Democrat Alabama State Rep. John Rogers — who advocated his pro-abortion beliefs last week by calling for killing “unwanted” kids” — said in a Monday radio interview that Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) called him and told him that he agreed with what he said but that Jones had to come out against the comments publicly.
On the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives last week, Rogers said: “Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or you kill them later. You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later.”
Rogers appeared on “Talk 99.5: Birmingham’s Real Talk” on Monday where he discussed his comments and the condemnation that he got from Jones, who faced a lot of pressure over Rogers’ remarks. Rogers said that Jones told him that he agreed with Rogers’ remarks:
Well, he called me twice. He told me, “Doug, John, I know you’re right but I got to come out against you.” I said, “Okay.” I said, “Fine, if it’s going to help your campaign, do that.” I said, that’s the kind of guy I am. And then he called back and I didn’t know that somebody was trying to call me at the same time, you know, sometimes the lines get crossed up and they heard Doug hollering and shouting and they called me themselves and they said, I’ll tell you who it was, Frank Matthews. He said, “John, wasn’t that Doug, wasn’t that Doug Jones hollering at you?” And I said, yes it was, I wasn’t going to tell him a lie. I said, I told Doug, I said, “Doug, bye. I’m not really going to talk to you because you cannot apologize for me, I do my own apologies.” And I do do my own apologies.
LISTEN:
Later in the interview, the host sought to clarify that he had heard Rogers correctly about his conversation with Jones.
“But the message is that you, this is my take away so far, that a sitting United States Senator called you and said that they agreed with you, but politically he had to step out publicly against you?” the host asked.
“Yeah, right,” Rogers responded.
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In a statement to The Daily Wire, Jones responded to Rogers’ recollection of the phone call:
Look, we are just going to have to agree to disagree on this. I made my position clear. I thought his remarks were appalling and I told him that I strongly disagreed with him. There is already too much division in our politics and I won’t add to it here. With that, that’s all I’m going to say on this matter.”
Local media outlet Yellowhammer News noted that Jones used to be Rogers’ lawyer and “defended Rogers against multiple federal public corruption cases going back to 1989 and as recent as 2010. Rogers has never been found guilty of a crime with Jones as his attorney.”
Rogers’ comments sparked national outrage after video of his remarks went viral and led to many prominent national figures condemning Rogers, including Donald Trump Jr., who tweeted: “This is stomach curling and makes Ralph Northam look like a moderate on abortion. Every Democrat running for President needs to be asked where they stand on this. The extreme turn we’ve seen from Dems on abortion recently is truly sickening.”
In a subsequent interview, Rogers responded to Trump Jr.’s criticisms while talking to WVTM 13: “That’s an honor. Thank God. Right on … Him being born is the very good defense that I have for abortion. His mother should’ve aborted him when he was born, and then he wouldn’t have made that stupid statement.”
This article has been updated to include a response from Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL).