Republicans have been doing 180s to defend their position on redistricting, undermining their insistence that they’re guided by moral arguments, according to a new report.
The Bulwark highlighted a series of “pirouettes” by GOP leaders by comparing their statements on gerrymandering in Texas last year to what they said on the issue in the wake of Virginia voters paving the way for more Democratic seats.
GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson was in support of partisan redistricting in Texas last year, the Bulwark noted.
“Look, we have to fight for every inch of ground in the country,” Johnson said at the time. “I’m convinced the red states will, and we will probably have a few more seats out of that. And of course, that’s good news for me.”
The Virginia vote that favored the other side, however, was “a hyperpartisan gerrymandering boondoggle,” Johnson said to reporters.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said in August that “frankly, we could probably be even more aggressive” about gerrymandering and taking seats for his party, and last week, he told Fox News that the move was “a reasonable thing for Texas to do.”
In the same interview, however, he equated Virginia’s move to “a million Karens in Arlington and Alexandria represent two-thirds of the commonwealth.”
The double speak mirrors Trump, who said that Republicans were “entitled to five more seats” in Texas last year because he “won Texas” in his presidential bid.
When Virginia voters shot back, Trump called it a “travesty of ‘Justice’” in a Truth Social post and asked the courts to step in because “the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive.”
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