Republican candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s Second Congressional District Jason Lewis was interviewed on October 10, 2016, by John Williams with WCCO Radio.
At the start of the interview, Williams played an audio clip of a television advertisement running against Lewis by the DFL candidate for Congress, Angie Craig, which focused on controversial statements made by Lewis while a radio show host and author.
After playing the audio, Williams eventually asked Lewis to explain the context of his comments about slavery:
John Williams: You just said if you wanna be able to own a slave, you should be able to do so. What were you talking about?
Jason Lewis: Because somebody had called in and made a silly comment about why, goodness if, if, if it doesn’t effect you there shouldn’t be any law on it. So I said well could ya, that mean you oughta be able to shoot up heroin, do this, and for that matter, if you wanna do this you could do this. So the point was an absurd point to make the absurdity of another point more clear.
Lewis’ answer to Williams’ question is entirely dishonest.
Lewis did not make his now well-known statements about slavery on the radio in response to a caller—he made these statements in an audio update to his book.
Back in February, I was the first to report about Lewis’ past comments, including statements he made about slavery.
From my post for the Star Tribune:
“Days after Lewis announced his campaign for Congress, Lewis released an updated addition of new material in his audio book from 2011. In the bonus commentary, Lewis discussed recent decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, including the ruling which legalized same-sex marriage in the United States.
In his criticism of the court’s ruling which legalized same-sex marriage, Lewis questions the federal government’s role in defining marriage and also in outlawing slavery: In fact, if you really want to be quite frank about it, how does somebody else owning a slave affect me? It doesn’t. If I don’t think it is right, I won’t own one, and people always say ‘well if you don’t want to marry somebody of the same sex, you don’t have to, but why tell somebody else they can’t. Uh, you know if you don’t want to own a slave, don’t. But don’t tell other people they can’t.
Lewis later said “social decisions” should be left “to the collective wisdom of the states and the people. Because the courts are not smart enough to know what the answer is.”
Click here to read my complete post for the Star Tribune about Lewis’ past comments.
Again, Lewis was not having a spontaneous conversation with a caller when he made his controversial comments on slavery.
Lewis made the controversial statements in an audio update to his book, which means his comments about slavery were likely written in advance by Lewis.