It was the right thing to do. If the Left didn’t go so insane after the January 6 riot, then maybe this move by Tennessee Republicans could be argued as heavy-handed. On March 30, according to the Left’s rules, there was an insurrectionist event at the Nashville Capitol, where hordes of anti-gun and transgender rights rebelled and stormed the building. It was in response to the March 27 shooting at a private Christian school, Covenant School, where six people were murdered by a transgender shooter, Audrey Hale. That part was left out, with progressives ignoring the killer's background while claiming Hale was a shooting victim. Hale was a murderous thug who got what was coming to him/her/whatever when the police arrived. They justifiably ended Hale’s rampage. The cognitive dissonance exhibited by the Left after Covenant was a sight to behold: the real victims were the transgender community because people say mean things to them.
Yes, that’s a position some in the media took.
So, after the mayhem at the state capitol, Republicans, who have a supermajority in the Tennessee House of Representatives, moved to expel three Democratic Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson from the lower chamber for their role in the uprising. Jones and Pearson got the boot, but Johnson barely survived. Of course, the predictable racism narrative popped up since Johnson is white and Pearson and Jones are both black.
The liberal media will always be the platform from which liberals can mount a counterattack, whether in the right or not. For the left-leaning press, this move by the GOP provided refuge in Nashville: they can focus on the expulsion of these state Democrats from the legislature while serving up the ‘GOP is racist’ narratives while moving ever further away from the shooting that caused all of this for obvious political reasons.
So, are we shocked that NBC set Jones up to play the race card on live television? He’s enjoying his 15 minutes, and the liberal media can milk days focusing on state capitol intrigue. The Nashville shooting was already buried; this latest round of coverage submerges it in concrete (via Newsbusters):
NBC Today hosts Peter Alexander and Kristen Welker welcomed recently expelled Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones on to the Saturday show by putting the ball on the tee for him to routinely denounce Republicans as racist for his role in shutting down legislative proceedings with a bullhorn.
Alexander went first and simply repeated Jones’s own words back to him, “You said this week as we heard you that this is a grave day for democracy and that it sets a dangerous precedent, the expulsion of you and one of your colleagues there. Why do you think this happened and how do you think it should be resolved?”
Jones continued to portray himself as some sort of victim, “I come to you as a representative in exile, because a majority white caucus decided to expel the two youngest black lawmakers, and it sends a message to the nation that if it can happen in Tennessee, it can happen anywhere. We have a party and a Speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton, who is drunk with power, who is fearful of opposition voices, voices of dissent, and whose role is to silence those voices.”
Welker responded by repeating Alexander’s original question, “So, Mr. Jones, just quickly to follow up, how does this get resolved?”
This time, Jones responded that he plans to run to the upcoming special election, “but what will resolve this is us challenging this attack on democracy because it's not just about us. It's about silencing the voices of those young people who were here who are protesting for their lives against the mass shootings that happened just a week ago here in Nashville.”
It's blowback we’ve all seen and expected regarding these antics. It’s annoying, but conservatives don’t have the network arsenal capable of drowning out liberal nonsensicality. Fox News is one network. The Left has multiple outlets, along with various print and online publications. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t shy away from playing and beating the Left at their own game due to these media obstacles, which I fear too many take into account on our side, which explains the lack of fight on some issues.