WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Representative Clay Higgins faced a call for censure on Wednesday for a repeating false claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, that the head of the Congressional Black Caucus denounced as inciting hate.
Democratic Representative Steven Horsford called for Higgins’ censure after the Louisiana lawmaker posted, and later deleted, a message repeating Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have been eating their neighbors’ pets and calling on them to leave the country.
“These words on an official post do not reflect credibly on the House,” Horsford said. “In fact, they are inciting hate. They are inciting fear, and because of that, it is time for this body to stand with one voice and to ensure that there is accountability.”
The House went into recess afterward, without taking immediate action.
Springfield city and Ohio state officials have repeatedly debunked the false claim, though Trump has doubled down, vowing to try to deport members of that community, even though the majority of the 15,000 Haitian Americans in Springfield are in the U.S. legally.
“These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters,” Higgins said in the since-deleted post on X social media. “All these thugs better get their mind right and their a** out of our country before January 20th,” which is Inauguration Day.
Higgins’ office did not respond to a request for comment about the post and deletion.
Since Trump voiced the false claims during a debate against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, his rival in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, Springfield has faced a wave of bomb threats to schools and other facilities.
Top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries in a statement blasted Higgins’ post as “vile, racist and beneath the dignity” of the House.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Higgins had regretted the post.
“He was approached on the floor by colleagues who said that was offensive,” Johnson told reporters. “He said he went to the back and he prayed about it, and he regretted it, and he pulled the post down.”
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Moira Warburton and Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)
