Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX), the lone GOP vote for House Democrats’ sweeping police reform bill that aims to stop cops from killing Black people with impunity, is frantically trying to undo his grave error.
“I accidentally pressed the wrong voting button and realized it too late,” Gooden announced in a now-deleted tweet on Wednesday night. “I have changed the official record to reflect my opposition to the partisan George Floyd Policing Act.”
The Republican followed up with a tweet declaring that “of course” he wouldn’t support the “radical left’s, Anti-Police” bill.
“I have changed the official record to reflect my opposition!” he wrote with a photo of a request to switch his vote.
TPM could not confirm whether the record had been amended yet. Gooden’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The House’s George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, named after the Black man whose death at the hands of white police officer Derek Chauvin sparked mass protests last summer, seeks to reform the policing system and make it easier to hold law enforcement officers accountable for misconduct.
Parts of the bill ban chokeholds (the physical restraint that led to Floyd’s death), create a national registry of officers who have been fired for misconduct, bolster the Justice Department’s ability to investigate policing malpractice, and prohibit racial and discriminatory profiling.
The legislation passed 220 to 212 with Gooden’s vote.
Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Ron Kind (D-WI) were the only Democrats who voted against the bill, which faces an uphill climb in the Senate thanks to the filibuster.
Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
