The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

Get my Daily BS twice-a-day news stack directly to your email.


Brandon Gill flips the script on ‘land acknowledgments’ at GOP convention: ‘We’re no longer going to apologize’

by

BS BULLETIN:

  • Rep. Brandon Gill opened his speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas with his own version of a “land acknowledgment.”
  • Instead of recognizing Indigenous peoples, the Texas Republican honored American “patriots, pioneers and explorers” who he said fought and died to build the country.
  • Gill later told Fox News he had no intention of apologizing for the remarks after the clip spread widely online.

Rep. Brandon Gill walked onto the stage at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas and announced that he wanted to begin with a “land acknowledgment.”

Then came the twist.

“Now, I think it’s only appropriate that we kick this convention off properly with a land acknowledgment,” the Texas Republican told the crowd Wednesday.

Gill continued:

“I’d like to acknowledge that we stand here today in the great state of Texas and the United States of America, the ancestral homeland of great American patriots, pioneers and explorers who put down roots, fought for freedom all over the globe and bled and died to build the greatest civilization ever known to man.”

The crowd responded with cheers.

“My friends, we live in the finest country in the history of the world, and we’re no longer going to apologize,” Gill said.

The remarks were an intentional reversal of the land acknowledgments increasingly used by government bodies, universities and other organizations to recognize Indigenous peoples who lived in an area before European settlement.

Dallas itself uses such an acknowledgment.

The city’s Historic and Cultural Preservation Strategy recognizes North Texas as territory historically occupied by several American Indian groups, specifically identifying the Caddo and Wichita as well as nomadic tribes including the Comanche and Kiowa.

Gill’s version quickly spread online.

Speaking with Fox News Digital afterward, the 32-year-old congressman doubled down rather than backing away from the joke.

Gill said his larger point was that Americans should not be ashamed of their country or its history.

He also used the convention speech to attack Democrats politically, arguing that progressive and socialist factions within the party have fundamentally different views about the United States.

“There’s another political movement in our country right now that doesn’t believe that America is, or ever was, great,” Gill said.

“They sometimes call themselves socialists, some even call themselves communists, but most of them simply go by Democrats.”

Gill’s speech was part of the Republican Party’s first midterm convention, a two-day gathering at the American Airlines Center designed to promote GOP candidates and policies ahead of November’s elections.

President Donald Trump headlined Wednesday night’s program, while Gill and other Republican lawmakers were given earlier speaking slots focused heavily on drawing contrasts with Democrats.

And Gill made his contrast in about as subtle a fashion as a Texas-sized belt buckle.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

 

today’s hot news