Rep. Clay Higgins and his addled, racist brain
His racism says a lot about his poisoned mind, but it also says something about the people who continue to vote him into office
You are, by now, likely aware that U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins this week has surged into the lead in his ongoing contest with Sen. John Kennedy to be known as the most racist member of the Louisiana congressional delegation.
Higgins, R-Lafayette, is among that feeble-brained variety of bigots taken in by the lies and hatred Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are spewing about legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. Even Trump and Vance know the stories about immigrants eating the dogs and cats are fabrications meant only to energize their racist base.
As a prominent part of that base, Higgins was mighty energized on Wednesday when he tweeted the following: “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.”
After the post generated outrage on the House floor, Higgins deleted the tweet. House Speaker Mike Johnson used that fact to pretend that Higgins was chastened and worthy of forgiveness and forbearance.
Higgins, however, wasn’t interested in the forgiveness Johnson was handing out. According to CNN:
Despite the backlash and ultimate decision to take down the post after he said he prayed on it, Higgins told CNN he stood by his demeaning comments.
“It’s all true,” Higgins said. “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.”
Digging in, Higgins continued: “It’s not a big deal to me. It’s like something stuck to the bottom of my boot. Just scrape it off and move on with my life.”
Higgins’ latest racist eruption reminded me of my visit to Lake Charles in July 2021, when I spoke to the local Rotary Club to promote my political memoir, Backrooms and Bayous. During the Q&A at the end, one member of the nearly all-white, conservative club raised his hand to ask why southwestern Louisiana still had not received the federal assistance it so desperately needed after the devastation of Hurricane Laura in August 2020.
“Do you want the truth?” I asked before drawing a deep breath. They nodded. “Your congressman is a clown,” I told them. “So, you're not likely to get the help you need or much else for this district as long as Clay Higgins is your congressman because he's not working for you.”
Most of the audience knew what I meant by that, but let’s review Higgins’ sorry record. For that, we have Gambit’s John Stanton to thank. As he wrote on Wednesday about Higgins:
He supported Klan leader and neo-Nazi David Duke, naturally.
During his time as a [deputy] sheriff in Lafayette, he was known for pushing an anti-Black agenda and assaulted an unarmed Black man. In 2017, he was widely condemned for filming a selfie inside a gas chamber at Auschwitz.
He predictably continues to insist Trump won the 2020 election and believes violent insurrectionists are heroes. In 2020 he threatened to shoot Black civil rights protesters. In 2022 he dismissively referred to Raya Salter, a Black woman lawyer, as “boo” during a Congressional hearing. In 2023 he assaulted a progressive activist during a press event at the U.S. Capitol. In April, he argued for detaining EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who is Black, and sending him to Angola Prison.
Higgins also has a penchant for posting often bizarrely lit YouTube videos and other social media posts so untethered from reality they make even the most ardent QAnon believers uncomfortable.
Southwestern Louisiana eventually got some of the help it needed to recover.
It has also received major infrastructure support from the Biden administration. The new Interstate 10 bridge over the Calcasieu River, funded largely by that federal bill, will be a welcome relief to all who hold their breath as they cross over it. (Sen. Bill Cassidy was the only GOP member of the Louisiana delegation to support the big federal infrastructure bill that Biden proposed.)
However, none of this is thanks to Higgins, who voted against the infrastructure bill and did nothing to generate hurricane relief funds. Here’s what Higgins said at that time about that legislation which partly funds a massive and critical infrastructure project in his district:
I have done everything in my power to stop the oppressive socialist agenda, the accelerated enactment of the Democrats’ plan to dominate America. This so-called infrastructure bill is a significant part of that agenda. The bill is 9% roads and bridges and 91% socialist garbage. It’s a losing deal for Louisiana, further seizure of power by the thieves in suits of DC, and an advancement of a plan so diabolical I am unable even to write of it here, today. No real Republican should support either of these insidious bills.
Higgins contributed nothing to helping his district recover from Laura or build a new bridge because he’s continued to play the racist clown instead of becoming the serious legislator his constituents need him to be.
And still, they reelected him in 2020. And they will likely do so again despite the overwhelming evidence that he is unfit for public office.
I’m not sure who comes off looking worse in this latest episode:
Higgins, who has shown us not only a particularly vile part of his racist mind but also his disdain for the country he pretends to love. America is a nation of immigrants. Immigration is at the foundation of the American story.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who refuses to condemn Higgins’ racism, and the other GOP members of the Louisiana delegation who’ve also remained quiet and tacitly supportive of Higgins.
His constituents, who tolerate not only his racism and bigotry but also his epic incompetence and unwillingness to take his job seriously.
It’s a (three-sided) coin toss, I know, but I think the majority of his constituents deserve particular responsibility for their support of him. And sadly, those voters will not engender much sympathy from the rest of the nation when another hurricane strikes southwestern Louisiana and the feckless, racist congressman they love is unwilling or unable to help them.
Many of those who will vote for him again in November may not be racist, but by their votes for him, they’re telling the world that Higgins’ vile racism is not a deal breaker.
Every time I see Clay Higgins, I am so thrilled to have found a home in Gaithersburg, M.D. For the most part, our elected officials are erudite men and women, who possess the “empathy chip!” Not hateful bigots trying to create Nazi Germany! He has NEVER done anything to benefit his constituents. As you noted; it says more about them, than it does about him! 👹
At the risk of repeating myself, ad nauseum, I have to say those who support or enable Mr. Higgins, Mr. Trump, Senator Kennedy, et al, are disengaged from politics and willfully ignorant of what politicians are doing or the implications of their elections and actions. Should they be forgiven for just not knowing better? Absolutely not. I just corresponded with such a person (who, BTW, is otherwise quite brilliant) and his bottom-line what that everything is in God's hands. Really? God didn't give us free will and a responsibility for our own well-being? As I told him, I cannot allow myself to be a fatalist or a nihilist - apparently, in addition to those who might fervently support the Higginses, Kennedys, and Trumps of the world, far too many of our citizens have simply given up on our system and cast votes to destroy it, realizing they are doing so, or not.