A smug Democratic Congressman received one hell of a tongue-lashing during a hearing on police reform after telling Rep. Matt Gaetz that he and his fellow Republicans didn’t care about their kids as much as Democrats because they didn’t want “real reform.”
The heated argument begins around the 1:57 mark.
Earlier in his speech Democrat Cedric Richmond emphasized, among other things, that he has a black son and he has worries about how his son will be treated by police in the future. The whole video is about Richmond telling Republicans that they aren’t interested in real reform.
At 3:22, Matt Gaetz asks Richmond if he is suggesting that no one on the Republican side of the aisle has non-white children. Richmond really didn’t want to go there, but after Gaetz persisted he did say that he knows of Republicans who have black grandchildren. He then argued that it wasn’t about the color of their children, but “about black males, black people in the streets that are getting killed.”
The line that infuriated Gaetz came next, when Richmond added “And if one of them happens to be your kid I’m concerned about him too. And clearly I’m more concerned about him than you are.”
Gaetz was having none of that, and responded emphatically “You’re claiming that you have more concern for my family that I do? Who in the hell do you think you are?!?”
Richmond smugly interjected “If the shoe fits…”
Gaetz continued, shouting “You don’t know how much we care about our families!”
Richmond smugly interjected again, “A kicked dog hollers!”
Gaetz continued undeterred, exclaiming “This is outrageous! You should take those words down. I know you care about and love your family. So do we dammit!”
That was where it ended. As Richmond made clear at the beginning of his speech, he is not a friend of Republicans. That was quite clear.
