Chip Roy.
He is a US representative for
Texas 21st congressional district.
And today in testimony he said
something is extremely problematic.
He said, there's an old saying in
Texas about find all the rope in
Texas and get a tall oak tree.
We take justice very seriously.
I want us to take a listen
to that clip.
>> The victims of race based
violence and
their families deserve justice.
And that's the case
what we're talking about here
with the tragedy.
What we just saw occur in Atlanta,
Georgia.
I would also suggest that
the victims of cartels moving
illegal aliens deserve justice.
The American citizens in South
Texas they're getting absolutely
decimated by what's happening our
southern border deserve justice.
The victims of rioting and looting
in the streets last week businesses
closed burn land we started last
summer deserve justice.
We believe in justice.
Right there's an old sayings in
Texas about find the all the roof
in Texas and get a tall oak tree.
We take justice very seriously and
we ought to do that.
Round up the bad guys.
That's what we believe.
My concern about this hearing is
that it seems to want to venture
into the policing of rhetoric in
a free society, free speech and
away from the rule of law and
taking out bad guys.
>> So the clearly the problem here
is the allusion to lynching,
which goes without saying is
a blight on American history that
in some forms still occurs to this
day .And it troubled a lot of
people and before I get too tied
up into what this man said,
I want to share a tweet from Dr.
Katherine Lee because she called.
Once she heard it,
she immediately called
the congressman's office to find
out why he would say such a thing.
And his staffers made an excuse.
And this is the excuse that
they made.
And this is what she
said on Twitter.
She said, "Did Rep Chip Roy begin
his remarks at the House Judiciary
Committee hearing on violence
against Asian-Americans by joking
about Texas' tradition of trees and
ropes?
Surely, I misheard." And
the justification that they gave
for that was the fact that he was
quoting a song,
quoting a song by Toby Keith.
The song is, a Beer for my Horses.
And this
is the excuse that a second
congressmen staffers gave for
him making an allusion to lynching.
When this country has such
a history filled with lynching,
and just for good measure, I want
to read the quote from the song
because a quote from the song isn't
even better the line the lyrics
from the song isn't even better.
And this is what the song says.
"Grand pappy told my pappy back in
my day, son.
A man had to answer for
the wicked that he'd done.
Take all the rope in Texas.
Find a tall oak tree,
round up all them bad boys.
Hang them high in the street.
For all the people to see." And
my only question before we go any
further is,
who do you think his grand pappy
actually identified as the bad guy?
Jake?
>> Yeah.
So there's obviously a history
of lynchings in this country and
in Texas and
that's what he's referring to.
Now, not all lynchings were
done against African Americans.
There were times that they would
grab folks and
hang them that were white, okay?
But were the majority of
the lynchings, the overwhelming
majority lynchings done to black
folks in this country?
Yes.
Was the point of
the lynching justice?
No, almost never.
And the point was to terrorize
black people in this country.
You better not stand up to us.
If you do, we'll hang you from
the tallest oak tree.
And like I've told you in the past,
it's disturbing but
you should know, they often times
would do a picnic around the body.
That was a message.
It wasn't a message to the bad guys
that what bad thing they did
like Emmett Till and
the others was not a crime.
It was the audacity to think that
they might be any anywhere near is
equal to white people.
>> Okay. >> So that's the history
of lynching, by the way they would
burn the body afterwards,
they would cut off the genitals.
So, understand the references made
because he's making a reference to
very clear reference.
So, I want you to understand
the power of that reference.
I don't want him to pretend that
the history of lynchings in this
country is different than
what it is.
We did could have happen anybody
it happened randomly.
No, no, no, no.
The overwhelming majority
lynchings in this country
had a very political purpose.
If you stand up to us,
we murder you in the most grotesque
ways.
And we do it as a political
statement, which is, by the way,
the definition of terrorism to kill
for a political message.
So that is Chip Roy sitting
republican congressman of Texas.
I'm glorifying terrorism.
Maybe the worst terrorism we
have ever had in America.
[INAUDIBLE] My God.
911. Okay, 911 is awful,
absolutely awful.
Now, that was one day.
Take hundreds of years have you
dare raise your head.
We will murder you in the streets
from the tallest oak tree.
You are talking about terrorism.
Why do you think they burn crosses
on people's yards?
That was to terrorize them.
If you ever rise up in and
demand equality, or anything coming
to equality we will lynch you from
the tallest oak tree in Texas.
So now Chip Roy, in the middle
of a hearing about discrimination
says, yeah, these days the
Republican Party rewards monsters.
So they're in a competition for
who could be most monstrous.
So now Ron Rohnson went out there
the other day said,
the people who were writing I that
they were white, so
I have no problem with them.
But if it was black lives matter.
[LAUGH] I would have hated them.
I would have been really scared.
And now Chip Roy says,
hold my beer.
Okay, I'm going to go pro lynching.
