A Tennessee GOP lawmaker recently lashed out at a journalist, saying he’d “bust” his face over questions about a bill he introduced that would change how state agencies describe the West Bank. One professor in public humanities says the moment highlights a wider “transition toward a fascist state.”
A clip of the exchange was filmed by journalist Justin Kanew, the founder of progressive news site The Tennessee Holler. Kanew can be heard behind the camera asking Tennessee State Sen. Paul Rose (R): “Who gave you that bill about the West Bank?”
When Rose did not respond, Kanew pressed further: “Are you worried at all about Israel’s influence on our government as they push us to war? You know they pushed us into a war, Senator Rose, and here you are doing their bidding.”
“I say this as a Jew with family in Israel, Senator Rose, why are you doing Israel’s bidding?” Kanew later continued.
“You know, if I was at home, I’d bust your face right now, but I’m not,” Rose responded as he walked toward the camera.
“Oh, would you? Why? Are you threatening me?” Kanew responded.
“No sir, I’m not,” the senator said as another man intervened requesting to talk to Rose privately.
When Kanew told Rose that he had just threatened him, Rose insisted that he was not, saying: “No sir, I did not. I said, ‘If we were home.’”
Rose could be seen going inside an elevator while ignoring Kanew as he pressed further about the bill.
A representative for Rose did not respond to HuffPost’s multiple inquiries.
Tennessee House Bill 1446, dubbed the Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act, would prohibit state agencies from officially using the term West Bank ― the occupied Palestinian territory where Israeli settlers have recently intensified attacks against Palestinians. The International Court of Justice has ruled that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is unlawful.
The bill passed the state House chamber earlier this month and it was approved by a state Senate committee on Wednesday, sending it to a full vote in the state Senate.
Deepak Sarma, inaugural distinguished scholar in the public humanities at Case Western Reserve University, said that the exchange between Kanew and Rose highlights a concerning trend.
“Such threats of violence suggest a transition toward a fascist state, characterized by the abandonment of the rule of law in favor of the rule of fear, where boorish behavior trumps civil discourse and democracy,” they said. “It says that violence against U.S. citizens by MAGA happens from the very top all the way down to the ICE [United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Gestapo.”
Indeed, Rose’s outburst at Kanew comes as violent and hypermasculine rhetoric on the right has increasingly become a national conversation.
During Senate confirmation hearings last week for Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R) — who has since been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the Department of Homeland Security — several lawmakers pressed Mullin about his temperament and “anger issues.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) pointed out that Mullin, a former MMA fighter, once challenged a committee witness to a physical fight during a Senate hearing in 2023. Notably that same day, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) had accused former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of elbowing him in the back. Burchett had then accosted McCarthy, who later denied that he elbowed or shoved him.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been called out for frequently filming themselves working out on camera, doing push-ups and bench-presses for the world to see. Hegseth, who is often criticized for trying to display a “tough guy” image, was recently slammed for recklessly saying at the Oval Office “we negotiate with bombs” when speaking about the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Sarma said there’s a reason for the ongoing display of hypermasculinity on the right.
“MAGA hypermasculinity covers up insecurity and fragility, masking anxiety about loss of status, control, and identity with exaggerated displays of strength, dominance, and certainty,” they said. “Ironically, the more toxic they act, the more vulnerable they appear.”
Sarma also said that they believe the exchange between the journalist and state senator in Tennessee also “pointed towards the complexities of having older adults acting in governmental and powerful positions, when, for many, there is proclivity towards anger and irritability.”
“A healthy society ought to have a better balance of leaders — a majority of optimistic and younger folks who are interested in creating new communities for themselves and a few older people who have institutional memory,” they later added.
Overall, Sarma emphasized that the exchange between Rose and Kanew was “utterly disheartening.”
“It is utterly disheartening that an elected leader could stoop to such crass and crude behavior and language, and to threaten violence towards a persistent journalist,” they added.
