It was a spectacle that could have been pulled straight from a political satire show. MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart went on a full-blown tirade during his August 8 appearance on *PBS NewsHour*, railing against Texas Republicans for redrawing congressional maps — even though the move was prompted by a Department of Justice demand to fix racially gerrymandered districts that overwhelmingly favored Democrats.
The outrage? Not that Texas was addressing skewed district lines, but that it was doing so “mid-decade” instead of during the standard 10-year cycle. Apparently, according to Capehart, gerrymandering is perfectly fine when Democrats do it at the “right” time, but it becomes a “threat to democracy” if Republicans do it when Democrats don’t approve.
The trigger for Capehart’s meltdown was the news that Texas’s new maps would wipe out several Democrat-held districts, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s. These adjustments, championed by Governor Greg Abbott and state Republicans, would replace them with more balanced districts — a nightmare scenario for a Democratic Party that has long relied on favorable lines to cling to power.
Despite admitting that “both parties are guilty when it comes to gerrymandering,” Capehart accused Republicans of “perverting the Constitution” and “preventing the people from choosing their own elected officials.” He even applauded Texas Democrats who fled the state in an attempt to prevent a quorum, portraying them as noble defenders of “democratic values.” In reality, their stunt was little more than an effort to stall the inevitable and protect their own political turf.
Capehart doubled down on the “mid-decade” talking point, insisting that if this were at the ten-year mark, “this would be a whole different conversation.” Of course, what he conveniently ignored is that the timing was forced by the DOJ’s own intervention over racially biased district lines — the very kind of manipulation Democrats have mastered in places like California, Illinois, and New York without batting an eye.
In a particularly revealing moment, Capehart openly encouraged California Governor Gavin Newsom to retaliate by gerrymandering in favor of Democrats. “I am all here for it,” Capehart said, exposing the partisan hypocrisy that has long been a hallmark of the left’s approach to “fair representation.” Apparently, gerrymandering isn’t the problem — it’s just a problem when Republicans benefit from it.
Ironically, Capehart accused Republicans of “cheating by legal means,” while celebrating the idea of Democrats doing the exact same thing in blue states. His lecture on “perverting the will of the people” rang hollow, considering his side’s embrace of lawfare, mass mail-in ballots with lax verification, and open-border policies that could reshape the voter base entirely.
In the end, Capehart’s rant was less about protecting democracy and more about protecting Democratic power. The reality is simple: Texas is correcting maps that the DOJ itself flagged as racially skewed, and Democrats know the new districts will force them to actually compete for votes instead of relying on lines drawn to guarantee victory. That’s the real reason for the meltdown — and why Republicans aren’t backing down.
