GOP ‘engages’ in ‘violence’ 'against black people on regular basis,’ claims MSNBC contributor

During MSNBC’s Deadline: White House on Tuesday, MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson ranted about how Republicans engage in violence towards black people "on a regular basis" and to such an extreme that it makes the January 6 violence on Capitol Hill "pale in comparison."

Johnson’s remarks came during his appearance on Nicolle Wallace’s show as he seethed over January 6 Committee hearing testimony from an African American poll worker named Ruby Freeman.

Freeman, a Georgia poll worker who aided in the vote count for the 2020 election, told the committee she was harassed by Trump supporters after they alleged that a video seemed to show her suspiciously inserting a USB drive into vote counting hardware as she was counting votes.

At the time, the video fueled more speculation of alleged voter fraud in pro-Trump circles.

Johnson expressed rage over Freeman’s testimony, claiming he had never felt so angry since seeing African American Minneapolis resident George Floyd murdered on camera by police officers in 2020.

"The level of rage that I and people that I know had when we saw this testimony is beyond anything I've probably experienced since George Floyd," Johnson exclaimed.

He explained that he was so affected by this story personally because his grandmother used to work at the polls. "That is literally the kind of work that my grandmother used to do in Newark, New Jersey, registering people to vote, taking seniors in buses to go here & there, getting young people registered to vote."

Johnson then accused Republicans of routine violence against the African American community. "The level of violence that the Republican organization engages in against black people on a regular basis should make everything that happens in this trial pale in comparison! This is what they do! This is what they do!" he exclaimed, gesticulating wildly with his hands.

The pundit mentioned that he doesn’t care as much if lawmakers and politicians like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger get harassed because at least they have protection. He stated, "This is why Randy Bowman and Raffensperger-- this is why I don't care about getting threatening calls. Cause you know what happens to them? They go back to their offices, and they get security."
He expressed the same sentiment for Supreme Court justices, adding, "You know what happens to people on the Supreme Court when they get threatened? They get security paid for by the Senate."
Though a Senate bill to upgrade security for Supreme Court justices wasn’t passed in the House until after the attempted murder of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Still, he juxtaposed this security with the African American community’s lack of it, especially in the face of what he declared was the "white nationalist coup" that is the GOP. He claimed, "But not regular black people who are just doing their jobs, not people who have lost their name, the ability to go to the grocery store, the ability to just live their regular lives for having the audacity to stand against the white nationalist coup that masquerades as the Republican Party."

Johnson expressed further anger over his prediction that Freeman and other poll workers will continue to be harassed because they testified.
He concluded his rant by saying that everyone that harassed these poll workers should be in jail. "This was the most infuriating part of these hearings that I've ever seen. Every single one of these people should be in jail. And if they're not, it's an absolute abdication of responsibility by this committee, by Merrick Garland all the way up to the White House."