What People Are Saying About Rep. Abraham’s Broken Promise To Veterans And Children

See below for reactions to last week’s bombshell news that Rep. Abraham broke his promise to donate his congressional salary to charities that help sick children and seriously injured veterans.

The Advocate Front Page:

Bayou Brief Headline: “Abraham Won By Pledging Salary to Veterans Group and St. Jude’s Hospital. He Now Owes Them Between $348K – $696K.”

The Advocate: “Abraham won the race, but it turns out that voters in Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District are indeed paying for his representation, at a cost of $174,000 per year. …Abraham did not extend his no-salary pledge to his 2016 re-election campaign. But his campaign website continued to include it as part of his campaign platform.”

American Bridge: “Lyin’ Ralph Abraham made a promise to donate ‘every penny’ of his taxpayer funded salary to help sick kids, and now he admits he broke that promise.”

Bayou Brief Headline: “Abrascam: Rep. Ralph Abraham has not refuted reports he deceived voters with pledge to donate salary to charity.”

The Advocate, Stephanie Grace: “If politicians can and want to quietly donate their salaries to charity, that’s great. More power to them. But when they make it a campaign plank — as Abraham did back in 2014 when he told 5th District voters that “YOU Should Not Pay A Penny For Representation,” according to his campaign website — they turn generosity into a self-congratulatory gesture…all that said, if a politician decides this is a promise worth making, it certainly is a promise worth keeping.”

Bayou Brief: “He vowed to give every dime he earned to a hospital that treats children with cancer, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, and the Independence Fund, an organization that helps double-amputee combat veterans. In his first term, that amounts to $348,000. In total, Abraham should have contributed at least $696,000 to charity. … However, his phony pledge to donate his salary to worthy charities is irredeemable and permanently disqualifying. He lied to voters; he lied to children with cancer; he lied to wounded warriors, and despicably, he thought his own privilege would somehow insulate him from accountability.”

The Advocate, Stephanie Grace: “According to spokesperson Cole Avery, the problem was that Abraham didn’t understand during that first campaign that the outside income he could earn practicing medicine was sharply limited. “Because of the loss of income, it was not a pledge he could continue beyond the first term,” Avery said. “There’s the belief that something should be one way, and then there’s the reality.” But naivete is a pretty lame excuse. It’s entirely reasonable to expect a candidate for high political office to research these things beforehand. Nobody asked him to forego a salary. It was his idea, and he reaped political benefit from making the pledge.”

Monroe News Star: “Abraham, who’s running for governor against Democrat John Bel Edwards, made the issue of donating his salary a central theme during his first election. He didn’t specify that the donation would be for just one term.” In a May 2014 interview with USA Today Network, he said, “Representation should be a privilege, and I won’t accept the salary unless law dictates it, and if that’s the case, I’ll donate it to charity.”

Sam Hanna, Jr. @samuelhanna69: “Blaming the media for an accurate press report is not how one should manage a crisis. Besides, only @realDonaldTrump can get away with ripping reporters and their employers.  #lalege #lagov”