The Governor of Oklahoma is now seeking the resignation of four different
county officials after some truly appalling audio recordings have been
released of explicitly racist comments being made on the one hand, and
then vague allusions to the possibility of murdering journalists as well.
It's weird stuff, scary stuff.
We're gonna jump into this first clip, here's the pretty explicit racism for you.
>> If this was back in the day, when Alan Marston would take a damn black guy and
whoop their ass and throw him in the cell, I’d run for [BLEEP] sheriff.
>> Yeah, well it's not like that no more.
>> I know- >> [LAUGH]
>> Take them down to Mud Creek and
hang them up with a damn rope.
>> Yeah.
>> But you can't do anything about it, they got more rights than we got.
>> Okay, that was between the sheriff, his investigator Alicia Manning,
commissioners Mark Jennings, Robert Beck, Commissioner Secretary Heather Carter, and
Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix.
And although a little bit of that is hard to follow, a little bit garbled.
They have more rights than we do is always a fun thing for someone like this to throw
out there, and then of course their references to lynching people.
So, yeah, I think some resignations probably should be the ground floor for
the consequences we should see from this.
Mondale, what do you think?
>> Every case tried under this administration should be brought back up.
The DA, or the sheriff, anybody implicit that's been locked up because of this.
If you're black, you just got your little reason to call a lawyer and say look,
racism had a role in what happened to me.
This person believes that because you can no longer string me up over a mud lake, or
throw me in a cell and beat me, that I have more rights than them.
It also is a time that he misses, so
why is this person having the right to oversee anyone?
This is the problem,
this idea is the problem with our policing system in this country.
It is people harboring these thoughts that black people having the right to challenge
systems is more rights than them.
What they're really saying is they're having more rights than they
should as black people, you shouldn't have the right to question.
Because America for a long time believed that black people had no rights that
a white man was obligated to listen to or respect, and
this gentleman just said the same thing on tape.
>> Yeah, they have more rights than us just means they have rights.
And I hate that, that's unacceptable, something needs to be done about it.
But that wasn't the end of it, there was also a discussion about their plans to
potentially murder two Gazette reporters, Chris and Bruce Willingham.
Take a look at this.
>> They're insignificant in my life, really,
they bring no [CROSSTALK] >> The old saying is what goes around
goes around, it will, I told you it will.
>> I know where two big deep holes are if you ever need them.
>> I've got an excavator.
>> Well these are already pre-dug.
>> Yeah, but the thing of it is- >> We actually told the truth.
>> I've known two or three hit men, they're very quiet guys.
>> Yeah.
>> And would cut no [BLEEP] mercy.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay, that's county officials talking about digging deep holes and
talking about the hitmen that they know.
So it's not just devastating, obviously, the fact that you would joke about or
talk about killing journalists or whatever.
But if you know these hitmen, why are they just out there existing?
Feel like they should maybe be locked up,
why do I need to tell these officials what their job is supposed to be?
Now the governor, Kevin Stitt, who I can see people in the chatter like,
Stitt definitely agrees with all this.
I'm not familiar with Kevin Stitt very much.
But he says I am both appalled and disheartened to hear of the horrid
comments made by officials in McCurtain County.
There's simply no place for such hateful rhetoric in the state of Oklahoma,
especially by those that serve to represent the community through their
respective office.
And there's also a long statement from the sheriff's office I'm not sure we'll
be able to get to.
But there was a big protest trying to put pressure on them to do something, so
we'll see what happens.
Mondale, any final thoughts about what you've heard?
>> I mean listen, we have a governor, right,
like the comment said absolutely shows and
exemplifies behaviors that lines up with this.
The idea though we have county and law enforcement, law enforcement who's
supposed to be out here against these thugs, bragging about knowing two or three
hitmen that won't cut these journalists any slack is absolutely disgusting.
And someone needs to investigate who these hitmen and who have they hit.
>> Yeah, by the way, I don't know for sure,
this is a bit of speculation on my part.
But my guess would be that every one of those people that you just heard who
are talking about lynching black people and
murdering journalists support the elimination of abortion rights because of
their deeply held Christian religious beliefs.
After all, they're pro-life and
thou shalt not kill, except if it's someone of a different race or
a journalist who's investigating you, then there's a couple of exceptions.
I think that's in the subtext of the Ten Commandments, it was worn away by wind and
time, but it was probably there.
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