Abby Johnson is an anti-abortion speaker, scheduled for tonight’s Republican National Convention, whose possibly fabricated story served as inspiration for the anti-abortion right-wing propaganda film Unplanned. Additionally, she also has some thoughts about George Floyd and police violence. Johnson recently posted a video to YouTube in which she said police would be “smart” to profile her adopted biracial son because, statistically speaking, he is likely to be violent. So to recap the information you’ve just read, in case you are reeling: the same woman who believes embryos should be protected above all else does not extend that belief to living, fully-formed human beings who happen to be non-white, even if this theoretical human is her own children. Shocker.
In the 15-minute video posted to YouTube in June, resurfaced by Vice, just after the police murder of George Floyd, Johnson explained that while her white children will grow up to appear unthreatening, in her opinion, her Black child will be big and scary:
“Right now, Jude is an adorable, perpetually tan-looking little brown boy,” Johnson said. “But one day, he’s going to grow up and he’s going to be a tall, probably sort of large, intimidating-looking-maybe brown man. And my other boys are probably gonna look like nerdy white guys.”
Johnson goes on to cite the “disproportionately high number of African-American males in our prison population for crimes” as evidence that if a police officer sees “a brown man like my Jude walking down the road — as opposed to my white nerdy kids, my white nerdy men walking down the road,” the best course of action, statistically speaking, of course, is a police force on “high alert” in the presence of her child.
She did vaguely allude to the fact that she would rather the police not murder her “brown son,” just be hyper-aware of his presence while giving her white children a pass:
“Now if he acts in an unjust manner toward my brown son than my white son, that makes me angry. But statistically if he’s on more high alert, I’m not angry about that.”
Listen, I do not have children because, statistically speaking, they are loud and smelly and annoy me, but even to the untrained observer, this does not sound like good parenting.
After losing George Conway, the Lincoln Project, a coalition made up of Republicans who are not so into being Republican that they would back the worst president in U.S. history for a second time, can now boast the granddaughter of Billy Graham among their ranks.
Evangelical writer Jerushah Duford has joined the women’s branch of the Lincoln Project with a message for religious, conservative women voters. Namely, that they don’t have to be giant pieces of shit this year. Evangelical god will forgive them if someone gets to have an abortion because they weren’t comfortable with migrant children locked in cages:
“I’m speaking to the woman who feels that tug in their spirit,” Duford told Forbes. “We want to empathize with them that we know you feel this tug, and you feel uncomfortable voting Democrat because you never have. But at the same time, it’s OK to follow your conscience.” [Newsweek]
- Contrary to my cynical grousing, it could be that the messaging of Duford and others is working. Suburban women might just dislike Trump more than they fear “angry mobs.” [Politico]
- The couple who pointed guns at peaceful protestors are unpopular with their neighbors, and, if I had to guess, most other people who have met them. [Forward]
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wonders if Kimberly Guilfoyle might not quite know what “first generation” means. [The Hill]
- Mike Pompeo’s yet-to-be-delivered RNC remarks are already under investigation. [Twitter]
- Wisconsin’s governor promises “reforms” in the wake of the police shooting of unarmed citizen Jacob Blake despite the state’s historical resistance to reform measures. [The Guardian]
- Because 2020 is ceaselessly unkind, Aaron Sorkin has volunteered to pretend America is one of his female characters and patronizingly explain voting to us via his cadre of Smart Good West Wing Men. [Deadline]