Incoming Rep. West ‘didn’t learn anything’ from chief of staff stepping down

Rep.-elect Allen West (R-Fla.) said Sunday that a radio host who stepped down as his chief of staff after controversial comments was a victim of an attack by the left.

On “Fox News Sunday,” West was asked about Joyce Kauffman
calling Nancy Pelosi “garbage” and telling a Tea Party rally “if balance
don’t work, bullets will.” Host Chris Wallace asked West what he learned from the experience.

“I think first of all what you saw was an attack from the left against
Joyce Kauffman and there are some other issues with that, but they
didn’t play the full clip of her speech when she gave that — I think it
was the 4th of July,” West said. “So once again, it was the editing sound bite.”

“And I didn’t learn anything from it, because you just adjust and you
continue on,” he said.

In fact, Kauffman helped pick her replacement, West said.

“So Joyce Kauffman was a very instrumental and helpful
person in our campaign and she was the one who interviewed my current
chief of staff because she knows it’s a good match,” he said.

The incoming congressman also said he hopes to bring “intellectual debate and discourse” to the Congressional Black Caucus, which has not had a Republican member since the 1990s.

“You had 42 blacks that ran on the Republican ticket this Cycle, 14
made of them made it to the general election and two of us made it to
the House of Representatives,” West said. “So I think that there is a new movement
that needs to have a voice in the Congressional Black Caucus.”