Greg Abbott, a Republican governor of Texas who stood out in favor of an army veteran convicted of fatally shooting a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020, was accused by MSNBC's Joy Reid on Monday of "bringing back lynching" along with other Republicans.
Garrett Foster, 28, was tragically shot in Austin, Texas, in July 2020, and Daniel Perry, then 37 years old, was found guilty of the crime. While driving through the city, Perry made a right turn onto a street that rioters had taken over. Foster, who apparently had an AK-47 in his hand, and a number of other demonstrators encircled Perry's vehicle. According to Perry's attorneys, Perry shot Foster out of self-defense, according to Reuters.
Abbott claimed in a tweet on Saturday that Perry had the right to maintain his ground and that he was working "as swiftly as Texas law permits" to grant him a pardon.
You might remember that Abbott also sent a happy tweet after Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two men with a semiautomatic rifle following a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was found not guilty, Reid added. "This strikes me as a pattern. Republicans are proposing and enacting laws allowing anyone to hit any protester with their car, whether they are participating in the Black Lives Matter movement or not, in several places, including Florida. This happened after a white woman who was a Black Lives Matter activist was killed in Charlottesville by an automobile. They appear to have returned to draconian 19th century practices like lynching, hanging, and other atrocities.
"What's going on with Republicans that they seem to enjoy bringing the lynching vibe back?" Reid enquired of prominent political analyst at MSNBC Matthew Dowd. Abbott wouldn't have intervened, according to Dowd, if Perry was black.
This is another attack on our democracy, and I don't think people truly grasp what it means. It's all part of the same thing. They believe that the only forms of assault on our democracy are the removal of someone's right to vote or the events of January 6. This is an attack on a jury, which is protected by the seventh amendment of our Constitution, the right to a jury trial, which essentially strips citizens of their ability to hold anyone accountable. A jury is exactly that. It is an essential element of our democracy.
"[Abbott] determined he has greater judgment than the 12 common people sitting in Austin, Texas, to decide this. Another attack on our democracy has been made.
"There are various aspects to fascism. One of them is this kind of desire to be able to hurt or murder your political rivals. And it seems like the right as a whole has this kind of, sort of yearning for that," Reid said.
Garrett Foster, 28, was tragically shot in Austin, Texas, in July 2020, and Daniel Perry, then 37 years old, was found guilty of the crime. While driving through the city, Perry made a right turn onto a street that rioters had taken over. Foster, who apparently had an AK-47 in his hand, and a number of other demonstrators encircled Perry's vehicle. According to Perry's attorneys, Perry shot Foster out of self-defense, according to Reuters.
Abbott claimed in a tweet on Saturday that Perry had the right to maintain his ground and that he was working "as swiftly as Texas law permits" to grant him a pardon.
You might remember that Abbott also sent a happy tweet after Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two men with a semiautomatic rifle following a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was found not guilty, Reid added. "This strikes me as a pattern. Republicans are proposing and enacting laws allowing anyone to hit any protester with their car, whether they are participating in the Black Lives Matter movement or not, in several places, including Florida. This happened after a white woman who was a Black Lives Matter activist was killed in Charlottesville by an automobile. They appear to have returned to draconian 19th century practices like lynching, hanging, and other atrocities.
"What's going on with Republicans that they seem to enjoy bringing the lynching vibe back?" Reid enquired of prominent political analyst at MSNBC Matthew Dowd. Abbott wouldn't have intervened, according to Dowd, if Perry was black.
This is another attack on our democracy, and I don't think people truly grasp what it means. It's all part of the same thing. They believe that the only forms of assault on our democracy are the removal of someone's right to vote or the events of January 6. This is an attack on a jury, which is protected by the seventh amendment of our Constitution, the right to a jury trial, which essentially strips citizens of their ability to hold anyone accountable. A jury is exactly that. It is an essential element of our democracy.
"[Abbott] determined he has greater judgment than the 12 common people sitting in Austin, Texas, to decide this. Another attack on our democracy has been made.
"There are various aspects to fascism. One of them is this kind of desire to be able to hurt or murder your political rivals. And it seems like the right as a whole has this kind of, sort of yearning for that," Reid said.
