Politically charged. Murder conviction in Texas is testing Governor
Greg Abbott's pardon power. A man convicted of killing an armed protester
during the 2020 George Floyd. Protests requested a retrial today,
but in the meantime, a state board is looking into whether to recommend
a pardon at the request of the governor, Lopez walks us through the
case and the political implications. Be very fond of defended Daniel
Perry. Guilty of convicted of murder in Texas may now be pardoned
before he's even sentenced On Friday, a jury found Army Sergeant
Daniel Perry guilty of shooting and killing 28 year old Garrett Foster
in July 2020. But Republican Governor Greg Abbott condemned the verdict
and said he'd work as swiftly as Texas law allows towards a pardon.
Adding that Texas has one of the strongest standard ground laws of
self defense that cannot be nullified by a jury.
Foster was marching in a black lives matter demonstration when Perry
ran a red light and drove into the crowd in downtown Austin. Both
men were armed. Protesters surrounded Perry's car, and he fired five
shots killing Foster. Perry's attorneys argued he shot in self defense
after Foster pointed his gun first acclaim. Eyewitnesses disputed
in court in the weeks leading up to the violence. Perry had expressed
opposition to the nationwide protests. He texted a friend. Quote.
I might have to kill a few people on my way to work. They are rioting
outside my apartment complex. This is illegal atrocity. It's so obviously
unjust. Immediately After the conviction, Fox host Tucker Carlson
championed Perry's case on his primetime program and pressured Abbott
to intervene and we wanted to ask if he was considering a pardon
for Daniel Perry. But for some reason, Governor Greg Abbott's office
told us he just can't make it. Hours later, the governor announced
his request for an expedited review and pardon recommendation by
the state pardon and parole board. Today, the county's district attorney
asked to present evidence to the Texas Board of Pardons as it considers
Abbott's request. Extremism. Experts warn that Abbott's pushed apart
in Daniel Perry is part of a larger pattern within the GOP to normalize
violence. Joining to discuss is Jeff Charlotte, author of the undertows
Scenes From a Slow Civil War. He covers the growth of right wing
extremism. Jeff Thanks so much for joining us, you've covered Republicans
and the far right for a very long time. What's your reaction to Abbott,
saying that he supports a pardon for Daniel Perry? I think what we're
seeing here and I see Abbott's actions on a continuing with the actions.
The Tennessee State legislators, uh some of the actions taken by
Rhonda Santos. We're seeing a kind of institutionalization of the
far right violence that some thought came to a peak on January 6th.
Instead, it's being pursued by law. And it's It's now entering into
a period in this right wing movement, where it's almost sort of like
a mythological age of martyrs. The creation of martyrs
Actually, Babbitt, most famously, I suppose, but now the martyr doesn't
even need to have been killed. They simply need to have been persecuted
like the January six prisoners or Kyle Rittenhouse or now, Daniel
Perry. And I want to get to Rittenhouse and Babbitt. But first, Daniel
Perry was very active online. He responded to a tweet that same summer
from then President Donald Trump in 2020 that made thinly veiled
threats of violence towards protesters. Perry responded, saying,
quote, send them to Texas. That's just one example of Trump in his
supporters normalizing violence using violent rhetoric. We saw that
a lot with January six What is the impact of Trump? Condoning violence
like that. I would say it's it's more than condoning violence, and
it's more than normalizing violence. I think what we have seen emerging
the United States is a political formation for which we can use legitimately
with historical reference. The F word Fascism, which is to say it's
a kind of celebration of violence is more than condoning. But that
one trial finds one true self and violence and that we see how many
there was. I think 72 73 car ramming attacks on protests and that
summer of 2020. We see that in Daniel Perry's
almost sort of boasting and what I'm going to do, and and I'm going
to make this attack in the same way that Trump has for so long spoken
of violence, not as a Not as something he regrets but sees as necessary.
That would be bad enough. But it's something that is almost joyful
and and and and and perversely pleasurable. And last night, Tucker
Carlson on Fox had Kyle Rittenhouse on his program to defend Perry.
Rittenhouse fatally shot two protesters during George Floyd protests
in Wisconsin in 2020, but he was acquitted.
Difference with Perry Rittenhouse, though, has become a folk hero
on the right. Do you think that Republicans and base voters are going
to do the same for Daniel Perry. I think it's already happened. We've
seen Daniel Perry celebrated not just on Tucker Carlson and by Kyle
Rittenhouse, by by Alex Jones and other leading right wing figures
we've seen leading Q and on figures embracing Daniel Perry and and
almost sort of inserting him in again to this sort of this martyr
myth. It's almost a religious feeling of The figures. Who are they
imagine a sort of like Old West heroes, um, standing their ground
even though and we don't. I mean, he's already been found guilty,
so we don't have to revisit that. But the fact is, Perry himself
said
right to the police right after the event. I wanted to stop him before
he aimed This wasn't this wasn't an old West quick draw shot him.
There was no aiming. And that too, I think is part of the violence
that's being celebrated now to kill a black lives matter. Protester
a white man who but as a black lives matter, protester, I think in
a way is red on the right as part of this threat that they perceive
of blackness and you've traveled the country, Jeff talking to Republican
voters. Why do you think That they are marred arising as you said,
people like Kyle Rittenhouse like Ashley Babbitt. The insurrection
is to storm the capital and was killed by a police officer there,
and potentially Perry. It's It is a stage and it's a stage
and what we've trumpism, which is sort of gravitated from a kind
of, uh, a prosperity, gospel winning and getting rich to a kind of
conspiracy, religion and now to you need victims, not just the broad
victimization of white grievance, but you need specific characters.
Stories have become central icons around which you can organize and
imagine and whose store Tories into whose stories Um, followers of
the movement can project themselves. They can imagine. What would
I do if I was in that situation, just as Daniel Perry was, in a sense?
Uh, picking up on, uh, the actions of those before them. And meanwhile,
these because I I really think we want to connect him to the January
6th those who are still imprisoned. We saw in Waco that recent Trump
rally where he opened not with the national anthem. But with the
January 6th choir, So we're replacing. Political figures with martyr
figures were replacing traditional rituals with new rituals designed
for this new movement. We're replacing the rule of law with this
kind of radical states' rights, Jeff Charlotte, We've got to leave
it there, but thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Laura.