During a Committee on Natural Resources mark up of elements of major infrastructure legislation today, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) asked his fellow Committee member, Congressman Paul Gosar (AZ-04), to retract his verbal description of the United States as a “banana republic.” Congressman Gosar declined the polite and civil request and insisted “we might be even worse.”
In his remarks, Congressman Cohen said in part:
“If you would call back your referring to our country as a ‘banana republic,’ I’d appreciate it… ‘Banana republic’ is over the top. We’re not a banana republic. That has more to do with how you elect your leaders and not with legislation. There’s an old saying in Tennessee: ‘You don’t talk about rope in a house where a man’s been hung.’ I would just hope that you’d take back your reference to our country as a banana republic.”
Congressman Cohen noted that challenges to last year’s presidential election results heard by both Democratic- and Republican-appointed judges found them “clean and fair” and transparent.
See the entire colloquy here.
Following the exchange, Congressman Cohen said: “In a banana republic, you don’t have legislation. What you have is guerrillas and militias as part of a junta that illegally and violently takes control of the government.”
Original source can be found here.
