Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico did a nice job of taking apart Fox host Will Cain's lame attacks trying to pretend both sides are equal when it comes to the issue of gerrymandering.
As we've discussed here, Democrats are refusing to just lay down while Texas Republicans try to cheat their way into maintaining control of the House of Representatives next election cycle, so of course Fox has been on the attack nonstop, pretending what they're doing in Texas is justified.
Talarico made an appearance on Cain's show this Tuesday, and after being badgered by Cain about gerrymandering in California, New York and Massachusetts, and whether those elections are "rigged or not," Talarico responded by telling Cain that he's "not an elected official in those states," but he's "condemned those maps" and that he's "against gerrymandering wherever it happens" whether it's a red or blue state, but went onto explain the difference with Texas.
TALARICO: But what's happening here is they're redistricting in the middle of the decade, so they already well gerrymandered our maps in 2021. I was there. I spoke against the bill. I didn't break quorum. My colleagues and I didn't break quorum.
We're breaking quorum now because they are trying to change the rules halfway through the game, and they're doing it at the request of the most powerful man in the country.
After again being badgered by Cain to call those elections "rigged" and claiming that the only issue Talarico had with what Texas is doing is the "timing," Talarico again had to explain to Cain why what may happen in California and New York is not the same as what's going on in Texas.
TALARICO: Both of those efforts in those blue states are contingent on if Texas decides to cheat, if Texas Republicans decide to draw these maps in the middle of the decade at the request of the most powerful man in the country.
CAIN: So you rigged in response to something you called rigging. (crosstalk) You cheat in response to something you think is cheating.
TALARICO: I'm trying to listen to you and I'd love for you to try to give me a chance to speak.
You know, I think that all of us should be alarmed, whether we're Democrats, Independents, or Republicans if the most powerful politician in the country, whether it's President Trump or President Obama, if they are trying to change the rules midway through the decades so they don't have to face accountability for their actions.
What I would ask you is if Republican policies are so popular, why do they have to redraw the maps before the election?
After some snide response by Cain about Republicans having a majority in Texas and basically saying that means they can do whatever they want, and accusing Talarico of being a "radical" for leaving the state and making some weird basketball analogy about what's going on, Talarico proceeded to dismantle Cain's attempts at the both siderism, which was met by Cain pretending he didn't understand what Talarico just said.
TALARICO: Again, I've condemned all gerrymandering across the country, and in fact, when Democrats had a majority in Congress, they voted to ban gerrymandering in every state, red states and blue states.
Do you know how many Republican members of Congress joined them in that effort?
CAIN: Which one? I'm sorry, which state did you just refer to?
TALARICO: I'm asking, do you know how many Republicans joined Democrats in the US Congress to ban gerrymandering?
All the Democrats voted for it. Zero Republicans voted for it. Zero.
So you can spare spare me the both sides rhetoric. It's clearly one side that is trying to rig the rules in the middle of the game.
This is like two football teams coming out of the locker room at halftime and the team that's ahead says they want to change the rules for the second half so they can win the game. All of us would be throwing food at the TV if that happened.
We, we don't accept cheating in our politics. We don't accept cheating in our relationships. We shouldn't accept cheating in our elections.
CAIN: I appreciate whatever you just referred to about the number of Democrat congressmen that I'm unfamiliar with who made this, against Republican congressmen who opposed it.
Cain again tried to both sides the issue by bringing up how the maps are drawn in Massachusetts, and Talarico had to remind him that it was a Republican governor that signed that map into law, and as Mediaite reported, there are other reasons for why those maps are drawn the way they are:
The current congressional maps in Massachusetts were signed off on in 2021 by then-GovernorCharlie Baker, a Republican. The Bay State hasn’t sent a Republican to the U.S. House in more than 30 years, but this is due to the geography of the state and not the way its congressional maps are drawn. Last week, The Boston Globe noted that drawing even just one district favorable to Republicans would be quite the undertaking.
“Though there are plenty of Republican-leaning voters in Massachusetts, it would be practically impossible to create a Republican-controlled congressional district because the state’s major population hubs tend to vote Democratic,” the paper said. “A red congressional district, no matter how wonkily drawn, would likely lack the required population size to qualify.”
Cain isn't the brightest bulb. He brought a knife to a gunfight here with Talarico.
