Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA) said Friday on MSNBC’s “Live” that Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) “endorsed” lynching during his remarks at an anti-Asian discrimination hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill because former President Donald Trump opened the floodgates making it “okay to speak like that.”
While saying the families of those killed in the Atlanta-area spa shootings deserve justice, Roy said, “There are old sayings in Texas about find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree. We take justice very seriously, and we ought to do that.”
Johnson said, “Yesterday’s hearing has been 30 years in the making. It had been set a couple of weeks ago. It just coincidentally happened to occur just two days after this mass murder against AAPIs. To have this hearing at an opportunity to show solidarity and compassion for the AAPI community, Chip Roy, my colleague, could not help himself but to express those old racists, xenophobic ideas about the Chicoms, and anything else you want to call them is I think, what he said. He even went back to the old-fashioned institution of lynching and sanctioned it in this country.”
He added, “This is a time when People needed some healing. They needed to be assured that we are with them. It’s very disappointing that that attitude still exists. There’s a vein running through our Congress, people expressing those attitudes. Donald Trump is the one that gave the signal to open the floodgates, and it’s OK to speak like that and say whatever is on your mind. When it comes time or an opportunity to apologize, you are still too arrogant and self-centered and lacking in compassion to even acknowledge that perhaps you offended someone. Couldn’t even get that out of Chip Roy.”
Melvin said, “Congressman Johnson, quickly, I want to give you an opportunity because you just said that congressman Roy, in his comments, endorsed lynching. I’m not sure that’s what you meant to say. I wanted to give you an opportunity to clarify.”
Johnson said, “I absolutely meant to say that he endorsed the old-fashioned institution of racism, I mean of lynching. He talked about we need to get out back and find the tallest tree and get our rope and bring folks to justice. That’s old-fashion lynching. No way to cut that piece of cake other than that way.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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