‘You Actually Did!’ Katie Porter Calls Out Piers Morgan For Comparing Expelled Black TN Reps To Jan 6 Rioters
Democratic California Congresswoman Katie Porter called out Piers Morgan for denying he compared expelled (and now reinstated) Black Tennessee State Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson with January 6 rioters seconds after he had done that.
Following Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, CNN’s experiment of putting Bill Maher’s weekly “Overtime” segment that follows the show on at 11:30 continued, as Maher was joined by Porter, Morgan, and actor Benjamin McKenzie.
The first question was about the Tennessee Three, and Morgan stepped in it early by citing the Jan. 6 riot — then got called out by Porter:
Here are the — here are the questions from people who want to know what we think here on the panel. What does the panel make of the two TN — oh, Tennessee lawmakers who were expelled from the state legislature? Oh, that was a big story this week. We didn’t get to it.
Yes, uh, they — they were protesting because there was a shooting there. They wanted — you know, I think I agree with what they were saying. We need better gun control laws. But these are legislators and they used a bullhorn inside the well of the Senate of Tennessee. Was it? This is state — state legislature.
PIERS MORGAN, TALKTV HOST: And interrupted the proceedings which, of course, when that happened on January the 6th in a much larger and more violent way, all the people currently cheering on the two Tennessee legislators were the ones who would have been condemning and castigating what happened —
MAHER: Well, I would —
REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): You’re not actually comparing.
MORGAN: No, no, I’m not.
MAHER: That’s a crazy —
PORTER: You actually did just compare…
MORGAN: No, no. Here is what I’m comparing. When you have a mob of protesters and they’re going into a legislative chamber, whether it’s at the Capitol or whether it’s in Tennessee, the principle is the same. And if you don’t have the same principle response to both of those things, regardless of scale, the principle —
PORTER: Listen, the principle is different. They were Tennessee legislature — legislators who went into the chamber and admittedly broke the rules of decorum partly because they were being silenced when they wanted to talk following the rules of decorum about gun violence prevention.
What happened on January 6th was a bunch of crazy (bleep) with guns. You can’t police people.
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: Yes.
PORTER: That is not the same.
MORGAN: It’s complicated, Katie. I like bill. I agree with what the legislators who were doing the protesting. I agree with them about guns. Everyone knows. I think — I left CNN. MAHER: Right.
MORGAN: It’s nice to be back, by the way, on CNN. I agree with them —
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you.
MAHER: That’s right.
MORGAN: It has been a while. The last time I was on CNN, I was talking about guns. Thank you, Bill. (INAUDIBLE) again. Um, but I just think, in the end, you’ve got to be consistent about the way you view —
MAHER: But that is a terrible — that is a terrible analysis.
MORGAN: They’re not the same thing, but the principle is the same.
MAHER: Then why bring it up? That’s a terrible analogy.
MORGAN: (INAUDIBLE) a mob of people going in, stop democratic proceedings —
MAHER: But it is not —
MORGAN: It not democracy whether you’re on the right or left.
MAHER: Okay. What I —
PORTER: What is the principle?
MORGAN: The principle is I don’t think a mob of protest should go into a legislative building to stop the proceedings.
MAHER: I agree with —
BEN MCKENZIE, ACTOR, WRITER, DIRECTOR: They were a mob? The two guys were mob?
MORGAN: No.
MAHER: But here’s the thing. These guys are legislators. What I would say to them is, look, I admire your passion, young people your age are in government, I think that’s good that you want to be in government and that just oblivious to it. The issue, okay, we have valid point.
But you’re in the legislature now. The legislature. You don’t need the bullhorn. That’s for when you’re out on the street where you have to modulate. This is what — this is what they do on college campuses. We just stop you from talking if we disagree with a bullhorn or shouting. They have to leave that behind.
Now, you’re inside. You’re in the building. You got elected. The way that affect changes, write a law, do it that way. The bullhorn was —
PORTER: Well —
MAHER: — outside.
PORTER: I think you have a point —
(APPLAUSE)
I think you have a point about they were in there, they had other opportunities, they can introduce the law. I also do want to say that rules of decorum are often used to silence people who do not have voices.
And in this case, we’re talking about two younger men, two Black men, two people in the political minority in Tennessee. And so, we’ve seen rules of decorum be used over and over and over again in this country as an excuse to exclude people and to silence people.
So —
MAHER: Okay.
PORTER: — I think you’re right, though, that — that — that — I can’t believe I’m saying this, like I so deeply, deeply agree with you about the January 6th —
(LAUGHTER)
— and how wrong Piers is to try to equivocate those things.
MORGAN: But I didn’t know. So, what you were doing was playing politics. I talked purely about the principle of a mob of people going —
MAHER: Okay.
MORGAN: — to stop democratic proceedings.
MAHER: Let’s — let’s stop —
MORGAN: It shouldn’t be happening, whether it’s on the left or the right.
MAHER: Let’s stop digging.
(LAUGHTER)
MCKENZIE: I just love that they’ve been reelected immediately and raised all this money and they’re national heroes. Oops!
(LAUGHTER)
Didn’t work.
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