Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, on Wednesday posted to X, and later deleted, a comment that invoked racist stereotypes about Haitians. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
By the time Republican U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins faces a censure vote in the House of Representatives, it’s highly likely that voters of Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District will have resoundingly elected him to a fourth term.
It’s a sad reflection on the large section of Cajun Country that Higgins represents, especially because his constituents would be hard pressed to cite specific legislation he’s sponsored to benefit the district through six years in office.
Higgins drew quick condemnation, especially from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, for regurgitating misinformation about Haitian immigrants living and working in Springfield, Ohio – and doing as legally admitted residents to the United States.
In case you missed Higgins’ since-deleted post, it went like this:
“Lol. These Haitians are wild,” Higgins wrote. “Eating pets, vudu [sic], nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters … but damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP.”
If you didn’t know, immigration paperwork is lengthy and expensive, which some might also describe as sophisticated.
Higgins continued:
“All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th,” Higgins concluded, noting the day the next U.S. president will be sworn into office.
The congressman wrote his post Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, after an activist group called for the arrest of the GOP ticket – former President Donald Trump and his pick for vice president, Sen. J.D. Vance, who represents the people of Springfield and the rest of Ohio. The Republican nominees’ ticket’s continued repetition of claims that have widely and officially debunked rises to a criminal offense, according to the Haitian Bridge Alliance.
In a subsequent interview with The Hill after deleting his post, he dialed back his diatribe, suggesting it was directed at Haitian gangs — and not the country itself. Yet in a statement to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the congressman doubled down on his original statement.
“It’s all true,” Higgins said. “I can put up another controversial post tomorrow if you want me to. I mean, we do have freedom of speech. I’ll say what I want.”
“It’s not a big deal to me,” the congressman added. “It’s like something stuck to the bottom of my boot. Just scrape it off and move on with my life.”
Perhaps if anyone else, anywhere else, had posted the same hate-filled, racist rant, the outrage would have made an appreciable dent in their approval ratings. But thanks to deflection and defense from his fellow GOP members from Louisiana, Higgins’ online braying was chalked up as just “Clay being Clay.”
“His comments were incendiary, but it’s unclear if he’ll pay any price whatsoever,” University of Louisiana at Monroe political scientist Pearson Cross told Louisiana Radio Network. “Republican leadership is not going to be looking to censure one of their own members when, in fact, the vice president (nominee) from their party is kind of on record as saying similar statements about Haitians, at least in regard to how they treat their dogs and cats.”
Reaction from GOP leaders in the Louisiana delegation lends credence to Cross’ opinion.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson steered well clear of condemning Higgins, calling him “a dear friend” and “very principled man” when reporters asked for his response to the X post.
“He said he went to the back and he prayed about it, and he regretted it, and he pulled the post down,” Johnson told reporters. “That’s what you want the gentleman to do. I’m sure he probably regrets some of the language he used. But, you know, we move forward. We believe in redemption.”
The speaker’s reluctance to bash his colleague is not surprising, but it’s disappointing he made no effort to condemn the message. Johnson has his own track record for attacking the marginalized, including his actions to oppose to same-sex marriage and laws intended to protect the LGBTQ+ community. In this light, it’s understandable that he gave Higgins a free pass for his excessive display of racism.
Another of Louisiana’s own, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also rushed to Higgins’ defense, objecting on the House floor Wednesday when Congressional Black Caucus leader, Rep. Steven Horsford, R-Nevada, offered a motion for a censure vote. Keep in mind a congressional censure is merely a statement of disapproval, without any real punitive consequences.
“I object to the motion, and if we want to go through every comment from the other side, we’ll be happy to do it,” Scalise told the presiding speaker, Rep. Jay Olbernote, R-California.
Again, there was no rebuke from Scalise, not even the slightest mention that Higgins’ X post was baseless or in poor taste. The majority leader instead played the “what about” card, promising to find some Democratic transgression that apparently would offset Higgins’ blatant indiscretion.
Just a week earlier, Scalise called out Vice President Kamala Harris for “incendiary” language that he said inspired assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump.
“Kamala needs to stop saying President Trump is a threat to democracy,” Scalise said. “There are unhinged people that are taking that as a call to go and try to eliminate President Trump.”
President Joe Biden also drew Scalise’s scorn for saying, “It’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye.”
“The president of the United States said that, and now two different people have taken it as a call to action,” Scalise said.
If we’re going to engage Scalise in his game of “what about,” then you would think he would reprimand Higgins in no uncertain terms for his quite blatant directive that Haitians get “their ass out of our country before January 20th.”
A list of Trump’s comparable verbal grenades that merit similar denouncement would take more space than this commentary allows. Just for starters, some Jan. 6 rioters have since testified in court that they believed they were following Trump’s instructions when they breached the Capitol perimeter that day.
With a potential censure vote on hold until Congress returns in mid-November, it wouldn’t be surprising if Higgins, fresh off a big reelection win, were to turn the entire situation into a badge of honor — one that certainly would receive plaudits from his supporters back home.
Until conservatives in Louisiana’s 3rd District and beyond decide racism, xenophobia and threats aren’t among their core values, Higgins and others who share his myopic worldview can expect a long tenure in Washington.
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