After conquering the Internet with his unconventional governmental views and personal demeanor, Chattanooga resident and Republican gubernatorial candidate Basil Marceaux Sr. took on Hollywood on Monday night.
The 57-year-old perennial candidate appeared as a guest on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” a late-night talk show.
From his Kimmel-provided room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Marceaux said early Monday afternoon he realized the host would poke fun at him.
“I’m more concerned about my message,” Marceaux said. “So if they make fun of me and all that stuff, it’ll be worth it.”
After Marceaux outlined his out-of-the-mainstream views in a video on Nashville’s WSMV-TV, Internet bloggers went wild and the candidate went “viral.”
During the WSMV segment, Marceaux swayed, spoke haltingly and was sometimes unintelligible. He said he wasn’t drinking and sometimes has problems being understood because he only has three teeth.
On the video, Marceaux talked about his opposition to the “gold-fringe flag” – he says the constitutionally correct version has no fringe – and his view that everyone should have a gun. But he said he planned to warn citizens how the U.S. republic was betrayed.
“That our country was invaded on July 16, 1866, and that it has to go,” Marceaux said. “That we can no longer go invade countries and to use our soldiers to go overseas and make democracies.”
It’s unclear what he means by the invasion of 1866, but on that date, the U.S. Congress overrode President Andrew Johnson’s veto of an addition to the Freedman’s Bureau bill which, as part of Reconstruction, established a federal agency to help freed slaves find housing, jobs and education, among other things.
In 1866, Congress voted to give more power to the bureau, including the ability to give freed slaves land, schools for their children and military courts to ensure their rights. Johnson vetoed the new bill but was overridden by Congress.
Reporter Barry Courter contributed to this article.
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