News/Commentary

GOP Tenn. Rep walks off CNN interview after host berates him like Dem party mouthpiece

April 8, 2023 | | Print Article

A Tennessee state Republican lawmaker abruptly walked away from a CNN interview Thursday after the network’s hosts berated him as if they were working directly for the Democrat Party.

The beratement concerned Tennessee Republicans’ decision to punish a veritable Democrat-led insurrection that had occurred inside the Tennessee Capitol on March 30th.

Before moving on further, take a look at the following videos to get an idea of how bad the veritable insurrection had been:

Responding to the insurrection, this week Tennessee Republicans expelled two Tennessee Democrats who’d actively taken direct part in it.

In response, Democrats and their partisan media allies experienced a meltdown and have been accusing Republicans of behaving in a “fascist” way.

Now fast-forward to Thursday, when state Rep. Jeremy Faison, the chair of the state’s House Republican Caucus, appeared on CNN to tell his side of the story.

Unfortunately, his goal was made nearly impossible because of the intense pushback he received from CNN’s network hosts.

Watch part one of the interview below:

The interview began with the hosts asking Faison to justify expelling the two Democrats.

“We have had literally thousands of state reps since 1796 who … have worked in this very chamber that you’re seeing me in today. They have all understood that there are rules and procedures to ensure that every voice is heard,” the lawmaker replied.

“There’s almost seven million Tennesseans. And we have come up with these ideas that the best way for everybody to be heard is to make sure that we follow the rules of decorum,” he added before being cut off.

“I understand decorum. … But why take this step? Was there no measure you could have taken before this expulsion? Why take the most extreme step so quickly?” host Kaitlin Collins then asked.

Faison replied by pointing to Tennessee Democrats’ “history” of political grandstanding.

“More than just what America has seen that took place last Thursday, there’s a history all year long of disrupting committees in the House floor, getting off of the germane topic … just to make political grandstanding,” he said.

“We’ve called them out. The chairman of committees, the speaker of the House have been calling them out, time and time again, for grabbing the mic, sucking the air out of the room, making sure no other voice is heard,” he continued.

It was a step too far and thus required stern punishment, he noted.

Collins then asked Faison if he agreed with the Tennessee House speaker’s contention that the veritable insurrection that occurred in the Tennessee Capitol was at all like what happened on Jan. 6th, 2021.

He replied by arguing that it was actually worse, because unlike on Jan. 6th, over in Tennessee actual lawmakers took part in the insurrection as well.

“I saw some really big idiots that I hope are punished to the full extent of the law come and break into the Capitol and act foolish on January 6, but I didn’t see a congressman act this way,” he explained.

Collins pushed back by arguing that the Democrat lawmakers who took part in the veritable insurrection had merely been “passionate” about the issue they were protesting (gun violence).

She then let fellow host Van Jones cut in with some of his own questions.

Watch part two of the interview below:

Jones wound up simply repeating Collins’ original question, albeit with far more emotion.

“You have an array of tools, sir, as a leader, to get people to comply. Why did you not go to the ethics committee? Why did you not go through due process? If you are here, saying, you want this legislator to be respected, why are you not following the rules, and using the tools that you have? You want them to not be extreme, but you’re being extreme. Why is that?” Jones said.

Faison repeated what he’d said earlier — that Republicans had given Democrats “ample chance” to comply and stop behaving like extremists. But Jones ignored what he said and continued pestering him about the same thing.

“Why did you not use the ethics committee? I’m just trying to understand, why did you not go the ethics committee and do the things that are always done in that body? You have not done this to anybody, except for two people, in 200 years. You can’t tell me that there have not been people who have also been disrupted. You’ve had people that have peed on chairs that did not get expelled!” Jones said.

“So I don’t understand why you skipped the ethics committee. If you want our respect, and if you want for people to be reasonable, why are you being so unreasonable? And why are you skipping steps? I don’t understand. You seem to be contradicting — you’re not acting the way you want the young people to act,” he added.

Notice how he claimed Republicans were the ones acting “unreasonable.”

Again, this is how the veritable insurrectionists had behaved:

Faison replied by fact-checking Jones’ “peed on chairs” claim, saying, “I don’t think there’s any truth to that.”

Speaking next, host Sara Sidner defended the veritable insurrectionists, saying they were upset over a mass shooting that had occurred at a Nashville school days earlier.

She also defended the expelled Democrats, claiming that the crowd “was already riled up” long before the two had joined the veritable insurrection.

Faison staunchly disagreed with this contention.

“Watch what took place today. They literally controlled the crowd. They controlled the protesters. They look at them. They do their hand like this. It’s like leading the choir. So the notion that you think that they weren’t getting the people incited, and worked up, into a frenzy? Unfortunately, you weren’t here. You didn’t see it. That’s exactly what they did,” he replied.

Sidner, who appeared to be the most partisan of all three hosts, replied by again defending the veritable insurrectionists.

“Our reporters were there. And they talked to some of them. And some of them were teachers who were so distraught. They were near tears because they could not believe that their lawmakers were doing this, as opposed to dealing with the biggest issue at hand,” she said, sounding just like a Democrat.

“The number one killer of children is gun violence. And they wanted you all to do something about that instead of wasting time, in their mind, when it comes to this,” she added.

A fed-up Faison responded by saying he had to go but first dropping one key point.

“It’s not possible for us to move forward with the way they were behaving in committee, and on the House floor. There’s got to be some peace. And for them … to disrupt every committee, disrupt the House floor … how can we get to the answers of what are we going to do about gun violence? What are we going to do about guns and cars? What are we going to do about red flag law? The conversation can’t happen, because they’re drowning out and sucking all the air out of the room,” he said.

Faison then walked off camera and left, shocking the hosts.

Vivek Saxena
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