"The extreme MAGA Republicans in the House are unfit to govern."
When Republican Cliff Higgins outed himself as a racist, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries offered the following statement to describe GOP members in the House of Representatives.
Representative Cliff Higgins, a man who once threw his political support behind KKK member David Duke, this week made racist comments on Twitter regarding Haitian migrants living in Springfield, Ohio. The post, which has since been deleted, is only the latest example of Higgins behaving in racist, bigoted ways.
His comments were push back against a Haitian group filing charges against Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, urging the Clark County Municipal Court to issue an arrest warrant for both. The charges: disrupting public services, making false alarms, telecommunications harassment, aggravated menacing and complicity.
The myth of Haitians eating pets has been debunked as a false claim for weeks- but that hasn’t stopped Higgins and those like him from believing Trump’s word over local officials in Springfield, who serve under Republican Mayor Rob Rue. Even an apology from a Trump supporter who started the furor on Facebook over a cat that had hidden itself in her basement wasn’t enough to make Higgins change his mind.
Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had defended Higgins after his racist remarks, signaling that racial hatred of minority groups is something the Republican Party is willing tolerate within its own ranks. While that hardly comes as a surprise to those who have long been following the GOP, it is nevertheless another blow against a party that is limping towards certain defeat in the 2024 presidential election.
Among House Republicans are some of the least capable people in the country.
This includes Lauren Boebert, a Representative from Colorado who has regularly been on the record saying dumb things. She wants massage spa owners to get fingerprinted. She believes Democrats hate Christmas. She wants Elon Musk, somehow, to hold the Secret Service accountable for their actions. Her career has been filled with many ridiculous statements, making her seem like an unserious person who spends her time perplexed with a vacant stare in her eyes.
Matt Gaetz, a Representative from Florida, is under investigation from a House Ethics Committee for allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use. The latest investigation comes after a sex trafficking investigation in 2021 ended without bringing criminal charges against him. Thus far, Gaetz shows no signs of contrition or willingness to admit to any wrongdoing.
Marjorie Taylor-Greene, a Representative from Georgia, is a combative QAnon conspiracy theorist who sometimes posts pictures of herself holding firearms to support gun rights. When Jeffries references “extreme MAGA Republicans,” she’s one.
Thomas Massie, a representative from Kentucky, became the subject of controversy last year when he posted an anti-semitic meme on Twitter. The meme accuses Congress of being less interested in American Patriotism and more interested in Zionism. A White House official responded by saying the post was “virulent antisemitism.”
George Santos, who appears to have lied about everything in his personal life, history, and circumstances, served as a Republican member of the House of Representatives from January 2023 until December 2023 when he was expelled. At 36, he is a convicted felon in two countries: in Brazil, of check fraud; in America, of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Santos has since left the Republican Party and became an independent.
While there may be Republican members of the House of Representatives who are not, in Jeffries’ words, “extreme MAGA,” a series of revelations about yet another Republican being under investigation, supporting Donald Trump, and/or being found to make overtly racist, bigoted statements casts doubt on the party as a whole.
Theirs is a losing strategy whose only appeal is to perpetual grievance and anger. Voters who see them for what they are- problem makers instead of problem solvers- soon withdraw their support. In terms of accomplishing legislative objectives, extreme MAGA Republicans have only a single goal in mind: upset as many people as possible about as many issues as possible.
They are, in so many words, unfit to govern.
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