GOP Rep. Clay Higgins faces backlash for deleted social media post about Haitians

Rep. Clay Higgins deleted a social media post Wednesday calling Haitian immigrants “thugs” and “slapstick gangsters” following swift condemnation from many of his colleagues in Congress.

The post, which Higgins, R-La., removed within hours on the platform X, was in response to the news that a Haitian nonprofit group was seeking a criminal charge against former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance for their repeated baseless claims about migrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets. The assertion, which the Republican presidential candidate and his running mate have repeatedly brought up without evidence, has led to bomb threats and school evacuations in the small city of about 60,000.

In response to Higgins' post, which included racist tropes about Haitians and told them to get “their a** out of our country," several lawmakers confronted him on the House floor Wednesday, POLITICO reported. Lawmakers also made calls for the House Ethics Committee to look into the matter and demanded that Higgins be formally reprimanded.

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Higgins calls Haitians 'wild,' tells them to leave U.S.

Higgins' post, which included a screenshot of a news story about a Haitian group filing charges against Trump and Vance, called Haitians "wild" and promoted the baseless conspiracy about the migrants, who are largely in the U.S. legally.

"...Vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters," Higgins posted, "but damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP," he said, referring to Trump and his vice presidential nominee Vance.

"All these thugs better get their mind right and their a** out of our country before January 20th," the post concluded, referring to the date that Trump and Vance would be sworn into office if they win November's election.

Though he took down the post after he said he prayed on it, Higgins told CNN he stood by the comments.

“It’s all true,” Higgins told CNN. “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.”

Lawmakers condemn Higgins' post

Louisiana Democratic Congressman Troy Carter said in a statement to the Shreveport Times that the post "incites division, perpetuates harmful stereotypes, and undermines the core values of our democracy.”

"We all owe each other better than this, but as elected officials we should hold ourselves to an even higher standard," Carter said in the statement to the Times, a USA TODAY Network publication "We have a solemn responsibility to represent and respect all races of people. Hate-filled rhetoric like this is not just offensive — it is dangerous.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York also issued a statement to the outlet calling Higgins' remarks "disgusting," as well as "vile, racist and beneath the dignity of the House of Representatives."

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The false claim about the migrants, which Trump infamously amplified earlier this month during a presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, has been widely disputed and debunked by Springfield law enforcement and other officials.

In response, a Haitian nonprofit organization announced this week the aim of criminally charging Vance and Trump. The San Diego-based Haitian Bridges Alliance filed the charges Tuesday under an Ohio law that allows private citizens seeking an arrest or prosecution to file an affidavit with a prosecutor or judge for them to review.

Trump, for his part, has vowed that if elected to a second presidency, he would conduct "large mass deportations from Springfield, Ohio." Haitian migrants in Springfield – a population that has grown to 15,000 in three years amid unrest in Haiti – are in the country legally.

The story has been updated with new information.

Contributing: Erin Glynn, Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins removes tweets calling Haitians 'wild,' 'thugs'