Texas Dem Jolanda Jones apologizes after telling Don Lemon mid-decade redistricting is like fighting the Holocaust

Texas State Representative Jolanda Jones issued an apology Tuesday after drawing backlash for comparing Democrats fleeing the state over redistricting efforts by the GOP to the Holocaust.

Jones was one of several Democratic lawmakers who fled the state on Monday to block a vote on a proposed Republican-backed congressional map that could potentially add up to five new GOP seats ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Speaking from an undisclosed location in New York during an appearance on former CNN host Don Lemon’s show, Jones claimed that refusing to fight the Republican-led redistricting plan could lead to consequences similar to the Holocaust.

Jones walked back her comments in a statement issued Tuesday, saying, "I made a statement on ‘The Don Lemon Show’ comparing Trump's attempt to disenfranchise Black and Brown people to the Holocaust. That was a mistake, and I apologize for it. Trump is coming for my community, and I get emotional about it and make strong statements. But that was going too far, and I retract that comparison," according to Fox News.

Jones told Lemon on his show, "We better have the courage to stand up, otherwise we will fall for anything. And in this country, we will be defeated, deported. I mean, we will lose all of our rights. And if you think it can't happen, it can. And I will liken this to the Holocaust. People are like, ‘Well, how did the Holocaust happen? How was somebody in a position to kill all them people?’ Well, good people remain silent, or good people didn't realize that what happens to them can very soon happen to me or somebody I love."

"And so, even if you made it, man, you have an obligation to help people who can't because, God forbid, they end up targeting you and your family, she continued." 

Jones also dismissed Republican criticism that Democrats would have to eventually return to Texas, saying, "ain’t got to do nothing but die."

"The point is, I will stay gone as long as I need to stay gone. And I hope that my colleagues feel as convicted as I do. That right now, you know, I always wondered what I would have done would I been walking on…the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Would I have been willing to walk for over a year with the Montgomery bus boycott? And you know what? Now is our civil rights moment, people," Jones said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, condemned the Democrats’ departure and rhetoric.

"Fleeing Texas House Democrats continue to beclown themselves through this desperate, anti-democratic stunt,” Mahaleris told Fox News. “Unlike these radicals, Governor Abbott refuses to abandon Texans. If the House Democrats who deserted Texans were serious about delivering results, they would come back to the Texas Capitol and do the job voters elected them to do.”

Speaker of the Texas House Dustin Burrows announced Monday that he would sign arrest warrants for the absent lawmakers if authorized by a vote of the chamber. Governor Abbott later called on the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest the “delinquent Texas House Democrats.”