Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins (R) went on a racist rant on social media about Haitians, which he later deleted after being called out by his House colleagues.
In a Wednesday night X post, Higgins wrote:
“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. All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th,” Higgins tweeted.
He deleted the post several hours later.
On Thursday morning, the lawmaker walked back his comments saying that they weren’t intended for all Haitians, only the “thugs”.
“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.”
Though he took down the post after he said he prayed on it, Higgins told CNN he stood by the comments.
“It’s all true,” Higgins told CNN. “I can put up another controversial post tomorrow if you want me to. I mean, we do have freedom of speech. I’ll say what I want.”
Lawmakers condemn Higgins’ comments
Hakeem Jeffries of New York issued a statement calling Higgins’ remarks “disgusting,” as well as “vile, racist and beneath the dignity of the House of Representatives.”
Louisiana Democratic Congressman Troy Carter said in a statement to the Shreveport Times that the post “incites division, perpetuates harmful stereotypes, and undermines the core values of our democracy.”
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., said he spoke to Higgins and urged him to take the post down.
“Clay and I had a conversation about it, and I said I think it’s a bad statement – you should take it down,” Donalds said. “He came back a minute or two later and said he was going to remove it,” he said.
Threats of violence
The Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, and beyond has faced an onslaught of racist abuse after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance falsely claimed that Haitians were eating pets.
Threats of violence in the community have become painfully common in recent weeks.
Springfield, Ohio in particular has received more than two dozen bomb threats that have caused evacuations of schools and government buildings. The state has sent in additional state troopers and installed surveillance cameras to deal with the threats.