As Democrats rail against Texas Republicans' redistricting efforts, threatening to flee the state to block legislative action on it, an inconvenient video has surfaced exposing their hypocrisy on the issue. The 2021 video from a House Foreign Affairs Committee briefing is of Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) talking about Haitian immigrants in Brooklyn. "When I hear my colleagues talk about, you know, no room at the inn, I'm saying I need more people in my district, just for redistricting purposes, and those members could clearly fit here," she said.
The clip has sparked strong reaction among conservatives on social media, with one writing that Dems "just said the quiet part out loud," while another said "This is how you hijack democracy." Steve Munisteri, former Texas GOP chairman, says this has always been part of the Democrat playbook. "Under past court decisions, illegal immigrants are counted in determining how many Congressional seats a state gets," he tells KTRH. "So it's actually to Democrats' advantage to try to get as many unlawful residents in their state as possible."
"It shows you the bankrupt ideology of their position on immigration," he continues.
That ideology is on display despite Democrats claiming Republicans are trying to "rig" the system and threaten democracy by redistricting. In fact, a report from the DOJ shows multiple current Texas districts are actually gerrymandered in favor of Democrats. Munisteri notes there is nothing new or radical about any of this. "Democrat states just like Republican states definitely have a degree of gerrymandering," he says. "And I think it's naïve for anybody to think that the Democratic Party wouldn't maximize its advantages if it could."
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