By Natalie McLendon, Louisiana Illuminator
Congressman Clay Higgins says he isn’t nervous about his colleagues within the Home of Representatives casting an official vote to censure him for inflammatory remarks he made about Haitians on social media final month.
The Republican from Lafayette, who’s searching for a fifth time period representing Louisiana’s third Congressional District within the Nov. 5 election, appeared at a city corridor assembly Wednesday and spoke to the Illuminator in regards to the controversy.
He additionally addressed the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol with occasion attendees on the Mates Supporting Mates Occasion Middle, attributing the rebellion to “weird little groups.”
As soon as the Home reconvenes after the election, Higgins may face censure over a now-deleted submit on X, previously Twitter about Haitian immigrants. Democrats and some Republicans have criticized the submit written on Higgins’ official account, calling his assertion racist.
“Lol. These Haitians are wild,” Higgins wrote. “Consuming pets, vudu [sic], nastiest nation within the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters … however damned in the event that they don’t really feel all refined now, submitting costs towards our President and VP.
“All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th,” the congressman concluded, noting the day the following U.S. president can be sworn into workplace.
Main requires the censure vote was Congressional Black Caucus chairman Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nevada. The Home motion doesn’t carry any precise punishment past potential public relations stigma.
“I’m not concerned about that,” Higgins instructed the Illuminator. “The media has attacked me for nine years now. It’s like a feeding frenzy. My life doesn’t revolve around that. Some of my colleagues have been out of line. I know the man I am and the people I serve. I’m not saying an unkind word about anybody. I don’t have malice in my heart about that.”
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Higgins, a former regulation enforcement officer, has repeatedly refused to simply accept the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election, referring to Donald Trump as “rPOTUS,” brief for the true President of the US, on social media.
On the Jennings city corridor, he mentioned what he described because the “compromised election cycle of November 2020.”
“We may never know the full truth of what happened leading up to Election Day in 2020 in the wee hours of the morning on the day following Election Day in six of our sovereign states,” he stated. “But a reasonable man can look at what happened and come to a very sober conclusion that it appeared to be coordinated election corruption.”
Higgins was among the many Republicans who voted towards certifying the election leads to favor of Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021 — a course of that was delayed when Trump supporters breached Capitol safety in an effort to thwart the certification vote.
Within the midst of the mayhem, Higgins did name on protestors to finish their assault on Capitol.
“Violence and lawlessness are unacceptable. This must end now. This is not American,” Higgins stated on Twitter.
Higgins instructed the viewers in Jennings that Trump’s rally on the White Home Ellipse on Jan. 6 was “very emotionally uplifting and very patriotic, with people singing patriotic songs, holding hands, hugging, and crying.”
Because the rally dispersed, lots of its attendees joined these converging on the Capitol.
“Then you had these weird little groups, guys in tactical gear saying some outrageous things,” Higgins stated. “They were not Three Percenters, and they were not Oath Keepers. They were not some of those guys. They were like weird little groups. There were camera crews that seemed to be working with those groups.”
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The Three Percenters are an anti-government and gun rights group that takes its identify from the questionable declare that members of the Continental Military accounted for less than 3% of the 13 colonies’ inhabitants within the American Revolution. Higgins has referenced the Three Percenters in his appeals to achieve assist for his conservative views, though the group has been linked to violent assaults and white supremacy. Members of the Three Percenters had been convicted for his or her involvement within the Jan. 6 riots, and their management was dismantled afterward.
Leaders of the Oath Keepers, together with founder Stewart Rhodes, had been convicted for seditious conspiracy for his or her actions earlier than and on Jan. 6. The group is a quasi-militia that goals to carry down a purported shadow authorities.
With out offering supporting proof, Higgins continues to take care of federal regulation enforcement was concerned within the Jan. 6 insurgency try on the Capitol. There have been two white buses “filled with FBI agents, bottom line,” on the Nationwide Mall that day, he instructed the Jennings crowd.
“There were about 60 on those two buses,” Higgins stated. “But there were a couple hundred of assets, human assets. To say they were FBI agents, the media will grab that. Let’s not get buried in the details.”
The congressman additionally made imprecise statements relating to a “a confidential informant, a field agent, a contracted agent, or a full-time FBI agent, talking about the guys that were working for the FBI that day.”
“I have a ton of evidence about that, but the media, oh the media, sometimes they’re paid to hate me,” Higgins added.
Higgins is closely favored to win reelection within the third District, which stretches from southwest Louisiana to the bayou parishes. He faces two Democrats—Priscilla Gonzales of Lafayette and Sadi Summerlin of Westlake—and fellow Republican Xan John of Lafayette.
Congress returns from its election season recess Nov. 12.
Correction: This text was up to date to replicate that Higgins didn’t take part in an Oath Keepers occasion in June 2017, although his identify was utilized in reference to the even with out his permission, in keeping with communications director.
