Clay Higgins tweets racist tirade about Haitian immigrants

Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana called Haiti “the worst country in the Western Hemisphere” in a social media post on Wednesday and demanded that migrants from the Caribbean country, the majority of whom are in the U.S. legally, “get the ass out of our country.”

Higgins’ rant against X — which was deleted hours later — came in response to an Associated Press article about a Haitian nonprofit group that filed a citizen’s complaint against former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance for their repeated baseless claims about migrants in Springfield, Ohio, including Trump’s statement at the presidential debate that they would “eat the dogs” and “eat the cats.”

Higgins’ post reinforced the debunked favorite claim, which was followed by dozens of bomb threats in the city.

“Lol. These Haitians are wild. They eat pets, Vudu, the worst country in the Western Hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters… but damn if they don’t feel all cultured right now and bring charges against our president and vice president,” he said, referring to Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates Trump and Vance.

“All these thugs better change their minds and get their asses out of our country before January 20th,” the post concluded. That is the day Trump and Vance would be sworn in if they win the election in November.

Subodh Chandra, the attorney for the Haitian Bridge Alliance, the nonprofit that brought the lawsuit, said the post was “not a dog whistle, but the pronouncement of a clear threat.”

He said: “In a functioning House of Representatives under a responsible speaker who cares about integrity, this would be addressed quickly through an investigation by an ethics committee and a censure or expulsion. But this is a majority in the House that tolerates anti-Semitism and racism, so we will see if the Republican leadership does anything at all.”

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Higgins was “a dear friend of mine and a fellow Louisianan and a very open and outspoken person.” He said he spoke to Higgins about the post on the House floor and that Higgins “went to the back and prayed about it, and he regretted it and withdrew the post.”

A spokesperson for Higgins did not respond to a request for comment on the post. A representative for the Trump campaign also did not respond.

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Higgins’ comments “abhorrent, racist and beneath the dignity of the United States House of Representatives” and said he must be held “accountable for his dishonorable conduct, which is unworthy of a member of Congress.”

Democratic Representative Steve Horsford of Nevada moved to censure Higgins in the House early Wednesday evening.

“They are stirring up hatred. They are stirring up fear,” Horsford said.

“It is time to put an end to hate and hate rhetoric, and no member has the right to continue to spew this kind of rhetoric on any platform, let alone in the House of Representatives,” he added.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Higgins’ Republican congressional colleague from Louisiana, said: “The tweet has already been deleted and removed, but I object to the motion.”

The application was found inadmissible.

Horsford later told reporters that he had previously spoken to Higgins and that Higgins had informed him that he would not remove the post.

“In my opinion, he showed no remorse and did not understand how his rhetoric contributes to people feeling harassed and threatened and unsafe in their own communities. That’s why I asked him to remove the post,” Horsford said. “He actually told me no, he would not do that, and then we started the action in the chamber.”

The vast majority of Haitians in Springfield are in the country legally, having been granted temporary protected status by the Department of Homeland Security. Trump and Vance have said they will end that protection and immediately deport the Haitians if elected.

“If Kamala Harris waves the magic wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I will still call them ‘illegal aliens,'” Vance told reporters at an event in North Carolina this month.

Higgins is a staunch Trump ally who has become known for his fiery rhetoric. Last year he said of special counsel Jack Smith: “All I’m saying is his days are numbered, and American patriots will not stand by, good sir, and allow our republic to crumble.”

After a terrorist attack in London in 2017, Higgins said anyone suspected of being an Islamic terrorist should be killed.

“Not a single radicalized Islamic suspect should be shown the slightest mercy,” he wrote on Facebook. “Their planned entry into the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every possible measure should be taken to hunt them down. Hunt them down, identify them, and kill them. Kill them all.”

Last year, he also made headlines for violently removing an activist from an outdoor press conference on Capitol Hill.

In a subsequent Twitter post, he said the activist had “become very disruptive and threatening in violation of the law” and had “aggressively disrupted Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and addressed her in a threatening manner.”