Speaker Mike Johnson was criticized after downplaying a now-deleted racist tweet about Haitian migrants by Louisiana's Republican Representative Clay Higgins.
In response to the news that a nonprofit leader representing the Haitian community filed charges against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, on Tuesday—citing the chaos and threats Springfield has faced since Trump first promoted the conspiracy theory that immigrants are eating people's pets—Higgins posted the following racist remarks from his official X account:
"Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu [sic], 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 the country before January 20th."
You can see his post below.
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Despite the controversy, Higgins told CNN he stood by his remarks:
“It’s all true. 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."
“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.”
And when asked for a response, Johnson—a self-proclaimed "Bible-believing Christian" who cites the religious text as the source of his "worldview"—dismissed the outrage toward Higgins' diatribe in the following statement to reporters:
"Clay Higgins is a dear friend of mine and a colleague from Louisiana, and a very frank and outspoken person. He's also a very principled man. I didn’t even see it but he tweeted something today about Haitians."
When a reporter asked Johnson to respond to Higgins' threat that Haitians should leave the country by January 20th—implying that Trump will win the presidency—Johnson rolled his eyes and said:
“Look, he was approached on the floor by colleagues who said that was offensive. He said he went to the back, and he prayed about it and he regretted it, and he pulled the post down.”
“I’m sure he probably regrets some of the language he used. But you know, we move forward. We believe in redemption around here."
You can watch the interaction in the video below.
Higgins' outburst is only the latest development in a nationwide controversy since Trump promoted the unfounded allegation that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were consuming household pets in response to a question about immigration:
They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame."
Moderator David Muir swiftly corrected Trump when he repeated the debunked claim that gained traction online after right-wing social media accounts spread the unfounded story, despite no actual evidence supporting it. Muir pointed out that officials in Springfield, Ohio, including the city manager, confirmed no such incidents of cat-eating had occurred.
And yet despite the impact of these lies, Johnson—who has said he makes "no apologies" for his Christian beliefs—has not condemned what advocates have decried as racist attacks against innocent people.
His defense of Higgins said it all—and he was swiftly called out for it.
Johnson's dismissal of Higgins' racist remarks is especially upsetting considering he has claimed to have gained a greater understanding of the discrimination Black people face because his wife, Kelly, “took custody” of Michael, a Black teenager, more than 20 years ago and raised him as a son.
In remarks before a House committee in 2019, Johnson said he has "walked with [Michael] through discrimination that he has had to endure over the years and the hurdles he sometimes faced."
However, Johnson's relationship with his son has drawn scrutiny because there is no reference to Michael, now an adult raising his own family in California, in Johnson's official biography. He is also absent from the family photos shared on Johnson's website. Johnson has said Michael has a desire for privacy.
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