



BOURNE – Following a heated Friday night debate, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and State Rep. Geoff Diehl can’t seem to stop going after each other.

Diehl demanded an apology from Warren immediately following Friday night’s debate on WBZ for claiming that he had attended a rally “organized by the largest anti-Muslim hate group in America.” Warren made the comment during one of many exchanges between the two during the debate.

Speaking to reporters at the end of the debate, Diehl denied he was at the rally before demanding an apology from Warren.

“She may be mistaking me with another candidate in this race, which doesn’t surprise me since she doesn’t seem to be focused on Massachusetts or on this Senate race,” Diehl fired back before providing a checklist of his destinations on April 22.

“She seems to be more focused on the White House. I was at a veterans 5K run in Andover that morning. I was at a college Republican event at WPI in the afternoon, and I was at the “Back the Blue” rally in Bourne later that day,” he said.

The rally that Warren claimed to have been organized by a hate group targeting Muslims was the “Back the Blue” rally in Bourne that Diehl admitted to attending on the night of April 22.

That rally was organized by ACT for America, an organization that is “focused on educating, engaging, and mobilizing citizens and elected officials to impact legislative outcomes to keep America safe and secure,” according to its website.

ACT for America has been labeled as a hate group by the South Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a non-profit legal advocate organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. On the SPLC’s website, they say that ACT for America “has undoubtedly grown to become the largest anti-Muslim group in America.”

In a statement on Saturday to CapeCod.com, Diehl said “It is disappointing that Senator Warren doesn’t know that the town’s name is Bourne not Burn.”

“It is even worse that she would try to suggest that a rally to back police officers is racist. This is not the first time she has linked the police to racism. Geoff Diehl will be a Senator who supports our police. He knows that they are heroes, not racists,” said Diehl.

By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center