Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Texas Republican Bo French receives backlash over racist post

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Texas Republican Bo French receives backlash over racist post · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As support for Republicans continues to shrink across the country,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the pipeline of Republican politicians and candidates seems to be
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: drawing remains in the very bottom of the right-wing barrel.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Latest example of this is Beau French.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: He's a somewhat notorious figure in Republican politics.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: He's also the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, which
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: is statewide office and actually kind of relatively powerful. It's
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: a race that would normally go without much national attention,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: but Beau French just got himself famous. Over the weekend,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: while other Texans were celebrating the Texas Longhorns' one-point victory
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: over the Ohio State Buckeyes, French chose to post this,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: responding to a group of South Asian students cheering at
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the game. He wrote, quote, He added, quote, who can't
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: get into UT because they prioritize foreigners over Texans. Now,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a little note here, by the university's count, more than
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: 80% of their students in the last academic year were Texans.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: The Beau French Association saw a picture and just couldn't
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: contain himself. Now, the Republicans' response to this vile racist
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: comment have varied a bit. Outgoing Senator John Cornyn, who
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: suddenly found a little bit of courage, condemned those remarks, saying, quote,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and racism or look the other way while it becomes normalized?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: This is how great parties self-destruct.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Sad.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Ken Paxton, the Republican state attorney general running against James
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Tallarico for Senate, put out a decidedly tepid statement in
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: which he said, quote, I condemn racism in all its forms.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Without mentioning French at all.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And then immediately pivoting to accuse Tallarico of using race
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: to divide voters and also saying he's like against white men.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Too few Republicans have any interest in addressing French's racism head-on.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Karl Rove, interestingly, former George W.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Bush advisor, longtime Texas Republican political consultant, did slam French
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: for his remarks, calling him a bigot and announcing he's
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: going to vote for his Democratic opponent, John Rosenthal. That's
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: according to reports about a closed-door event. He didn't do
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: it on TV or anything like this. That would be
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the second time Rove has voted for a Democratic candidate
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: after backing Texas Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock's re-election bid all
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the way back in 1994. Donald Trump has also spoken out. No, no,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: not against Beau French. No, not to condemn it.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: No.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Quote, Karl Rove is so bad for the Republican Party.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: The guy is a cold stone loser. Michelle Goldberg is
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a New York Times opinion columnist. Maria Teresa Kumar is
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: a president and CEO of Voto Latino and an MSNOW
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: political analyst. And they join me now. Maria, let me
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: just start with you about what you know, what you
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: think this episode illustrates as it's played out so far.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: So, Chris, I think you said it to me. I
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: wasn't clear.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: But one of the things that we're seeing right now
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: in Texas is that 78% of kids K through 12
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: are young people of color. They come from everywhere, from
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: all parts that have immigrated to Texas and their families
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: have immigrated and they've grown up there. So this idea
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: that Beau French is running for elected office and has
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: never been inside a Texas classroom is really all you
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: need to know. But I think what is really interesting
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: is that Karl Rove The reason Karl Rove was able
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: to get George W.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Bush elected is that he understood the electorate. He understood that.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: He didn't need to win all Latino voters, all black voters,
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: all women voters.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: He just needed to skim off the top.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: But something that has always stayed with me as I've
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: done my work at Voto Latino was that Karl Rove
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: very presciently said almost 20 years ago, 20 years ago, Chris,
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: that as the Latino vote goes, so does the White House,
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: so does Congress, and so does the Senate. And so
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: clearly the only person that is not up to speed
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: on that is the Republican Party writ large and Donald
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: Trump in particular. The idea that anybody is going to
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: win office right now in Texas without support of the
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: Latino vote is an impossibility. And that is one of
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: the reasons why I believe John Cornyn and Ted Cruz
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: are coming out with such a backlash, because there was
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: a moment when John Cornyn would have.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Joined that choir.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: And so it's interesting to see that, again, French seems
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: to be the only one not understanding the demographics.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: Texas.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: And the Republicans should be very, very concerned because you
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: have roughly about 500, 5 million Texans who set it
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: out last time. But if you look at what happened
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: during the midterm elections, the primary elections in February in Texas,
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: Latino turnout was on par, not from congressional midterm elections,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: but on par in turnout as if it were a
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: presidential election.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: And, you know, Maria, your point about the sort of
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: logic here is impactful.
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Like the this is obviously stupid aside from being vile.
