvania at the top of the ticket.
“Look, the entire fate of Pennsylvania rests on PA-17’s shoulders, the district that I am running for,” Parnell said. “If I win PA-17, the president wins PA-17, he wins the state of Pennsylvania. The end. What I try to tell people is that, yes, you might not be in PA-17, you may be in a solid blue district. No matter how much money you pour into that district, you’ll never flip it. You can adopt a district like mine that can have an unbelievable meaning in regards to taking the House back and putting President Trump back in the White House.”
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