"Grijalva is more radical than Barack Hussein Obama"

At a recent rally for conservatives supporting her, Gabriela Saucedo Mercer channeled Clint Eastwood's now infamous Republican National Convention Empty Chair act and placed an imaginary Raul Grijalva in an empty chair and gave ... it ... a piece of her mind. She told the chair, and the audience, that Grijalva missed 400 votes during the last Congressional session,  and went on to say that "the Tea Party is the force that is holding our elected officials accountable."

But then she said "Raul Grijalva wants to take your freedoms away" after reading from Forbes magazine an article about Grijalva's letter to Sectary of State Hillary Clinton calling for an international arms trade treaty. "Grijalva is more radical than Barack Hussein Obama," she said, then went on to cite Grijalva's calling her "racist" and began a diatribe about her "middle easterners" comments, and said she would not apologize for what she said because "no body apologized for" 9/11. Her "illogical comments and statements" caused the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee to issue a call for an apology, and said her statements are "rooted in xenophobia and have no place in politics or our national discourse."

She went on to make the accusation, much to the approval of her audience, that it is Grijalva who is the racist, not her. "He is the one who wants to separate people by the color of our skin. I refuse to get into that box.  I do not belong in that box. I am an American by choice. I love this country ... I will die for this country!"

After winning the primary, Mercer told the Arizona Daily Star "I'll continue reaching out to [Latino] voters, especially the ones who have been disenfranchised with [Grijalva], and then plead my case," she said. The subject does not come up on this video.

Grijalva has been quoted "The allegations, the statements that she's made publicly about me being a Marxist and a Communist and anti-American, that's the other level on which unfortunately this campaign is going to be waged."  The two met at a candidate forum in Rio Rico and apparently there were sparks.

Here is her speech at the "Conservative Cruze" event.