Joe Scarborough tore into Texas Republicans over their “idiotic” plan to redraw the state’s congressional lines and effectively “rig the system” against Democrats. On Tuesday, the “Morning Joe” co-host called out the state’s GOP after playing a clip of Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows admonishing Democrats on the floor a day earlier.
“They’ve left the state, abandoned their posts and turned their backs on the constituents they swore to represent,” Burrows said Monday of the Democrats. “They’ve shirked their responsibilities under the direction and pressure of out-of-state politicians and activists who don’t know the first thing about what’s right for Texas.”
“Oh, my goodness! It’s almost like Lincoln talking to Congress at the beginning of the Civil War,” Scarborough said sarcastically, mocking the speaker’s remarks.
“That guy and the rest of the Texas Legislature and Greg Abbott want to rig the system,” Scarborough continued. “They want to make sure that Republicans are overrepresented on Election Day. They want to rig the process.”
The new congressional map proposed by Republicans would give the party a likely path to pick up five seats in next year’s midterm elections. But Scarborough blasted the plan as shortsighted: “If Texas achieves what they want to achieve, then California will go back, and then they will draw up even more rigged lines that will help Democrats, and New York state will do it.”
“It’s an idiotic thing to do,” the MSNBC host and former Republican congressman said. “They used to do it every 10 years. And now, I don’t know if the president told them to do this or somebody else told them to do it, but it’s just stupid and, worse than that, it’s just not right.” Scarborough labeled the Republicans’ attempt to manipulate the map “anti-democratic” and noted “both sides” have used gerrymandering to their advantage. “It’s time for us to stop it,” he said. “This is not going to accomplish anything.” You can watch Scarborough’s full takedown in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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