MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In my line of work, there are certain politicians we like to interview because they don't talk in boring political speak. They tell it like it is.
Former Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland was one of those politicians. You could always count on him for a good soundbite.
I aired an interview with Terry at 6. He's bothered by the scare tactics used by a Conservative dark money group that sent letters to folks in Millington. The letters warned if they didn't donate money within 10 days, Millington could become a sanctuary city and basically be taken over by illegal immigrants.
Terry heard from a lot of seniors who worried it might be true because Newt Gingrich supposedly wrote it.
"On the letter itself, it's got Newt Gingrich's name on it," Roland said. "That's somebody if you're a Republican you know and trust everything, but when you get down to the straight skinny, it's all about money."
After getting nearly 75 calls from people in just one day, Terry said enough is enough.
He asked me to do a VERIFY story about not only whether the letter was true, which of course it isn't, but he also said it's time to call out the extreme sides of both parties to tone things down.
"I'm saying both sides are stirring the pot so bad that it's scaring people out here," he said.
Terry is a Republican's Republican and proud of it. Good for him for having the guts to say the rhetoric on the right and left has gone too far.