*(Via Storyful) – The North Carolina state Senate appeared poised to impeach Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest Monday after he criticized the chamber for commemorating “our history of lynching,” according to the Charlotte Observer.
“Discussions like this should stay where they belong,” he said during the floor debate. “You should stay here to discuss legislative business.”
His comments appeared to spark a three-minute discussion with Democratic Senator J.P. Ball of Raleigh, which descended into a shouting match.
“You can call it what you want to call it,” Forest told Ball. “But to compare our Black people to gay people is not only ignorant, it’s wrong. It’s demeaning. It’s calling our Black brothers and sisters liars.”
Ball refused to apologize for what he had said, adding that if he’d intended to insult Forest, he’d just as easily have compared him to KKK leader and former Grand Wizard George Lincoln Rockwell.
“Now you get to talk about lynching and that’s what I would have said,” Ball said. “You compare your people to others and what I’m afraid of is, what happens when we cross the line? You pick a race, you pick a race. Why don’t you pick all of them?”