Republican Rep. Clay Higgins (La.) published racist comments about Haitians on Wednesday \u2014 only to delete them after being confronted by House colleagues.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Higgins called Haitians \u201cthugs,\u201d called Haiti the \u201cnastiest country in the western hemisphere,\u201d and repeated false and dehumanizing claims about pet-eating. The remarks were called out and he deleted the post, though he has not yet issued an apology.<\/p>\n
The sideshow unfolded on the House floor Wednesday evening as representatives convened to vote on a spending bill to avert a government shutdown. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) confronted Higgins on the floor and asked him to take down the post.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Mike Johnson, also a Louisiana Republican, told reporters Higgins was approached by colleagues who told him the post was \u201coffensive.\u201d Johnson said he then spoke to Higgins about it, after which Higgins \u201cprayed about it and he regretted it and he pulled the post down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what you want the gentleman to do,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
On the House floor, Horsford introduced a censure resolution against Higgins. In a statement shortly thereafter, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Higgins \u201cmust be held accountable for dishonorable conduct that is unbecoming of a Member of Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Higgins\u2019s post referenced the falsehood spread in recent weeks by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets. The claims prompted bomb threats that closed schools and necessitated the deployment of state troopers and left Haitians fearful for their safety.<\/p>\n
Ohio\u2019s Republican governor, Mike DeWine; the town\u2019s mayor; and other elected officials have refuted and condemned the false claims. But most Republicans have been reluctant to directly criticize Trump and Vance for repeating the accusations, and neither candidate has walked back the claim.<\/p>\n
Higgins made his post two days after Trump said of legal immigrants, \u201cYou have to get them the hell out,\u201d as he talked about Springfield during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
In the post, Higgins threatened that Haitians should get \u201cout of our country before January 20th.\u201d He also ridiculed a lawsuit against Trump and Vance brought by the leader of a Haitian nonprofit over their false claims.<\/p>\n
GOP Rep. Clay Higgins has now deleted this tweet after he was confronted by CBC Chair Steven Horsford on the House floor, and asked to take it down, multiple sources tell me & \u2066@heatherscope\u2069 >> pic.twitter.com\/10c8e5SZEP<\/p>\n
\u2014 Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) September 25, 2024<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Higgins resigned from the St. Landry Parish sheriff\u2019s office in 2016 after he described alleged gang members as \u201cheathens\u201d and \u201canimals\u201d in a viral video. He won his House seat months later.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Jeffries questioned Johnson\u2019s decision to name Higgins to a House task force investigating an assassination attempt on Trump. \u201cPerhaps that\u2019s something that House Republican leadership should reevaluate,\u201d Jeffries told reporters.<\/p>\n
Theodoric Meyer, Jacob Bogage and Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Republican Rep. Clay Higgins (La.) published racist comments about Haitians on Wednesday \u2014 only to delete them after being confronted by House colleagues. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Higgins called Haitians \u201cthugs,\u201d called Haiti the \u201cnastiest country in the western hemisphere,\u201d and repeated false and dehumanizing claims about pet-eating. The remarks were called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}