Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters
The bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest—a Confederate general and first Grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan—was finally removed from the Tennessee capitol two years ago. But his spirit was still present in an edited recording of the state’s GOP House members meeting on April 10, three days after they expelled two Black representatives for violating “decorum.”
Where Forrest once talked of the South and the North, GOP Rep. Scott Cepicky speaks of the Right and the Left in the recording, which was posted by the progressive news site Tennessee Holler. (The Tennessean confirmed the audio came from a closed caucus meeting.)
“If you don’t believe we’re at war for our republic, with all love and respect to you, you need a different job,” Cepicky can be heard saying on the recording. “The left wants Tennessee so bad because if they get us, the southeast falls and it’s game over for the republic.”