VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A Republican candidate for Congress is working to clarify remarks he made that compared tracking cattle with microchips to tracking immigrants.
"If we can find out where every cattle is in America because they all have a chip in them, we can find out where every person visiting the United States is because we can do something with it," Pat Mooney said. "They are not American citizens, they are not afforded the same rights we are, as citizens, so when they come here we can track them, make sure they leave. It's easy to do."
Mooney, who is running for the seat in congressional District 6, which stretches from Daytona Beach to St. Augustine, made the comments April 12 at a Volusia County Republican meeting.
Mooney's campaign said he was unavailable for an interview, but it issued a statement blaming one of Mooney's opponents in the upcoming Republican primary.
"This kind of 'gotcha attacks' is what is wrong with Washington and politics today," spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik said. "Pat was simply making the point that we need to secure our border and know who comes in and out of our country, especially from dangerous countries like Syria. When it comes to securing America and protecting American citizens, Pat is the strongest candidate in this race. Clearly, Brandon Patty is a pro-amnesty, open-borders Republican, but that is not what the good people of Florida want in a representative."
"Once we start microchipping immigrants, are we going to start microchipping gun owners as well? Just imagine what Democrats would do with this," said fellow Republican CD6 candidate Brandon Patty, who admitted that his campaign was the first to obtain audio of Mooney's remarks.
Volusia Republicans, who hosted the event at which Mooney made the analogy, dismissed the idea of implanting microchips in people, saying the candidate was trying to make a broader point, but chose his words poorly.
"Everyone I know in the Republican organization would not even think of implanting people with chips to track them. That's ridiculous," West Volusia Republican Club President Marshall Bone said.
Mooney is the brother of freshman U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, a Republican from West Virginia.
Cox Media Group
