In the inaugural issue of The 3AM, back in March, I wrote about former Democratic state representative John DeBerry’s candidacy as a Republican for County Mayor. At the time, I posited whether DeBerry aligned with the leader of the GOP, Donald Trump, on issues specific to Shelby County. I posed the following questions:

Recently, DeBerry was interviewed by The Daily Memphian CEO, Eric Barnes, and veteran political reporter, Bill Dries, on an episode of “Behind the Headlines.” The interview and the article that followed shed some light on the two questions about the Memphis Safe Task Force. The interview also revealed DeBerry’s views on the takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools, and his views on the dilution of Memphis’ Black voting population during the recent redistricting.

On the question of the National Guard in Memphis, DeBerry did not address the Guard specifically. Instead, he talked about the task force as a whole. DeBerry, according to The Daily Memphian, said:

“I think that a certain amount of intervention was absolutely needed, but now that intervention has been successful,” and “If they’ve done their job, let’s let them go and then turn the responsibility over to our local law enforcement agencies. That’s what I will work on from Day 1.” DeBerry didn’t offer specific details about how it might work or what a timeline might look like.

DeBerry partially addressed the role and tactics of ICE as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force. President Trump and Deputy White House Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, have made aggressive immigration enforcement a priority, leading to violent encounters with civilians and the death of two in Minneapolis. In Memphis, journalists and activists have documented questionable tactics and arrests by ICE and intimidation of those filming these encounters, which has led to a lawsuit by the ACLU. DeBerry implied that undocumented immigrants were treated more leniently than African American men when it comes to issues of violating traffic laws, and that he wanted everyone to be treated equally and fairly.

DeBerry was asked about the takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools and indicated his support for the intervention.

“I think all of us, if we think clearly for just a moment, realize that we have some problems that were calling attention to the way we educated our children, the way we ran our school system, and crime. … The state and the national government didn’t just decide, ‘Well, let’s go mess with Memphis.’”

Nowhere in the interview did DeBerry make clear his stance on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Though the redistricting special session has recently ended with Memphis’ Black majority being divided between three largely rural, majority-white and Republican congressional districts, DeBerry blamed low voter turnout as the reason for the redistricting vote. Throwing up his hands, he said that what happened was just the system, and the majority makes those decisions.

What DeBerry seems to be telegraphing is that state and federal intervention is alright with him, at least as long as the Republicans are in charge. Given the opportunity to state his views on President Trump, he avoided criticizing the President, saying people could debate if Trump was good for the country, but that his focus was running for County Mayor.

Supportive of Republican intervention from the state and federal governments and a willingness to go along with the President and Republican gerrymandering – it is no wonder the GOP cleared their primary for him.