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Texas Democrat compares Holocaust to GOP redistricting plan

Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones used extreme language in defending Democrats decision to flee the state to avoid a vote on a GOP-led redistricting plan on Don Lemons show. She later apologized.

Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones apologized on Tuesday for comparing Democrats fleeing the state over redistricting to the Holocaust.

Jones was one of several Texas House Democrats who left the state on Monday to avoid a vote on Republicans' new proposed congressional district map, which would potentially secure five new GOP U.S. House seats in next year's midterm elections. They claim the redistricting will disenfranchise minority voters.

Speaking to former CNN host Don Lemon from an "undisclosed location" in New York, Jones emphasized the importance of standing up against such "racist" actions to avoid the same mistakes that led to the Holocaust.

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Democratic Texas State Rep. Jolanda Jones later apologized for her comments in a statement to Fox News Digital. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

"We better have the courage to stand up, otherwise we will fall for anything," she said. "And in this country, we will be defeated, deported. I mean, we will lose all of our rights. And if you think it can't happen, it can."

"And I will liken this to the Holocaust," Jones continued, "People are like, ‘Well, how did the Holocaust happen? How was somebody in a position to kill all them people?’ Well, good people remain silent or good people didn't realize that what happens to them can very soon happen to me or somebody I love.

"And so, even if you made it, man, you have an obligation to help people who can't because, God forbid, they end up targeting you and your family." 

In a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, Jones apologized for her comments and retracted her comparisons to the Holocaust.

"I made a statement on ‘The Don Lemon Show’ comparing Trump's attempt to disenfranchise Black and Brown people to the Holocaust. That was a mistake, and I apologize for it. Trump is coming for my community, and I get emotional about it and make strong statements. But that was going too far, and I retract that comparison," the statement read.

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A large group of Democratic Texas lawmakers left the state on Monday so a quorum could not be reached during a special session called to redistrict the state. (Getty Images)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, criticized Jones' original comments.

"Fleeing Texas House Democrats continue to beclown themselves through this desperate, anti-democratic stunt. Unlike these radicals, Governor Abbott refuses to abandon Texans. If the House Democrats who deserted Texans were serious about delivering results, they would come back to the Texas Capitol and do the job voters elected them to do," Mahaleris told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital also reached out to the Texas Democratic Party for comment.

In the interview with Lemon, Jones also dismissed the argument made by Texas Republicans that she and other Democrats will need to return to the state eventually, remarking she "ain’t got to do nothing but die."

"[T]he point is, I will stay gone as long as I need to stay gone. And I hope that my colleagues feel as convicted as I do. That right now, you know, I always wondered what I would have done would I've been walking on…the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Would I have been willing to walk for over a year with the Montgomery bus boycott. And you know what? Now is our civil rights moment, people," Jones said.

Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, is threatening state Democrat lawmakers with expulsion after many of them fled the state in an attempt to halt GOP efforts in the state to enact a new congressional districting map. (Getty Images)

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After several Democrats failed to return to the Texas State Capitol on Monday afternoon, Texas Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows announced he would sign arrest warrants against any absent Democrat lawmakers if authorized by a vote of the chamber. Abbott then swiftly called on the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest the "delinquent Texas House Democrats." 

Abbott has also threatened to expel the Texas House Democrats for leaving the state.

Fox News' Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.