Little Rock, Arkansas – A political argument is now being talked about in a courtroom in Arkansas instead of on social media.
For real, Chris Jones, a former Democratic candidate for governor, sued Arkansas Senate President Pro Tem Bart Hester for slander in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Thursday.
Jones was responding to a post about recent protests on college campuses related to the war in Palestine and Israel’s response. In a post from May 1, Hester shared Jones’s post again. This is what led to the lawsuit.
The original post, which came from an editor at the Arkansas Times, said that in the long run, student-led mass protests were often seen as “right.” It used the Vietnam War and U.S. attacks on the Middle East after September 11 based on false reports of WMDs as examples.
Jones responded, “We would do well NOT to ignore them.” after the comment.
After Jones’ answer, Hester wrote back that Jones was “taking a pro-Hamas terrorist position.” He also said that the Democrat “might want to bow down to people who admire terrorists.” Jones was tagged twice by the Cave Springs Republican in his post, and the Arkansas Democratic Party was also named.
Jones said he filed the defamation with malice suit to protect “civil public discourse” in a statement telling people about the claim. Jones also said that he tried to solve the problem “quietly,” but Hester “chose confrontation.”
KARK 4 News asked Hester to say something about the case. Hester hasn’t replied to the legal move yet, but earlier this month he told Samantha Boyd of KARK 4 News that he wasn’t taking down the post because he thought nothing in it was false.
