Democrat Nashville State Rep. Justin Jones, appearing on MSNBC with host Ali Velshi on Saturday, claimed that his party needs to pull out all the stops and fight back against Republicans. Jones referred to Republicans repeatedly as “fascists” and “neo-confederates” throughout the interview.
He also claimed it wouldn’t matter in the long run what they were willing to do as long as they won.
Jones was ousted from his position in the Tennessee House, along with Reps. Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson, when he helped lead his party’s efforts to “occupy” the State House in protest. He was reinstated days later — after claiming that he’d been forced out by “racists.” During his appearance with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, he discussed the current state of American politics — particularly with regard to redistricting battles and Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) plan to “fight fire with fire.”
Velshi introduced Jones as someone who had made a name for himself in fighting back, adding, “Brother Jones, welcome back to the show. You are living this. Not only have you done it, but you actually got reelected by your constituents to go back and fight some more. You have set this flavor out there a while ago that people want fighters. And right now voters are screaming out for this. They want people who will say, your morals should be good, but if they’re burning the house down you need to do something.”
“I mean, that’s exactly right, Brother Ali. You know, the house is on fire, we have to stop pretending like we don’t smell the smoke,” Pearson replied. “It’s time for America to wake up and put our morals above our manners. Now is not the time to engage in trying to play patty-cake with a party that’s been captured by fascists and neo-Confederates.”
“There is no bipartisanship anymore with a party that is intent on maintaining minority rule between tech oligarchs, White supremacists, and Christian nationalists,” Jones continued, insisting that Republicans were attempting to build a sort of oligarchy. “They want a minority-run government, and they’re willing to do this at any means necessary. We must fight back.”
Jones went on to claim that what they would not be judged as harshly for what they did to get power as they would be for what they did not do, adding, “You know, I think that we will be judged not by what we do, but by what we don’t do, to future generations.”
“Because if we’re serious about the threat of fascism, that means that there is nothing off the table. If we’re really serious about the threat that we face—” he explained. “That means we use everything at our table to fight back.”
Velshi made no move to push back on Jones’ claims, instead agreeing and nodding along with every point.
Contrary to Jones‘s claims that Republicans are leading with “minority rule”, Republicans in the Tennessee legislature have super major majorities in both the House and Senate. Republicans also have majorities in the U.S. House and Senate.
Similarly, Jones attempt to brand Republicans as “confederates” ignores the historical reality that Lincoln was a Republican and the Southern confederate slave owners were Democrats. In fact, the Ku Klux Klan was a Democrat founded and operated terrorist group and opponents to the Civil Rights Movement were primarily southern House and Senate members of the Democrat Party.
Steve Gill is Publisher of TriStar Daily and is a national and international political analyst and commentator.
