Nevada Lawmaker Said He’d Vote For Slavery

If that's what his constituents wanted him to do

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A Nevada state assemblyman is in hot water after a YouTube video surfaced in which he tells a local Republican gathering he would vote for slavery if that’s what his constituents wanted him to do.

“If that’s what they wanted, I’d have to hold my nose… they’d probably have to hold a gun to my head, but yeah,” Nevada Assemblyman Jim Wheeler told members of the Storey County Republican Party in August. The backlash started Monday after the video surfaced online, the Associate Press reports, though it has since been removed from YouTube.

“I stated the truth that I believe, which is that in a Representative Republic I’m hired by the people to represent their views,” Wheeler later wrote on on his website in explaining the original remarks. But he added: “If my constituents wanted to do something as outlandish as bring back an abhorrent system, then I simply couldn’t represent them anymore.”

Wheeler’s comments drew strong rebukes from Democrats and Republicans in the state, with state Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson, a Republican, saying, “It’s time for Jim Wheeler to find a new line of work.”

[AP]