I can't stand this devil.
Georgia lawmaker demoted after slandering John Lewis: ‘His only claim to fame was he got conked on the head'
By Joseph Wilkinson
New York Daily News |
Aug 14, 2020 at 11:15 PM
Georgia State Rep. Tommy Benton is seen in 2017. (David Goldman/AP)
A Georgia state representative lost his committee chairmanship after he denigrated the late John Lewis on a radio show, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Tommy Benton, 70, incorrectly said that Lewis hadn’t done anything since he was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965.
“I have never read of a significant piece of legislation that was passed with his name on it,” Benton said, according to the AJC. “John Lewis, his only claim to fame was he got conked on the head at the Pettus Bridge. And he has milked that for 50 years.”
Georgia’s house speaker, fellow Republican David Ralston, said he had no choice but to demote Benton from the House Retirement Committee.
“The comments made by Representative Benton are offensive and disgusting,” Ralston said in a statement to the Associated Press. “These comments do not reflect the values or the views of the House Majority Caucus. I can neither condone nor ignore such hurtful remarks.”
Benton had only been re-promoted last year, having lost a prior chairmanship in 2017 for sending an article to other lawmakers that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War. Also in 2016, Benton said the Ku Klux Klan wasn’t actually that bad.
Benton has represented Georgia’s 31st District, about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta, since 2005.
Lewis, whose public beating at age 25 led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act and a long career in the U.S. House of Representatives, died last month.
www.nydailynews.com
Georgia lawmaker demoted after slandering John Lewis: ‘His only claim to fame was he got conked on the head'
By Joseph Wilkinson
New York Daily News |
Aug 14, 2020 at 11:15 PM
Georgia State Rep. Tommy Benton is seen in 2017. (David Goldman/AP)
A Georgia state representative lost his committee chairmanship after he denigrated the late John Lewis on a radio show, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Tommy Benton, 70, incorrectly said that Lewis hadn’t done anything since he was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965.
“I have never read of a significant piece of legislation that was passed with his name on it,” Benton said, according to the AJC. “John Lewis, his only claim to fame was he got conked on the head at the Pettus Bridge. And he has milked that for 50 years.”
Georgia’s house speaker, fellow Republican David Ralston, said he had no choice but to demote Benton from the House Retirement Committee.
“The comments made by Representative Benton are offensive and disgusting,” Ralston said in a statement to the Associated Press. “These comments do not reflect the values or the views of the House Majority Caucus. I can neither condone nor ignore such hurtful remarks.”
Benton had only been re-promoted last year, having lost a prior chairmanship in 2017 for sending an article to other lawmakers that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War. Also in 2016, Benton said the Ku Klux Klan wasn’t actually that bad.
Benton has represented Georgia’s 31st District, about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta, since 2005.
Lewis, whose public beating at age 25 led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act and a long career in the U.S. House of Representatives, died last month.
Georgia lawmaker demoted after slandering John Lewis: ‘His only claim to fame was he got conked on the head’
A Georgia state representative lost his committee chairmanship after he denigrated the late John Lewis on a radio show, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Tommy Benton, 70, incorrectly said…
www.nydailynews.com
at people still falling for old, debunked narratives in the “Information Age”
