June 12, 2020
DFW GOP COUNTY CHAIRS CALL ON DEMOCRATS TO CONDEMN REMARKS INCITING VIOLENCE FROM CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE KIM OLSON
Democrat exposed in recording encouraging looting, saying “Burn it to the Ground”
(Denton, TX) – The Republican Party Chairs of Denton, Dallas and Tarrant counties today condemned the reckless and incendiary remarks of Democrat Kim Olson and urged other Democrat leaders to do the same. Olson is running for Congressional District 24, a seat which includes Denton, Dallas and Tarrant counties.
Regarding Olson’s remarks, The Washington Examiner reported the following:
“What the hell you got snipers on the roof for in a peaceful march? Even if people loot, so what? Burn it to the ground, you know, if that’s what it’s going to take to fix our nation,” retired Air Force Col. Kim Olson said during a live digital event on Tuesday, shown in a clip obtained by the Washington Examiner. “I don’t think people want me to say that,” added Olson, a Democratic candidate in Texas’s 24th Congressional District, which covers much of the suburban area in between Fort Worth and Dallas.
Denton County GOP Chair Jayne Howell stated, “Mrs. Olson, an individual who seeks to cast a vote in the halls of Congress, is calling for the destruction, looting and burning of our communities. These are shocking comments and unworthy of anyone seeking to represent Denton County. I call on her fellow Democrats to condemn these remarks, especially anyone who has endorsed her candidacy such as Denton County State Representative Michelle Beckley.”
Dallas County Republican Chair Rodney Anderson said, “The last few weeks have brought together many thoughtful individuals from both parties seeking to find common ground and ways we can work together and improve our community. Mrs. Olson’s despicable comments inciting violence contribute nothing to those efforts and in fact undermine them.”
Rick Barnes, Tarrant County GOP Chair, said, “Remarks which encourage looting of property, businesses, and even homes are beyond the pale and place our citizens at risk. Kim Olson’s comments are unacceptable, and I urge all Tarrant County Democrat elected officials to join me in condemning these remarks, especially anyone who has endorsed her candidacy such as Denton County State Representative Michelle Beckley.”
Dallas County Republican Chair Rodney Anderson said, “The last few weeks have brought together many thoughtful individuals from both parties seeking to find common ground and ways we can work together and improve our community. Mrs. Olson’s despicable comments inciting violence contribute nothing to those efforts and in fact undermine them.”
Rick Barnes, Tarrant County GOP Chair, said, “Remarks which encourage looting of property, businesses, and even homes are beyond the pale and place our citizens at risk. Kim Olson’s comments are unacceptable, and I urge all Tarrant County Democrat elected officials to join me in condemning them.”
Kim Olson’s departure from the Air Force hasn’t been a political liability. Will that change in 2020?
In Kim Olson’s still relatively young political career, her opponents have mostly steered clear of making a major issue out of the contracting scandal that led to her retirement from the Air Force in 2005.
Texas’ swashbuckling agriculture commissioner, Sid Miller, barely brought it up when she ran a surprisingly close race against him in 2018.
This year, she advanced in the first round of a crowded, mostly cordial Democratic U.S. House primary that saw little airing of the scandal. Her runoff opponent, Candace Valenzuela, hasn’t brought it up yet.
However, as she approaches the July runoff, Olson is poised to potentially confront the issue in a way that she has not had to before. Some Valenzuela supporters are starting to go public with concerns about her military career — and whether it would be too much of a general-election liability in a district that national Democrats are hoping to flip.
All the while, national Republicans have kept up a drumbeat suggesting that hounding her as a “war profiteer” would be central to their November playbook in the district. She rejects that term, calling it plainly inaccurate, but acknowledges the attacks are not going away anytime soon — and argues that she is well-prepared to fend them off.
“Does it come up a lot? The short answer is no,” Olson said in an interview. “Will it? The short answer is of course it will. The other side — and I’m talking about post-runoff — is gonna find anything, whether I’m a socialist or all the other great names they tag on to Democrats.”
Olson’s case came to light in a 2006 Los Angeles Times story, and she discusses it at length in a memoir she published later that year, “Iraq and Back: Inside the War to Win the Peace.” During her 2018 bid for agriculture commissioner, it came up mainly in the form of an Austin American-Statesman story.
The issue dates back to Olson’s time in Iraq in the early 2000s, when she served as the No. 2 to Gen. Jay Garner as he led the American rebuilding effort there. Instead of providing Garner’s team with military protection, the Department of Defense hired a group of South African bodyguards that Garner and Olson later said they came to greatly appreciate. When Garner was replaced several months later, he said he asked Olson to find a way to make sure the South Africans got paid for their work.
Along the way, Olson established a U.S. outpost of the South Africans’ security firm, Meteoric, and allegedly made herself the director. Within months, the Pentagon caught wind of the arrangement and conducted an investigation that accused her of improperly helping Meteoric win lucrative government contracts.
Olson denied the allegations and said she never personally profited from the Meteoric contracts. She eventually received a nonjudicial punishment known as an Article 15. She agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges, including creating the appearance of a conflict of interest, and received a formal reprimand and $3,500 fine. She was permitted to retire with an honorable discharge and no reduction in rank.
Garner defended Olson at the time and has continued to in subsequent years. In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Garner called the situation a “miscarriage of justice,” arguing that if anyone should have gotten in trouble, it was him — because “what got her in trouble is what I told her to do.” Olson, he said, was “one of the finest officers I ever served with.”
Democrats, both those who have taken sides in the runoff and those who have not, are keeping an eye on how Olson navigates the re-emergence of the issue.
“There’s no question that the problem she had … is a bump in the road politically and she’s got to get over that without losing a wheel,” said Matt Angle, a Democratic strategist who runs the Lone Star Project, which has not endorsed in the race. “Nobody should think that it’s just a non-issue.”
