On Capitol Hill, Republicans are using bigoted attacks against political enemies
When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, stood in the House of Representatives this month to announce her proposal to censure the only Somali-born member of Congress, she said she was seeking punishment for “Rep. Ilhan Omar of Somalia — I mean Minnesota. ”
Earlier that same week, Representative Troy Nehls, Republican of Texas, called the black husband of another Democratic woman of color, Representative Cori Bush of Missouri, a “thug.” He then said that Mrs. Bush, who is also black, had received so many death threats because she was “so loud all the time.”
During a hearing at the Capitol, Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, spoke to TikTok CEO Shou Chew about his country of origin. Mr Cotton repeatedly demanded to know whether Mr Chew, who is from Singapore, was Chinese, had a Chinese passport or was a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
“No, Senator – again, I am Singaporean,” Mr Chew responded irritably after saying several times that he was not Chinese.
Around the same time, House Republicans issued their message report on impeachment charges against Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the Cuban-born Secretary of Homeland Security who is the first Latino to lead his department. In unusually charged language for a committee report, the panel described its action as “deporting Secretary Mayorkas from office.”
In private the language was uglier. During a closed-door meeting of Republicans in the House of Representatives, Representative Mark E. Green, Republican of Tennessee and the panel's chairman, called Mr. Mayorkas a “reptile” for his refusal to resign from his position. according to Politico. A White House official condemned the statement, noting that Mr. Mayorkas is Jewish and that the comment repeated an anti-Semitic trope.
And all in the space of a week.
The racist discourse of Republican members of Congress, both in informal comments and official statements, has become so commonplace that it now often slips by without any real condemnation from the Republican Party. Democrats often call for apologies but no longer expect any response, and those who point out useless charges quickly disappear into a morass of polarized social media content.
This pattern is playing out as the Republican Party once again rallies behind former President Donald J. Trump, who routinely made bigoted statements during his first campaign for the White House and his presidency. His approach has emboldened some Republicans to freely use rhetoric that denigrates people based on ethnicity, religion or nationality.
“The nature of Trumpism is to encourage extremism,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres, a black Democrat from New York. “Whether it's harassing an Asian witness about his ethnic allegiance, or dehumanizing a Cabinet secretary, or accusing a Muslim woman of treason, or describing a black man as a criminal, Republican members of Congress are crossing lines never before may be exceeded.”
Mr. Torres said the sad reality was that “the extreme elements have concluded that racism may be bad morals, but it is good politics.”
“Instead of representing what is best about America,” he said, “Congress increasingly represents what is worst.”
When Republicans on Capitol Hill have similar concerns, they rarely voice them publicly. Chairman Mike Johnson's office had no comment on the recent incidents.
The Republican Party, which has relied primarily on white voters for decades, has long exploited fear and prejudice to strengthen its base, whether it was Barry Goldwater's vocal opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or George H.W. Bush's use of the black convict Willie Horton in his speech. a 1988 presidential ad.
Mr. Trump has boosted that strategy by entering the national political conversation by advancing the racist lie that President Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, was not born in the United States.
As president, Mr. Trump routinely made racist comments that went beyond the dog whistle, calling African countries “shithole countries,” saying there were “very fine people on both sides” of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and he told the four Democratic congresswomen of color, known as “the Squad,” to “go back” to where they came from. (Of the four, only Ms. Omar was born outside the United States.)
Trump recently referred to Nikki Haley, a rival for the Republican nomination and the daughter of Indian immigrants, as “Nimrada,” misspelling her first name, Nimarata. He also amplified social media posts falsely claiming she was not born in the United States.
A spokesman for Mr. Trump's campaign, Steve Cheung, made no apologies for Mr. Trump's language, saying: “President Trump is a truth-teller, and the more people follow his lead and express their opinions, the better.”
The racist comments resonate with Trump's political coalition, which is 85 percent white in a country that is 59 percent white and shrinking every day. Republicans in Congress have also tried to capitalize on the grievances of their base.
Ms. Greene raised money based on her proposed censure of Ms. Omar, which was written based on a mistranslation of her comments into Somali that spread virally on right-wing social media, and she has fueled the cycle by amplifying hate and disinformation online.
“Ilhan Omar embodies the greatest threat America faces: hordes of migrants invading our country with no real desire to assimilate or embrace what it means to be American,” Ms. Greene wrote in a fundraising appeal for small donors . That language encapsulates the core tenets of a conspiracy theory known as the replacement theory, which explains demographic changes as a plot by Western elites, including Jews, to replace and disempower white people.
Stuart P. Stevens, a former Republican strategist who has described the Republican Party as “a white grievance party,” blamed the recent wave of racist language squarely on Mr. Trump.
“You don't have to argue that Trump made people more racist, but I don't think you can argue with the fact that he did give people permission to express their racist views,” Mr. Stevens said in an interview.
“You have someone running for the Republican nomination for president who is making fun of his opponent's ethnicity,” he said, referring to Trump's misuse of Ms. Haley's first name. “There is no part of the Republican Party that is punishing this.”
The Democrats' condemnations appear to have only emboldened Republicans.
In her censure resolution, Ms. Greene accused Ms. Omar of making “treasonous statements” and acting as a foreign agent of the Somali government. She responded to a video of Ms. Omar speaking in Somali that circulated on right-wing social media accounts that falsely quoted her as saying she was “Somali first” and that she would dictate U.S. policy toward Somalia.
That translation is now available debunked by multiple independent news media. In fact, Ms Omar's comments were in line with the government's official position on Somalia.
“As long as I am in Congress, no one will take the Somali Sea,” she said. “And the United States will not support other people to rob us.”
But that didn't stop Ms. Greene from going ahead with her measure. who quotes the wrong translation. While some Republicans said they were unlikely to support it, Ms. Greene insisted she was “not withdrawing it and not withdrawing.”
Her actions led to an indictment from Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, sparking a social media feud. After Ms. Greene mocked Mr. McGovern's bathroom habits, he replied: “Aren't you late for a klan meeting?”
Democrats, meanwhile, said the “reptilian” comment about Mr. Mayorkas was evidence that the impeachment process itself was motivated by racism.
“Chairman Green's comments are nothing short of bigotry,” said Rep. Delia Ramirez, Democrat of Illinois. “This entire impeachment process has been a bigoted, biased spectacle.”
Republicans have presented no evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors as they seek to oust a Cabinet secretary for the first time since 1876. Instead, they have accused Mr Mayorkas of deliberately encouraging an “invasion” of immigrants and plan to hold a second vote. about his ouster Tuesday, after their first attempt failed.
The AAPI Victory Fund, a political action committee that supports Asian American candidates, condemned Mr. Chew's questioning of Mr. Cotton as “disgraceful, blatantly racist and deeply dangerous.” But the senator defended it in an interview with Fox News.
“It is perfectly reasonable to ask whether he himself, like his company, is subject to the influence of the Chinese Communist Party,” Mr. Cotton said.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and minority leader, said Mr. Nehls' comment about “thugs” was “shameful” and “clearly expressed in racially inflammatory language.” He demanded an apology.
Nobody came.