Nebraska 'Freedom Fest' speaker tells 'bad joke' about George Floyd

Nebraska Democratic Party leaders on Tuesday criticized callous comments by a featured speaker for the Nebraska Freedom Coalition, a group of conservatives that helped a new team take over the state GOP. Democrats, in a series of social media posts, condemned conservative comedian and conspiracy theorist Alex Stein for a joke set in which he congratulated murdered Minnesotan George Floyd for being “two and a half years sober.” Seconds later, Stein, who headlined the Freedom Coalition’s Nebraska Freedom Festival on Aug. 27, told the crowd it was “a bad joke.” “That’s evil,” he said, smiling as some in the crowd laughed. State Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said Tuesday that the new state GOP is “just as extreme” as the Freedom Coalition that hosted Stein and “Stop the Steal” protest organizer Ali Alexander. Kleeb’s social media posts criticized the “extremist behavior” of the Freedom Coalition and the Nebraska GOP. Late last week, the Freedom Coalition tweeted that the GOP “has been called everything from racist homophobes to fascist murderers by the Left.” They said they were expected to “play nice, watch our words, and take the high road.” “We watched cities across the country burn as the media reported ‘fiery, but mostly peaceful protests’ during the Floyd riots; yet, we couldn’t say a word because, ‘you are racist,'” they wrote in one tweet from Friday.