In a very unintentionally funny broadcast of MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart having a total freakout over Texas’s redrawing of House districts so as to comply with a Department of Justice letter regarding its “racially gerrymandered” districts that were benefiting Democrats, declaring that Republicans were breaking the rules by gerrymandering in the middle of the decade.
For reference, Capeheart’s berserk meltdown occurred when he appeared on “PBS NewsHour” on Friday, August 8. In it, he was reacting to news out of Texas that the state is redistricting, and as such is obliterating a number of Democratic districts, such as the one controlled by Jasmine Crockett. Though he admitted that everyone does gerrymandering, he claimed that it was unfair in this case because it’s the middle of the decade rather than part of the typical redistricting cycle, an absurd distinction.
In those comments, Capeheart alleged that Texas Republicans, who are trying to hold the Democrats who fled to avoid a redistricting vote legally liable for having done so, of trying, with redistricting, to “pervert the Constitution, pervert the will of the people, prevent the people from choosing their own elected officials.”
Later, he insisted that they are trying to block democracy by redistricting. He then continued with the ramble by declaring that while “both parties are guilty when it comes to gerrymandering,” in this case it is wrong for Texas Republicans to do it because “This is mid-decade that they’re doing” and as such is “cheating by legal means.”
That angry rant began when Capeheart declared that this redistricting is “sort of cheating by legal means that the Texas governor is trying to accomplish.” He then added that, by fleeing the state so as to block the Texas legislature from establishing a quorum and being able to vote on the redistricting, Democrats in Texas are “standing up for democratic values.”
Continuing, Capeheart got to his absurd line about the redistricting being inappropriate because it occurred at a different time than is typical, ignored that it was precipitated by the DOJ warning about race-based gerrymandering in its districts. He said, “If this were at the ten-year mark of doing redistricting, this would be a whole different conversation. This is mid-decade that they’re doing. It’s cheating by legal means.”
Adding to that, Capeheart encouraged California’s far-left Gov. Newsom to act much like Texas Republicans but to benefit Democrats with gerrymandered districts, saying, “And I think that Gov. Newsom, from the very beginning, when Texas was making noises about this, that he was going to do something about it, well, now he’s going to do something about it. And I am all here for it.”
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Entertainingly, Capeheart then insisted that it is Republicans who are attacking the American Constitution and democracy, ignoring years of lawfare and open borders engaged in by Democrats and saying, “Democrats cannot stand by while Republicans pervert the Constitution, pervert the will of the people, prevent the people from choosing their own elected officials.”
Finally concluding, he admitted that both parties engage in gerrymandering but insisted this is different, saying, “And I know that both parties are guilty when it comes to gerrymandering, coming up with these crazy ketchup-like districts. But this — what is happening in Texas at the behest of the president of the United States, is a whole other thing.”
Listen to him here:
Featured image credit: Abbott and Trump,By U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – Hurricane Harvey Response, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65722514