Parnell ready to fight on political battlefield
When Sean Parnell talks about the 485 days he spent fighting in the Hindu Kush mountains during the war in Afghanistan, his memories from more than a decade ago assemble like they’re filling the pages of a military thriller.
Coincidentally, the military veteran has written a few of those, including the nonfiction “Outlaw Platoon” that tells the story of his experience commanding a 40-man infantry platoon as a 24-year-old Army Ranger, and how 16 months in combat along Afghanistan’s eastern frontier transformed his life and connected him with his fellow soldiers.
“I think about the Afghan war every single day of my life,” Mr. Parnell said this past week. “It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep.”
A decade and a half later, Mr. Parnell is molding the lessons he learned into an effort on a new battlefield — or battleground, in political pundits’ speak — as he vies for the Republican nomination in Western Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional district, hoping to eventually face Marine Corps veteran and Democratic incumbent Conor Lamb in November’s general election.
Just a few months into his unexpected candidacy, Mr. Parnell isn’t shying away from military lingo, and has said he will fight for his constituents in Congress like he fought along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
But he also hasn’t shied away from the front lines of his party’s political messaging, and — like many prominent conservatives — has labeled the impeachment of Donald Trump a “sham” and a “witch hunt” and deemed his Democratic opponent an not-somoderate lackey of House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi.
As of mid-October, Mr. Parnell had not known he’d be running for Congress. That changed on the Oct. 23 when Mr. Trump, in a keynote address to the Shale Insight Conference in Pittsburgh, floated his name as a potential candidate to take on Mr. Lamb.
When the president calls, you answer, Mr. Parnell said.
Since then, Mr. Parnell has echoed Mr. Trump’s words from the shale speech: that Mr. Lamb is a faux centrist who pulled a fast one on his constituents and pretended to be moderate to win a district that Mr. Trump carried in 2016.
As evidence of his opponent’s leftward shift, Mr. Parnell said that when Mr. Lamb campaigned, he said he was pro-life and pro-gun, but since then, he’s garnered an F rating from the National Rifle Association and an A+ from Planned Parenthood.
Mr. Lamb, however, has said that although he is personally prolife, “the Supreme Court has spoken” and he will not support legislation that takes those rights away. On guns, he recently said he considers himself a realist who may not go as far as others in his party, but that universal background checks and red flag laws should be instituted, among other reforms.
But beyond those issues, Mr. Parnell takes issue that Mr. Lamb has voted with Ms. Pelosi — a frequent target of conservative ire — 98% of the time — a figure that appears to come from ProPublica’s voting record comparison tool, which has taken into account 47 votes on major legislation this session.
“You don’t get to be a moderate and have that voting record,” Mr. Parnell said. “You just don’t.”
Mr. Lamb’s relationship with Ms. Pelosi has been under
examination by national Republican groups — and some to the left of Mr. Lamb — since he declined to vote for her for the speakership at the start of the legislative session last year.
It came up again at a town hall recently, when Mr. Lamb fielded a question from a man who asked why he voted “lockstep” with Ms. Pelosi.
“If someone told you that, sir, I’m sorry because they didn’t inform you,” Mr. Lamb responded, saying 80% of the votes he’s cast have been on bipartisan legislation.
Mr. Parnell called that argument “bogus,” and said that if the bills were truly bipartisan, they would have passed through the Senate.
Mr. Parnell has garnered high praise from the president, who took to Twitter on the morning of his impeachment to write that he’s “a great patriot” and “has my total and complete endorsement.”
Since then, Mr. Parnell has continued to defend the president, routinely offering commentary on Twitter during the Senate impeachment trial.
Mr Parnell said Mr. Trump — who is accused of threatening to withhold congressionally approved aid to Ukraine in exchange for their opening of an investigation into his political rival — did nothing wrong in his call with the Ukrainian president at the center of the impeachment.
He pointed to testimony from Gordan Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, who said Mr. Trump told him on the phone that he didn’t want a “quid pro quo” and to tell the Ukrainian president to “do the right thing.”
But that testimony by Mr. Sondland came on the same day he told House investigators that he worked with Mr. Trump’s lawyer on Ukraine at the “express direction” of the president and that he pushed for a political “quid pro quo” because that’s what the president wanted.
Impeachment is still a “sham” led by Democrats who have wanted to impeach the president since day one, Mr. Parnell insisted — a vendetta against Mr. Trump that Mr. Lamb supported in the House.
Mr. Parnell said military issues will be a focus of his candidacy, and that he wants to use his time in Congress to advocate for troops while they’re in combat and when they come home from combat.
“When we lose soldiers in Afghanistan, you use your bully pulpit as a leader in Congress to talk about those things,” said Mr. Parnell, who himself was wounded in combat.
Boasting a large social media following, Mr. Parnell, a frequent Fox News guest, raised more than $265,000 in the fourth quarter, his campaign said. When a donor reaches out to him on Twitter, he typically replies, “I will always work hard to earn your support.”
Two other veterans have announced bids for the Republican nomination: Army Veteran Brian Thomsen and Air Force Veteran Scott Timko. The primary will be held April 28.