I'm going to go pro lynching
because the Republican
voters are here for it.
I will not be punished,
I will be rewarded.
That's why today,
he doubled down when challenged.
He said, "Yeah, yeah,
I meant it." And that's who
the Republican Party is today.
>> That's where they are.
That's who they've been.
That's what they desire to
continue to be.
And they tried to get away with it
under the guise of free speech.
But when your speech becomes
a threat to my life, right?
That's the intersection that we're
playing with right here.
It's because like he's doing this
in context, in the backdrop of
eight people being murdered,
six of them being targeted because
they were Asian.
And he's using just this off
the cuff allusion and
when he gets to is lynching.
That shows the depth of the
political derangement that rests in
the hearts of conservatism.
This is how they think,
from the depths of his heart.
He really thought that,
that was making a salient point.
And the thing that gets me the most
about this junk is that there's one
other clip and it's from 2019.
And I want to show where
in this instance, he's
telling people to hold the line.
Don't be so angry.
We really care about Texas and
justice at justice in Texas.
But don't get so furious.
I want you to see how angry he got
over the House Oversight Committee
requesting emails from Ivanka Trump
and Jared Kushner like he got
38 hot over this.
Take a look in.
>> This is the face of the
democratic party, this is the face
of your Congress today America.
>> Good job.
>> Mr. Conley.
>> I thank the chair.
>> Charlie?
I thank the chair.
I have a motion,
i do want to just say.
Shame on my colleague from Texas.
>> No.
>> To question,
the motivation of demo.
>> Shame on this body.
>> Yeah, I know.
We've heard from you.
It's my time.
>> And you'll continue to
hear from me.
It depends on this country.
>> Mr. Chairman.
>> Hold on.
He has the time.
>> I have the time.
>> America deserves the time.
>> Yeah.
>> America deserves better than
what I just heard from Mr. Mr.
Chairman, I have a motion.
>> Taking his ball and going home.
Bye. >> So he gets so enraged over
trying to have accountability for
Republicans that he gets up and
storms out, rest in power
to Chairman at the time,
Elijah Cummings.
But he wants us to not get so
hasty with our anger over a white
supremacist killing
Asian Americans.
That to me is the epitome of what
republicans and conservatives
are in this country right now.
>> But I love that you show that
clip because it's really
important context.
So context matters.
So when it's eight people murdered,
and we're having a hearing about
anti Asian crime which is up 150%
in the last year.
He's not bothered by it.
He's bothered by wait,
are you going to stop me from
saying racist things?
I'm really [INAUDIBLE] that vexes
me, right?
But when it's his privileges and
the privileges of his Republican
colleagues that are in question he
jobs so mad, right?
A bunch of people were slaughtered.
That's okay.
I'm, you know,
I'm going to nitpick here, right?
Ivanka, we're talking about Ivanka.
Now but the other part of
the context that matters is later
in that speech from today,
Chip Roy, start talking about the
Chinese Communist government and
sort of blaming them for the virus.
But wait a minute.
That's the kind of talk that
started this in the first place.
So why are you making those
comments in the context of this
here?
If we're having a hearing about
Chinese trade relations with China
or something along those lines, and
you want to use your demagoguery
there in that context, okay,
I still don't like it, but I it at
least there's a logical connection.
The only reason to bring up
the demagoguery around the Chinese
Communist Party at a hearing about
anti Asian hatred is to say, I kind
of like the anti Asian hatred.
This is what sparked it in
the first place.
That's why I'm gratuitously
bringing it in here.
Tell you I'm going to rub your
face in it.
The reason is my folders, love it.
They love it when I'm racist, so
I'll throw an aviation rhetoric
in a committee hearing about anti
Asian rhetoric.
And I'm throwing in
a gratuitous lynching reference for
you, to really just waive that
white hood all over the Congress.
I want you guys to be clear,
if there was a Klan I'd be
the leader of that Klan,
is what Chip Roy is saying.
I got it, okay?
Now, that message it Super clear
but one more thing, Ben.
He said in Texas we take justice
very seriously kill you.
Because the lynchings by
definition, and I'm not just
talking about the black lynchings,
every lynching, by definition was
an affront to justice.
We do not want to go through
the justice system, right?
We want to hang that guy right or
wrong.
We don't want to take it through
the courts.
We don't want to go to law
enforcement.
What we want to do is take it into
our own hands, because we're not
interested in justice.
We're interested in vengeance,
right or wrong.
That was literally the point of the
lynchings otherwise they would have
gone through the justice system.
So he is making a passionate
defense of injustice as
he spews his racist rhetoric for
the Republican crowds to consume.
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> All right,
we have take a break here.
But when we come back we're not
done with this because some that at
some point, I guess claimed to be
on the left like Glenn Greenwald
has decided that they're going to
fly their flight to and
white people must be defended.
So Glenn is here to help.