One of the many problems with Donald Trump’s (and, by extension, JD Vance’s) approach to politics is that it emboldens and empowers racism and xenophobia within his allies.
To wit, US Representative Clay Higgins (R-LA03) yesterday on Twitter:
Higgins faced immediate criticism and deleted the tweet. He also provided this less-than-impressive explanation:
“You never want to intentionally hurt someone’s feelings, and that post was intended for Haitian gangs, you understand?” Higgins told reporters. “Not for, I mean, Haiti as a country, not at all. And the unintended impact that was expressed very sincerely from one of my colleagues very graciously, that touched me as a gentleman.”
Hmm. Let’s see, he called Haiti the “nastiest country in the western hemisphere,” so that aimed straight at Haiti as a country. Moreover, the notion that he was just talking about gangs is absurd, or, at best (and I use that word with more than a little irony) that he thinks that the Haitians in Springfield are all in gangs (because, after all, what else would a bunch of darker hued foreigners be doing?).
This is very much a non-apology apology (indeed, I think the technical term is bullshit).
Further, the calls by Higgins (following Trump) that legal immigrants have to be forcibly ejected from their homes sounds pretty fascistic to me.
And he doesn’t exactly appear to be all that remorseful in any event:
Higgins deleted the social media post on Wednesday following a confrontation from members of the CBC, including Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), chair of the caucus, but doubled down on the comments shortly after in a statement to CNN.
“It’s all true. I can put up another controversial post tomorrow if you want me to,” Higgins sent to Anderson Cooper. “I mean, we do have freedom of speech. I’ll say what I want. It’s not a big deal to me. It’s like something stuck to the bottom of my boot. Just scrape it off and move on with my life.”
Speaking of Copper, this is worth a view: Anderson Cooper reacts to GOP defending congressman who demanded Haitians leave US.
The clip of Speaker Johnson solmenly entoning that Higgins prayed about it and delted the tweet is almost cartoonish. To use language that Johnson would fully famialir with, let me note Luke 6:45, quoting some dude named Jesus: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