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Texas is a diverse state. It's a state where there
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: are a lot of voters of color, whether South Asian
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: immigrants or Middle Eastern or Latino who are kind of
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: conservative or sort of set a right who are very
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: winnable votes.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Why would you do this is the question.
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: Well, I think you would do it because these are
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: the waters you swim in. I mean, you know, John
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: Cornyn is fine to speak out now because he's on
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: the way out, but there is kind of no chance
• 5:15
  Speaker 6: that he would have spoken out. And to be honest,
• 5:18
  Speaker 6: I think that I can imagine Beau French feeling somewhat... Yes,
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: surprised by the backlash. Because this is not that different
• 5:26
  Speaker 6: from the kind of thing that the DHS social media
• 5:29
  Speaker 6: account pumps out.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Every single day.
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: And so I'm glad that this backlash is happening. I'm
• 5:35
  Speaker 6: glad that maybe some Republicans seeing what their numbers are
• 5:38
  Speaker 6: like among some of the voters of color are. that
• 5:40
  Speaker 6: Trump was able to win in 2024, are now realizing
• 5:44
  Speaker 6: that this kind of gutter politics is, you know, not
• 5:47
  Speaker 6: just kind of vile, but also counterproductive and want to
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: distance themselves. But there's also it's like, I think.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: French is like what I do is like, right.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Well, to that point, like here he is. Here he
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: is in July, July 16, 2026.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: OK, boys, it's time to go round up all the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Chinese and send them packing.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: That's a Beau French tweet.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Now, did that did every Sunday show ask every Republican
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: to condemn that hatefulness from a statewide nominee?
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: No.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Did anyone know about that tweet?
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: No.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, and I think, Maria, part of it, too,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: is like there's this there's this sort of standoff, right?
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Like there is a reason that you're hearing these sentiments,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: which is. There is before Beau French tweeted this, there's
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: a bunch of conservatives and right wing folks on Twitter
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: with the same picture saying the same thing because and
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I don't want to assign a numerical, you know, measurement
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: of it. Some considerable portion of the Republican base feels
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: that way.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, they mainstreamed it.
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: I mean, all I can think of was in 2024
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: at the RNC convention, you had people chanting mass deportation
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: as if that was normal. And it was this idea
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: that you wrap around racism and you're going to do
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: the dog whistle is a bullhorn now.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: And it's coming from the very bottoms of what American
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: history sadly is trying to move past. But here's the thing, Chris,
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: if I were to ask you right now, what does
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: a K through 12 child look like? What's the majority
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: of that child? What's that ethnicity of that child? Majority
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: of Americans would not realize that the majority of kids
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: in K through 12 are multicultural kids. So when you
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: are trying to divide households based on race, it is
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: too late. We actually have a very multicultural democracy. And
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: what they're afraid of, this minority, the fear of the
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: minority is the fact that they're going to lose power.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: So that is why they're trying to change the rules.
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: That's why they're trying to block access to the voting booth.
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: That's why they're trying to talk about taking away birthright citizenship.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: But the genie's already out of the bottle.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: And what I encourage Americans to do is to do
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: what we do well. We understand the assignment come November.
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: We have to register.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: We have to turn out.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: We have to vote because once we do, we are
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: actually able to demonstrate that the majority of Americans do
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: not buy into this vileness of that.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: The United States is a white only country.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: The genie out of the bottle is the reason that
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Elon Musk, the most powerful Republican, what in the world
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: other than Donald Trump, tweets things like whites are rapidly
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: dying minority. Like that's exactly what That's exactly the most
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: prominent Republican says.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 8:24
  Speaker 6: And you see this stuff. I mean, you see this
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: stuff kind of throughout the Republican Party. You know, there
• 8:29
  Speaker 6: was a someone who marched on in Charlottesville is is
• 8:34
  Speaker 6: going to be elected to state office in Florida.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: You know, Nazi reenactor as a star. staffer in Ohio.
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 8:43
  Speaker 6: There's another candidate who there's another candidate who Mike Johnson
• 8:47
  Speaker 6: campaigned with, a House candidate in Texas, who there's video
• 8:51
  Speaker 6: of him like goose stepping to knots to a Nazi
• 8:56
  Speaker 6: march and calling the this kind of Nazi era weapon
• 8:59
  Speaker 6: the original ghetto blaster. I mean, that kind of stuff
• 9:02
  Speaker 6: is becoming the norm in the Republican Party.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's it is it is creepy how much how
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: how easy it is to find.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Michelle Goldberg, Maria Teresa Kumar. Thank you.
• 9:11
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