'Rotten': GOP rep slammed over 'vile' post calling Haiti 'nastiest country in the western hemisphere'
US Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) s facing fierce backlash on social media after posting a racist response to the Associated Press' Tuesday reporting that a Haitian group is taking legal action against Donald Trump and JD Vance.
Per the report, The Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit, "invoked a private-citizen right to file charges" against the former president and GOP vice presidential "over the chaos and threats experienced by Springfield, Ohio, since Trump first spread false claims about legal immigrants there during" his debate against Kamala Harris earlier this month.
In response to the report, Higgins wrote via X on Wednesday: "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 a** out of our country before January 20th."
READ MORE: Trump and Vance face criminal charges over 'pet-eating' lies
Journalist Justin Baragona shared a screenshot of Higgins' post, writing: "Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) just sent out this tweet. No dog whistle here -- this is a full-on bullhorn."
Journalist Dave Levitan replied on the social media app, Bluesky: "It genuinely feels like we turned some sort of corner recently where national-level politicians feel totally free to say the most racist shit imaginable, and correctly assume they will face zero consequences. Maybe I've memory-holed stuff or am just naive but man does this feel different."
Media Matters for America director of media intelligence Lis Powers added: "A lot of the discussion of the rot in the GOP focuses on Trump … but it’s rotten down to the core."
Mississippi Free Press editor Ashton Pittman wrote: "You used to have to go on the white supremacist haven Stormfront to see vile posts like this on the internet. Now, Republican members of Congress just post Nazi-inspired diatribes out in the open on Elon Musk's app."
READ MORE: 'Ain’t taking anybody’s jobs': Trump blasted over Haitian lies — this time in Pennsylvania
