MSNBC guest: George Santos should 'keep the sacred name of Rosa Parks out of his lying mouth'

16 July 2023

United States Rep. George Santos (R-New York), who is under both local and federal investigations, and facing 13 criminal charges, recently compared himself to civil rights leader, Rosa Parks.

During MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, during a July 16 segment of The Sunday Show, lambasted the Republican leader for his choice of words during an appearance on the conservative podcast, Mike Crispi Unafraid earlier this month.

Basil Smikle Jr., political strategist and director of Public Policy program at Hunter College, as well as Boston Globe columnist Renée Graham, joined Capehart in his critique of the congressman.

Capehart rolled a clip of the podcast interview, in which Santos slammed U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) for urging the New York lawmaker to move to the back of the room during President Joe Biden's February State of the Union address.

The GOP senator also told Santos he "ought to be embarrassed."

In response to Romney, Santos said, "Rosa Parks didn't sit in the back, and neither am I gonna sit in the back."

Capehart asked the panelists for their thoughts.

"It's idiotic," Smirkle said. "I can't even begin to express how painful it is to listen to something like that, and to just watch him navigate this New York politics. But I would say that the danger in him making those comments and then, quite frankly, other Republican leaders make these similar comments, is that the intent with their audience, is essentially to diminish the transformative, transformative power of civil rights leaders by essentially lifting up their political kleptocracy. He stole this election, by lying about everything that he is and everything that he's done, and then compares himself to one of the greatest leaders of our nation. But this is who they are, and it diminishes the power of Black leaders. It's the same thing we've been saying all along. It's normalizing hate and diminishing all that has made progress in this country."

Capehart added, "You know, Renée, folks are always diminishing and discounting, or sometimes outright ignoring the contributions and leadership of African Americans and their contributions to this country, until which time they need to use it to cover up their own bad doings or their own bad faith."

Graham replied, "They will misappropriate that person's name to boost themselves up. But he's right. Rosa Parks did not sit in the back of the bus. But you know what else she didn’t do? She didn't lie about every aspect of her life. And when she got arrested, she was protesting Jim Crow laws. Unlike George Santos, who's facing 13 federal counts for everything from fraud to money laundering. So, yes, he needs to keep the sacred name of Rosa Parks out of his lying mouth."

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