Virginia’s Nick Freitas delivered a powerful speech from the House of Delegates floor, saying he finds name-calling over policy disagreements reprehensible.
QUICK FACTS:
- Virginia state representative Nick Freitas unloaded on House Democrats over their propensity to call anyone who disagreed with his constituents nasty names in a diatribe posted to Twitter.
- Freitas said he and his fellow Republicans wouldn’t resort to name-calling over differences of opinions on policy, and he hoped his Democrat colleges would refrain as well.
- Freitas said he had hoped to have a polite session but that he was forced to “keep a tally” of all the times one claims that a colleague is sexist, bigot, racist, or not a Christian.
WHAT FREITAS SAID:
- “Enough. I have had it, my constituents have had it, and I am no longer going to sit here while a member of this body accuses us of being bigots simply because we disagree on policy,” the lawmaker said in his Twitter caption.
- “If you’re going to question the faith and the intentions of anybody who happens to disagree with you on policy, then you don’t get to lecture us on compassion and tolerance or an open debate,” Freitas said, according to Real Clear Politics.
- “I’m keeping a running tally of this session, we’re not very far into it, and almost every day someone on the other side of the aisle gets up and either subtly, or comes right out and suggests, that if you don’t agree with them on policy, well then you’re not a Christian, you’re a sexist, you’re a bigot, you’re a racist,” he said.
BACKGROUND:
- Freitas was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2016 and represented District 30, according to Ballotpedia.
- The representative currently serves on the Communications, Technology, and Innovation Committee and the House Transportation Committee
- Freitas is also a Green Beret Combat Veteran and a father.
