Cenk Uygur, with The Young Turks, featured recent comments by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in a YouTube-hosted video, yesterday. The former governor recently tweeted that he hopes President Donald Trump will follow the example of former President Andrew Jackson, whose image the president has been cultivating himself in, and tell a Hawaiian judge what the 7th president of the United States reportedly told the U.S. Supreme Court, "I'll ignore it and let the court enforce their order."
Mr. Uygur, the founder of progressive newscaster TYT, explained that, in 1832, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Nation of Georgia was sovereign, "against what Jackson and his administration wanted." President Jackson's following decision was described by the TYT host as a "stain on his legacy," "wildly unconstitutional," and a statement that "we're not a country of laws." Jackson "forcibly removed" the Cherokee Nation in an incident that resulted in over 4,000 people losing their lives, and became known as the "Trail Of Tears." Uygur called the Trail of Tears one of the "darkest spots in our democracy."
Huckabee echoes sentiment of 'white nationalist' American Freedom Party chairman
The 46-year-old host then paraphrased Mike Huckabee, stating "if the court is ruling against your travel ban, just do like Andrew Jackson did," and was then silent, allowing the ramifications behind the revelation to sink in.
"That's amazing," Cenk Uygur stated seriously. Nomi Konst, with TYT, observed that Huckabee is educated enough to be aware of the Trail of Tears, yet seemingly insensitive enough that he cannot grasp "the point of the history." Talking Points Memo has quoted William Johnson with the American Freedom Party, described as a "white nationalist" group, with regard to Trump travel bans, "You could have Trump do what Andrew Jackson did when he defied the U.S.
Supreme Court and had the Trail of Tears."
Hoping @POTUS tells Hawaii judge what Andrew Jackson told overreaching court-"I'll ignore it and let the court enforce their order."
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) March 15, 2017
Cenk Uygur tried to imagine a situation where Huckabee and Johnson were ignorant to the significance, and death toll, attached to Andrew Jackson's decision, but noted the TPM quote where Johnson specifically expresses a belief that Trump should follow the plan carried out by Jackson, which resulted in over 4,000 people losing their lives, citing the "Trail of Tears" by name.
The TYT founder stated that if a president "ignores the courts, and the legislative body, then you don't have democracy; you have a dictatorship." He elaborated that Mike Huckabee, and conservatives who follow him, don't hold a true belief in American democracy, or the U.S. Constitution. Nomi Konst interjected that Huckabee is a "communist."
Cenk Uygur calls Andrew Jackson legacy a 'mixed' one
Michael Tracey, with TYT, compared Andrew Jackson's populist agenda with that of Donald Trump, and stated that the former president was able to "marshal" the support to further his "own purposes." Mr. Tracey described the president basking in the image of Jackson as "disquieting." Cenk Uygur noted the portrait of Andrew Jackson that Donald Trump has hung in the Oval Office, and his visit to the former president's resting place, The Hermitage. He also noted "positive" aspects of Andrew Jackson's populism, but not when he "ignored the Supreme Court," and "not the Trail of Tears," which he called "terrible parts" of the Jackson legacy.
