After a Haitian advocacy group filed criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance, one member of Congress responded with a racist rant that is, frankly, completely in line with the character of the modern GOP.
Earlier this week, the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance took advantage of an Ohio law allowing private citizens to file criminal charges against individuals, charging the Republican candidates with a series of offenses related to a smear campaign they promoted against Haitian migrants living in the town of Springfield, Ohio. Trump and Vance have falsely claimed that the migrants are undocumented, and have terrorized the town in a variety of ways — including by killing and eating local pets.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) responded to the charges from Haitian Bridge Alliance on X, formerly Twitter, with undiluted racism:
“Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, 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,” Higgins wrote, misspelling “Voodoo” in the process.
“All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th,” he added.
Higgins is no stranger to perpetuating anti-Black racism. In 1992, Higgins, then an Army military policy officer, described former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke as “a homeboy” during Duke’s unsuccessful bid for the presidency.
“Regardless of the fact that David’s a homeboy and all that, the boy’s a Nazi, and that’s a real problem,” Higgins told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and added that he had, in fact, voted for Duke in his 1991 gubernatorial campaign.
Higgins is also a staunch supporter of Trump, and has spread several conspiracy theories popular among the MAGA faithful, including that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was orchestrated by the FBI.