Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., has removed a racist post against Haitian immigrants after widespread criticism, even though House Republicans successfully shielded him from an effort to censure him over the remarks.
Higgins, a Louisiana representative who once admitted to voting for former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, previously told colleagues that he’d pray over whether to delete the remarks. His racist post came in response to a Haitian advocacy group filing criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, for their lie-filled anti-Haitian rhetoric, which authorities say has endangered the community.
“Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters,” Higgins wrote on X, ending the now-deleted post with a threat that “these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.”
The Congressional Black Caucus moved on Wednesday to censure Higgins for the remarks. But Republicans, who control the House, pushed the vote to after a legislative recess that will last until November.
Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, D-N.Y., co-chair of the House Haiti Caucus, called Higgins' comments “vile and reprehensible."
“His remarks are cruel, dehumanizing, and have been proven time and again as untrue,” Clarke said in a statement. “Just when you think these MAGA extremists' xenophobic ideologies can’t get any worse, they continue to spread dangerous falsehoods and threats.”
But Higgins was defended by House Speaker Mike Johnson, also from Louisiana,, who said that Higgins was “a dear friend” and a “very frank and outspoken person.”
“He pulled the post down. That’s what you want a gentleman to do,” Johnson said. “We believe in redemption around here.”
