Tennessee General Assembly members reacted strongly to a bizarre tweet from an organization headed by a former political candidate on Monday.
“Like the plandemic, 9/11 was probably just a coincidental opportunity for the elites to continue their take down of our Constitution. Probably not,” nonprofit advocacy organization Tennessee Stands tweeted on Monday morning.
Like the plandemic, 9/11 was probably just a coincidental opportunity for the elites to continue their takedown of our Constitution.
Probably not. https://t.co/KDinvDnWFg
— Tennessee Stands (@tennesseestands) September 11, 2023
Gary Humble, the executive director of Tennessee Stands, lost the August 2022 Republican primary in a State Senate district that includes most of Williamson County to incumbent State Senator Jack Johnson (R-TN), the majority leader in the Tennessee State Senate. In September 2022, the Tennessee Registry of Elections initiated an audit of Humble’s campaign, the results of which have not yet been released.
The Tennessee Star reached out to several members of the Tennessee General Assembly for their reaction to the bizarre tweet from Gary Humble’s Tennessee Stands on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in which almost 3,000 innocent Americans were killed.
State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) said, “It is unfortunate and in bad taste for any entity to use the remembrance of significant national tragedy as an opportunity to push a ridiculous political narrative or conspiracy theory.”
State Representative Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) said that the tweet by Tennessee Stands is “in poor taste” on such a tragic date in American history.
“Respectfully, this is in poor taste today. There are 364 other days to assign blame or be critical of those in charge at the time,” Barrett said.
State Representative Rusty Grills (R-Newbem) told The Tennessee Star that neither the right nor the left should exploit the tragic date of 9/11.
“Today’s date is a tragic date in history. The seriousness of this date should not be used to exploit what happened by either the right or the left. We need to put the focus back on the Islamic terrorists. Freedom was not free it is not free and we need to continue to fight for it. We need to be united,” Grills told The Star.
State Representative John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) told The Star that he believes that Tennessee Stands made a poor judgement call making the statement and that he believes the government responded well to the attack on 9/11.
“I agree it’s exceptionally bad taste to make such a statement today. Furthermore given that I served in Desert Storm I think I’m qualified to say that the threat to our nation that was exhibited on 9/11 in 2001 is something that we did well in response to. I am also a supporter of making decisions by fact rather than by emotion,” Ragan told The Star.
State Representative Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) said that Tennessee Stand’s statement is nothing but a “divisive conspiracy.”
“When people show you who they are, believe them. On the anniversary of the day our country was brutally attacked, Gary tweets out divisive conspiracy,” Faison said.
When people show you who they are, believe them. On the anniversary of the day our country was brutally attacked, Gary tweets out divisive conspiracy. #Toolfortheleft#Charlatan https://t.co/5rAj5aovPK
— Jeremy Faison (@JeremyFaison4TN) September 11, 2023
The Tennessee Star reached out to additional lawmakers for comment but did not receive further replies before press time.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star, The Star News Network, and The Tennessee Star. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Gary Humble” by Gary Humble.
9/11 was tragic. It also allowed our government to pass the Patriot Act, which legalized the US government spying on US citizens. It gave us the TSA – so now, like the stories of the old Soviet days, we have to show our papers to be allowed to travel from one place to another. It gave us DHS, well we can see what a clusterfuck that is…oh and their Soviet style slogan – If you see something, Say something. (there is no way this will ever lead to ratting out your friends for being in the wrong political party… this is America, we would never allow the weaponization of the DOJ to attack the opposition). 9/11 obliterated many of the freedoms we took for granted, and like the frog being slowly boiled we didn’t/don’t even realize it…until it’s too late