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Oct 14, 2008 8:00 pm US/Eastern
GOP Volunteer Fired For Calling Obama A Muslim
Volunteer Worked For GOP Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart
She Told Voter On The Phone That Obama Was A Muslim
Obama Is Not Muslim, He Is Christian
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
A volunteer working for Republican congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart's campaign has been fired after telling a Miami voter that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama was a Muslim.
Maria Elena Levrant says she got a call Monday from the volunteer with Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart's campaign, and much to her surprise, Levrant says the woman warned her not to vote for Barack Obama because of his alleged religion. Claims that Obama is a Muslim have persisted for months, although Obama is a Christian.
"'The other one you know, he's a Muslim'," said Levrant. "And I told her, you know that's not true. That's a lie."
Diaz-Balart's campaign manager, Ana Carbonell, says the South Florida congressman personally called the voter Monday to apologize for the volunteer's statements.
Carbonell says the volunteer had worked at the campaign office in the past, but Monday was her first time making calls to voters. The campaign manager says callers are supposed to work off of a script, but the volunteer was not following it when she made the statements about Obama's religion.
"Absolutely, these campaigns should be about the issues, they should be about judgment, about character, not about rumors about people's religions," said Carlos Curbelo, with the Diaz-Balart Campaign.
Outraged, Levrant, a Democrat and Obama supporter, called the Diaz-Balart campaign to complain, but at first she got another volunteer who wasn't much help. Eventually, a campaign official, and Diaz-Balart himself called to apologize, calling the volunteer's comments "a misrepresentation of the truth" and unacceptable.
Rumors Obama that is or was a Muslim are all over the internet, based mostly on the fact that when he was a boy, his mother married a Muslim and the family lived for a while in Indonesia— the nation with the largest Muslim majority in the world. However, Senator Obama has vehemently denied the claim.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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